Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part A

· This reminds me of the story of Samson and Delilah. I wonder if I can take the same concept but transpose it to a modern, less dark tale? Similarly, I could take the moral (“never marry a stranger, no matter how pretty she may be”) and write a different story to match it.

· The second story was the sad one about the rat and the bat. I guess I could do something about a friend betraying his friend…

· The moral of this story is also not to marry strangers. Once again, I could take that theme and run with it. Maybe they could end up marrying someone with one extremely eccentric and unforeseen habit or something.

· What if instead they passed a law that you could only have one wife at a time?

· Wow, I’m sad for all of the wives and mad at the king.

· What if I made the king into a little boy with toys instead, or something like that?

· I’m a bit confused about what Okun Archibong had thought, and what he was trying to accomplish. I guess I could write a story about a meddlesome person who gets his comeuppance (like Effiong Edem). Also, the theme about who you marry came up again.

· Wasn’t the leopard’s wife also in the wrong?

· The elephant and worm story about their eyes makes me very sad L.

· I think the hawk and hen story could be seen as yet another variation of why to not marry a story. Once again I could do a variation of that story. Or I could just pick some trait or interaction of animals and explain it through story.

· I’m saddened by the cat and rat story. Could I rewrite it where the king feels sorry for the rat and his girl, so he pays for them to be wed, or some other happy ending like that? Like, one that involves mercy instead of punishment?

(Oguta Lake, Nigeria)

Bibliography: Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, by Elphinstone Dayrell.