Tale
Hausa Tales and Traditions
Litafi na tatsuniyoyi na Hausa
Frank Edgar · 1911
Synopsis
More than four hundred texts written in Hausa by Hausa people themselves, in Arabic script: animal tales and the tricks of the hyena, stories of kings, judges and merchants, songs and chronicles of towns. Several tales in the third volume, that of the king, the qadi and the king's daughter, or that of the Arab, his wife and the boy, play on the subterfuges of the oath sworn on the Quran.
Context
The texts were published in Belfast by W. Erskine Mayne, in three volumes, from 1911 to 1913, without translation. Neil Skinner produced the English version, the first volume in London in 1969, the other two at the University of Wisconsin in 1977. Historians still use it: a recent study of the Zinder conspiracy of 1906 looks there for the uses of the oath in Hausa society of the time.
Who it is for
Tales in Hausa, translated into English only; the corpus, too vast for continuous reading, is best browsed by theme.
Prizes and reception
It remains one of the main sources on the Hausa tale, cited even in works on the history of colonial Niger.