collected and retold by Buchi Offodile Once upon a moonlit night,
children gathered elbow to elbow, lying on the ground, while the adults
sat near by, drinking and snacking. They listened to the storyteller,
who held adult and child alike rapt with animal noises and spooky
voices, gesture and song, call and response, until the wick of the
palm-oil lamp ran down and the storyteller tired. It wasn't that the
stories themselves were over--no, many more were yet to be told: tales
of the ever-scheming tortoise, spider, or hare; tales of spirits
tempting children; tales of fate punishing whole villages for their
folly, or rewarding them for their perseverance. Though almost all the
tales have morals, the most popular characters are the tricksters: the
tortoise, the spider, and the hare. The Orphan Girl includes a
fascinating introduction exploring the roots of the storytelling
tradition in the history and culture of West Africa. History's
boundaries divide this book by nation, from Mauritania into the
continent's interior, to the hinterlands of Mali, Burkina Faso, and
Niger, and down the Atlantic coast as far as Cameroon. Each country is
represented by several stories, a map and brief information. Invariably
though, as all of these countries share common origins and cultures, the
stories overlap and play off each other. For example, a Ghanaian story
featuring Anansi, the spider, is almost the same tale told by the Igbos
of Eastern Nigeria starring Mbe Nwaniga, the tortoise.
