Tale
Les Chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga
Not translated into English
Henri-Alexandre Junod · 1897
Synopsis
A collection in two parts, gathered around Delagoa Bay. The first gives the songs of the Ba-Ronga, songs of love and weddings, of porters, of mourning, of exorcists, of hunting and war, with their melodies. The second brings together some thirty tales: the romance of Mr Hare, the epic of the Tree Frog and the wisdom of the Chameleon; stories in which the small prevail over the great, such as that of Piti the shepherd; tales of ogres, moral tales, and a few stories from elsewhere. The author also presents his storytellers, neighbours of the Rikatla mission.
Context
The collection appeared in Lausanne in 1897, from Georges Bridel, in three hundred and twenty-seven pages, a year after its author's Ronga grammar; he had noted down the texts from his neighbours during his first years as a missionary. The songs are given with their melody on a stave. It was followed in 1898 by an ethnographic study of the Ba-Ronga and a second selection of tales, before the inquiry was widened to the whole Tsonga people. Reprinted in facsimile in 1970, it was translated into Italian in 2002; its tales were reissued in France in 2019.
Who it is for
Tales and songs in French translation, with an apparatus of notes. The melodies can be read on a stave.
Prizes and reception
The book is still consulted for Ronga music and tales: it has been digitised by the University of Cape Town and appears in an online library of scores.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.