Tale
Fables, proverbes et devinettes du Haut-Ogooué
Not translated into English
Jean-Jérôme Adam · 1977
Synopsis
Fables, proverbs and riddles collected among the Kuya, the Duma, the Kaniñi, the Nzebi and other peoples of the Haut-Ogooué, in eastern Gabon. The author's fables follow the customs and ways of the country: the first woman, the man with three wives, two village chiefs, the panther who plays dead, the rat's son who disowns his father, to whom the moral recalls that one does not disown a father because he is small, for it is he who ends the palavers.
Context
A Spiritan missionary, the author was first a missionary in Haut-Ogooué before leading the Church of Libreville. In 1950 he published hymns in Ndumu, in 1954 a grammar of three languages of the province, and in 1969 a 656-page volume combining a dictionary, a grammar and a small flora of the Franceville region. A first collection of Mbede proverbs, riddles and fables appeared in 1971; this one came out in 1977 in Classiques africains, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, in 370 illustrated pages.
Who it is for
Short texts that can be read in pieces; for anyone interested in the oral traditions of Central Africa.
Prizes and reception
Hémery-Hervais Sima Eyi regards the author as the pioneer of the fable in Gabon; a lycée in Franceville bears his name.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.