Before anything else, and ICYMI, the Mythological Africans AFRI Grant is still accepting applications from unpublished African writers aged 55 and over. AFRI fellows will recieve up to $300 to review and retell 2-3 folktales from their people. The results will be published in an anthology.
And now for regularly scheduled programming!
We continue to enjoy the best of both food folklore and folklore in modern African literature in this week’s episode. We start with the rice harvest as depicted in Camara Laye’s “The African Child” and savor some rice-related folklore from West Africa’s rice-growing peoples.
Make your own rice dish! Check out Zainabu's African Cookbook: With Food and Stories by Zainabu Kpaka Kallon. 30 pages worth of rice recipes. Need I say more?
Can’t Get Enough?
Jollof Wars: The Dispute Surrounding This West African Rice Dish
The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection
References
Shaw, Thurstan, ed. The Archaeology of Africa: food, metals and towns. Vol. 20. Psychology Press, 1993.
Fields-Black, Edda L. Deep roots: rice farmers in West Africa and the African diaspora. Indiana University Press, 2008.
Schlenker, Christian Frederick. A Collection of Temne Traditions: Fables and Proverbs, with an English Translation: as Also Some Specimens of the Author's Own Temne Compositions and Translations: to which is Appended a Temne-English Vocabulary. Church Missionary Society, 1861.
Migeod, Frederick William Hugh. A view of Sierra Leone. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1926.
Kilson, Marion. Royal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales. 1976.
West African Rice-Folklore