Reading Notes: Congo Part B

The Congo unit I read today had a couple patterns that were odd to me. The first was that the Congo unit had several fetishes mentioned in several of the stories. I did learn that these fetishes are representations of the different kinds of wind. There is the "boomba" which is the east wind, and the "lembe" which is the southwest wind. This is very different from most of the stories that you would read in the western hemisphere. 

This unit was similar to the Nigerian unit because the Congo unit had lots of animals as the characters in the stories. These stories seem to explain the nature of things. Like the first story explained why leopards eat antelopes as soon as they meet one. Even though this story is a folktale, it helps to explain everyday experiences. These stories were also pretty short in length approximately 300-1000 words much like the Nigerian unit. I think this length is ideal to keep the audience engaged in the story. I know I typically get bored after a certain length. 

I noticed that most of these stories have less dialogue between characters and more of a narrative or narrator that describes the scene, back story, or general information. This is definitely something that seemed different than other units I have read so far even including the Nigerian unit I read a couple days ago. 

Again, much like the Nigerian unit I really enjoyed these stories and think I could do something similar in my stories. These stories are not about trickery, but more about describing why things occur the way they do which I think is neat. 

Photo of people rowing down the Congo River by Flickr

Bibliography: 
Author - Richard Edward Dennett (1898)
Story - Notes on the Folklure of the Fjort

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