Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Southern African Traditions
Southern African folklore and religion, including Xhosa, Zulu, San, Khoekhoe, and South African tale collections.
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Texts
Bantu Folk Lore (Medical and General) — Matthew L. HewatMatthew L. Hewat’s account, published at Cape Town by T. Maskew Miller, of the medical beliefs and practices of the Xhosa-speaking and neighbouring peoples of the eastern Cape: witchcraft and the agencies believed to cause disease, sacrifices and charms, the classes of doctor from diviner to herbalist, rain doctor and war doctor, native names and remedies for diseases with the botanical names of the plants used, surgery, childbirth and the puberty rites.Fairy Tales from South Africa — Bourhill and DrakeTwenty chapters of Swazi, Zulu, Shangani and Sotho wonder tales, among them Setuli, the Serpent’s Bride, the cannibal king Semai-mai, the Fairy Frog and Nya-nya Bulembu, told for children by Mrs. E. J. Bourhill and Mrs. J. B. Drake from tales they heard from African story-tellers, and published by Macmillan in 1908.Kaffir (Xhosa) Folk-loreCollection of traditional Xhosa folk tales from South AfricaOld Hendrik's Tales — Arthur Owen VaughanThirteen animal tales of the South African veld, chiefly of Ou’ Jackalse the jackal and his dupe Ou’ Wolf, retold in dialect English by Captain Arthur Owen Vaughan through the figure of Old Hendrik, an old Khoikhoi farm servant on the Vaal River who tells them to the farm’s children.Outa Karel's Stories — Sanni MetelerkampSanni Metelerkamp’s 1914 retelling, in English, of South African animal tales and Bushman legends of Jakhals the jackal, Oom Leeuw the lion, the Sun and the Stars, framed as the fireside stories of Outa Karel, an old servant on a Karroo farm, with her glossary of Afrikaans words.Reynard the Fox in South Africa — W. H. I. BleekWilhelm Bleek’s 1864 English translation of forty-two Khoikhoi (Nama) fables, tales and legends of the Jackal, the Lion, the Baboon, the Tortoise, Heitsi Eibip and the origin of death, chiefly from the Nama manuscripts written down by the missionary G. Krönlein for Sir George Grey’s library at Cape Town, with Nama songs of praise and Bleek’s notes.Some Zulu Customs and Folk-lore — L. H. SamuelsonL. H. Samuelson’s first-hand sketches of Zulu custom and belief, written from her years at her father’s mission station in Zululand: weddings, the treatment of twins and the old, sacrifices to the ancestral spirits, the death of a chief, the inkata, the annual feast, the doctoring of an army, wizards, rain doctors, sayings and tales, the Bongoza story and the labyrinth game.South-African Folk-talesFolk tales from South Africa including Hottentot, Bushman, and Kaffir traditionsSpecimens of Bushman FolkloreCollection of San (Bushman) folklore, mythology, and oral traditions from the KalahariThe Religious System of the AmazuluEarly ethnographic study of Zulu religious beliefs and practices