Syd's Thoughts

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 afte...

For this week's reading I chose to do the Nigerian Unit .  Most of the stories under this unit involve animals that engage in "foolish imitation" to trick another animal. These stories involve clever thinking and cunning actions. I think this is very similar to my story I created on my portfolio because I made the mouse trick the snake so he would not be eaten. My story did not combine both humans and animals thought. I think the eastern side of the world loves to tell folktales with animals. These folktales are short in length (about 300-1000 words) and sometimes have some humor in them. My favorite story from Part A was The King who Married the Cock's Daughter . The king married an animal which is not something we would typically see in our world today, but it was interesting to me that the king died from a broken heart. This folktale could be used to explain why it is that people do not marry animals (whether this be right or wrong).  I definitely enjoyed doing one...