The Hare and the Baboon and Other Stories by Dr Quinta (ed): book review

The Hare and the Baboon and Other Stories: Fables from Africa (2020) is a collection of seven fables from seven countries in Africa: Angola, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, and Zimbabwe.

The first story is about a tortoise and a human herbalist on a journey across seven rivers and seven mountains. It explains why the tortoise has a cracked shell and is slow-moving. The Togo story is about ‘patience means waiting for food to cool down.’ The South African story is about the birth of fire. The last story, from the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) is about the reason why large flies buzz around cooked food.

All stories are set amid each country’s culture and the lives of a local rural or remote tribe. They are about family traditions and childhood lessons. All of the stories include an animal – hare, tortoise, buffalo, baboon, gorilla, snake, eagle, and elephant.

Each story is illustrated with a painting by Zimbabwean artist Thamba Tabvuma who lives in South Africa.

This is an interesting collection of fables, much like Aesop’s fables but unknown. They bring to light the universality of succinct fables and cautionary tales, passed on from generation to generation, to teach moral lessons about life.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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