CUNNIE RABBIT, Mr. SPIDER and the OTHER BEEF

Book excerpt: Herein are 51 illustrated African tales of Cunnie Rabbit, or Cunning Rabbit, Anansi the “Trickster” Spider and their mischievous antics they get up to with other animals in the West African Jungle. The 51 stories are divided into 13 sections. These sections are not the usual well-ordered and self explanatory sections you would expect. Instead, they are arranged with typically African fashion and meaning. They are: When The Night Has Come With The Spirits Of The Wood A Back-Yard Kitchen Evening On The Water A Purro Initiation The Burning Of The Farm Mammy Mamenah And Her Friends Children Of Nature An Afternoon In The Barreh Konah Turns Story-Teller While The Birds Did Not Come A Harvest Home In Temne-Land (Northen Sierra Leone) Konah Has A Wonderful Day Some of the stories interwoven into these sections are: Mr. Spider Wins A Wife, Goro, The Wonderful Wrestler, Mr. Turtle Makes A Riding-Horse Of Mr. Leopard, Cunning Rabbit And His Well, Mr. Chameleon Is Transformed Into A Boat, as well as many others which include your typical array of African forest animals like Mr. Crocodile, Mr ‘Elephan, Mr. Pawpawtámus (hippopotamus) and many more. But, Cunnie Rabbit is not in fact a rabbit in the true sense. Cunnie Rabbit is a small deer of the Duiker, or Dik Dik, variety of the family Cephalophinae of which there are 22 extant species. So, no matter what time of year it is, pour yourself a hot toddy, pull up a comfortable chair, and sit back and be prepared to be entertained with this old-fashioned book of African folklore gathered by Florence M. Cronise and Henry W. Ward from Sierra Leone over a hundred years ago. 10% of the publisher’s profit from the sale of this book will be donated to Charities.