Reading Notes: Congo Unit, Part B

Known as a fetish in congo.

(Photo by R. McCoy)

Part B focuses more on animal tales rather than human. For example, the titles “The Antelope and the Leopard, How the Spider Won, The Gazelle and the Leopard, The Rabbit and the Antelope.” These stories personify animals and give them human traits, for example the ability to communicate and even feel certain emotions that their brains wouldn’t allow in real life. Most of the stories end in death and if it does not end in death, someone or something dies eventually. Family relations and values are not present in these tales. Brothers, wives, and sisters turn against each other out of jealousy often. Not many of the characters grieve over blood relatives’ deaths. Greed is also a common theme in these tales.

Big themes in these tales are competition and there is no winner unless the competition is killed. There is also a theme of punishment. These folktales usually end with people getting what they deserve if they break promises or do something wrong. For example, in “How the Fetish Sunga Punished my Great-Uncle’s Twin Brother, Basa.” Basa was a fisher who caught many fish and lied about it. Because he kept lying Sunga took away Basa’s ability to speak so he could lie no more.  He also ordered Basa to leave the town.

“The Rabbit and the Antelope” is also a tale of breaking a promise or a deal. The rabbit and Antelope were once friends, but the antelope figured out the rabbit had been lying and stealing his food. So they parted ways and the antelope banned the rabbit from drinking from his well. He found out that the rabbit had not been listening so he set up a trap with bird-lime (stuff that acts like glue). The rabbit came to the well as usually and got into an altercation with the trap thinking it was an animal. He hit it and got stuck to it but never learned his lesson. So he hit it again, then kicked it, then again, and hit his head on it. He was completely stuck at this point and the antelope approached him. He begged to be free but the antelope had no mercy and ate him.

Sometimes, the competition both loses and an outside party wins. In “The Leopard and the Crocodile,” the leopard and crocodile fight for food. They mainly request a dog from a human after giving them gifts. The leopard and crocodile end up in a fight but they both end up killing each other and dying. The man then takes both the leopard and crocodile for their meat.

There are also tales that explain instances. In “Why the Crocodile does not eat the Hen,” it explains just what the title says. A hen goes to the water everyday to drink and every time the crocodile tries to eat her she throws him off and calls him brother.  He doesn’t like it and and complains to a lizard about it. The lizard calls him and idiot and explains to him that they all lay eggs to have children so in someway, they are all related. Because of this the crocodile felt changed and now the crocodile does not eat hen.

Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort. Translated by R.E. Dennett. Source.