Tales of Amadou Koumba

Tales of Amadou Koumba
	First edition
Author	Birago Diop
Original title	Les Contes d'Amadou Koumba
Genre	Literary fiction
Publisher	Fasquelle
Publication place	France
Media type	Print (hardcover)

Tales of Amadou Koumba or Les Contes d'Amadou Koumba is a collection of tales from Senegal, presented as being transcribed by Birago Diop from the accounts of his family's griot, Amadou Koumba. Diop later acknowledged, however, that the tales were drawn from a number of storytellers he had met, not only Amadou Koumba.^[1] The book was first published in 1947.^[2]

This is one of the first significant attempts to put African oral literature into written form. According to Roland Colin, these tales reveal the finest art of the Wolof griots and Birago Diop makes these tales audible to the European reader and the least informed of the "Black African spirit".^[3]

A selection of tales from this volume as well as its follow-up Les Nouveaux Contes d'Amadou Koumba were translated into English by Dorothy S. Blair as Tales of Amadou Koumba (Oxford University Press, 1966).^[4]

Tales (in French titles)

"Fari l'ânesse"
"Un jugement"
"Les mamelles"
"N'Gor Niébé"
"Maman-Caïman"
"Les mauvaises compagnies I"
"Les mauvaises compagnies II"
"Les mauvaises compagnies III"
"Les mauvaises compagnies IV"
"La lance de l'hyène"
"Une commission"
"Le salaire"
"Tours de lièvre"
"Petit-mari"
"Vérité et mensonge"
"La biche et les deux chasseurs"
"Les calebasses de Kouss"
"L'héritage"
"Sarzan"

Editions

Paris, Fasquelle, coll. « Écrivains d'Outre-Mer », 1947
Rééd. Paris/Dakar, Présence Africaine, 1960
Rééd. Paris/Dakar, Présence Africaine, 1969

References

^ Goody, Jack (1987-07-09). The Interface Between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge University Press. pp. 160–161. ISBN 978-0-521-33794-6.
^ "Birago Diop | Senegalese author". Retrieved 2016-10-05.
^ Roland Colin, Les Contes noirs de l'Ouest africain. Témoins majeurs d'un humanisme, Présence Africaine, 1957, éd. poche 2005, p.44
^ Coundouriotis, Eleni (1998). "Writing Stories about Tales Told: Anthropology and the Short Story in African Literatures". Narrative. 6 (2): 140–156. ISSN 1063-3685.

[1] Goody, Jack (1987-07-09). The Interface Between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge University Press. pp. 160–161. ISBN 978-0-521-33794-6.

[2] "Birago Diop | Senegalese author". Retrieved 2016-10-05.

[3] Roland Colin, Les Contes noirs de l'Ouest africain. Témoins majeurs d'un humanisme, Présence Africaine, 1957, éd. poche 2005, p.44

[4] Coundouriotis, Eleni (1998). "Writing Stories about Tales Told: Anthropology and the Short Story in African Literatures". Narrative. 6 (2): 140–156. ISSN 1063-3685.

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