Folk Tales of Mali — Part 1 (The Inheritance Judge · Surukku and Bakoroni · A Hunter's Legend · The Old Dog and the Young Dog)
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Part one — the premiere of a new shelf. Four Mande folk tales from the West Sudan, collected in Leo Frobenius's Atlantis: Erzählungen aus dem West-Sudan (Jena, 1922); heard here in a fresh in-house English translation made from Frobenius's German. In The Inheritance Judge, King Ndji's three sons quarrel over three chests — gold, every wood of the bush, every soil of the land — and walk a road of wonders to Kabaku, the little uncircumcised boy whose age runs backwards, whose ruling shows the gold-chest brother dependent on both the others. In Surukku and Bakoroni, Hyena, Dog and the little Goat divide three fish, each keeping the big one for himself, until the Goat escapes up a tree on an invented summons from God for nine hyena skins. In A Hunter's Legend, Kanjima climbs a tree to challenge Mansa Surukku, king of the jackals, and is talked down by the weight of an ancient reign. And in The Old Dog and the Young Dog, the young dog who claims to be cleverer than all animals tricks the kite out of its meat — and is tricked in turn by the cat's tail-fishing lesson on the high river bank. The episode opens and closes with its theme, January Lament, heard also briefly between the stories.
Chapters
0:37 The Inheritance Judge
11:32 Surukku and Bakoroni
15:49 A Hunter's Legend
20:06 The Old Dog and the Young Dog
Further tales of the volume are not read on this shelf, each excluded by name after a full reading: Übertreibungen (No. 1) · Unwahrscheinlichkeiten (No. 2) · Jägerlegende (No. 3) · Übertreibung (No. 4) · the goat of Bilemen (No. 5) · the Fama's daughter (No. 6) · Ehebedingung (No. 7) · Übertreibung (No. 8) · Marima (No. 9) · Der Alkali (No. 46) · Sonsanni und der Brunnen (No. 49) · Sonsanni und Uarrable (No. 52) · Sonsanni und Surukku (No. 53) · Surukku und Sani (No. 54) · Sani und Surukku (No. 55) · Sonsanni und die Blissi-Eier (No. 56) · Sani, Surukku und die Kühe (No. 57) · Surukku und die Bamba (No. 59) · Ulu und Surukku (No. 61) · Die Wandergenossenschaft (No. 63) · Bakoroni und Surukku (No. 65) · Die Trommel der Surukku (No. 68) · Mundelegende (No. 73) · Die Freunde (No. 87) · Bamma als Fährmann (No. 88) · Das Stiefkind (No. 91) · Ntji (No. 92). Only the volume's Mande tales are read here, and its Mossi chapter belongs to another shelf. No claim of completeness for the book is made.
From Atlantis: Erzählungen aus dem West-Sudan by Leo Frobenius (1922), public domain — Mande tales 45, 64, 69 and 72, complete and in book order, in a fresh in-house English translation from the German. Narrated by Scratch. Theme: January Lament.
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