An Anthology of Folktales from Francophone Africa

Emerging from the land of the African Francophonie, come timeless folktales from Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea, Algeria, Morocco and Caribbean-Haiti, echoing the music of simple lives... countries with superbly rich treasures of narratives and having shared a past of French colonial occupation.

Imbued with nuanced and complex depths typical of African myths and legends, the ancient folktales are woven around local customs, history, institutional beliefs and a splendidly indigenous sonority of form and rhythm. Handed down generations much like most world folk literature and cultures, these shared narratives have remained rooted in oral tradition over centuries, spreading out only much later through publications in other world languages.

Translated frequently into French from the wide network of local languages and dialects across the vibrant continent and steeped into the wisdom of ancient customs and timeless values, each story brings out effortlessly universal respect for humanity, ecology, nature and wildlife.

This carefully selected collection attempts to present through its stories, Francophone Africa to readers across the world belonging to different cultures and age groups.

About the Author(s)

Dr. Deepanwita Srivastava is faculty and heading the Discipline of French at the School of Foreign Languages, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. Her specializations include didactics of French language, Translation and Mobility studies.

She has a long experience of teaching French at Universities and Institutions of Higher Education in India and is counted among the pioneers of French Studies in Open and Distance Learning.

Involved in academic projects with the Embassy of France, The India-Africa Virtual University-IAVU (Ministry of External Affairs, Govt of India), Commonwealth of Learning (COL/CEMCA), ICSSR, UNESCO and the Shastri Indo Canadian Institute, she was appointed as Lexicographer/ Language Expert by the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India where she is currently heading the project on the Hindi-French Dictionary under the Central Hindi Directorate.

Widely published and Invited/ Visiting scholar at several universities internationally, she has guided numerous doctoral studies contributing to innovation and knowledge creation in domains of her specialization.

Based in New Delhi presently, she remains deeply involved in research and teaching. Email: deepan@ignou.ac.in