TITLE: The Runaway Princess and other stories
AUTHOR: Helen Nde
PUBLISHER: Mythological Africans
ISBN: Ebook
PODCAST EPISODE: Episode 135
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
How much do you know about the women of African folklore? The folklore of Africa is a rich tapestry that has influenced many of the later folktales that have come out of the Southern United States. But how many of those folktales focus on the female warriors, mothers, tricksters, and guides?
This simple question lies at the center of Helen Nde’s 2023 collection of folktales and poetry. The Runaway Princess and Other Stories reimagines many of these older stories to appeal to a modern-day audience. Nde is a Cameroonian-born, now Atlanta, Georgia-based researcher, writer, and artist. She is also the founder of the Mythological Africans Project, which seeks to create a community for exploring African folklore, spirituality, and culture through artistic endeavors and live performances. The Anansi Archive, similarly, is devoted to creating visual art of figures and scenes from African and Black Diaspora mythology and folklore.
The Runaway Princess and Other Stories contributes heavily to the missions of these two organizations. The book consists of both prose and poetry, each entry noting where the folktale originated from and many containing beautiful illustrations from African artists. Among the poems in the second section of the book include a poem and its translation into Ibibio - and many of the stories similarly depict examples of the languages from which they originate.
Nde has updated the stories to help them better resonate to a modern-day audience, but the updating has in no way marred the original intent of the stories she shares. Nde has merely imbued the heroines with a richer inner life that earlier tellings never gave much heed to. By adding intentionality and complex emotions to these characters, Nde humanizes them, creating more vulnerable and accessible characters for modern-day readers to draw upon in their everyday life.
The stories are evocative and immediate. They often mull over the question of how to fit in with the community, or your own skin. One particularly evocative West African tale called “The Mapa’in Don’t Give Bad Gifts” deals with the question of how to find a place in the world when you are adopted. Another shocking tale was “The Coming of the Dawn Dance” which described the rites of womanhood - and some of the more complicated initiations that exist in Sierra Leone. Others contain wicked step-parents and siblings, how dangerous the hunger for affection can make one to the world around them, and how to tell whether or not someone’s intentions are pure.
The Runaway Princess and Other Stories is an essential collection. These traditional stories remain relevant today, and still offer a vast array of lessons to their readers. To learn more about the stories within the book and the artists who contributed, as well as more about the Mythological Africans and Anansi Archive projects, follow this link: https://www.helennde.com/projects/the-runaway-princess
AUTHOR: Helen Nde
PUBLISHER: Mythological Africans
ISBN: Ebook
PODCAST EPISODE: Episode 135
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
How much do you know about the women of African folklore? The folklore of Africa is a rich tapestry that has influenced many of the later folktales that have come out of the Southern United States. But how many of those folktales focus on the female warriors, mothers, tricksters, and guides?
This simple question lies at the center of Helen Nde’s 2023 collection of folktales and poetry. The Runaway Princess and Other Stories reimagines many of these older stories to appeal to a modern-day audience. Nde is a Cameroonian-born, now Atlanta, Georgia-based researcher, writer, and artist. She is also the founder of the Mythological Africans Project, which seeks to create a community for exploring African folklore, spirituality, and culture through artistic endeavors and live performances. The Anansi Archive, similarly, is devoted to creating visual art of figures and scenes from African and Black Diaspora mythology and folklore.
The Runaway Princess and Other Stories contributes heavily to the missions of these two organizations. The book consists of both prose and poetry, each entry noting where the folktale originated from and many containing beautiful illustrations from African artists. Among the poems in the second section of the book include a poem and its translation into Ibibio - and many of the stories similarly depict examples of the languages from which they originate.
Nde has updated the stories to help them better resonate to a modern-day audience, but the updating has in no way marred the original intent of the stories she shares. Nde has merely imbued the heroines with a richer inner life that earlier tellings never gave much heed to. By adding intentionality and complex emotions to these characters, Nde humanizes them, creating more vulnerable and accessible characters for modern-day readers to draw upon in their everyday life.
The stories are evocative and immediate. They often mull over the question of how to fit in with the community, or your own skin. One particularly evocative West African tale called “The Mapa’in Don’t Give Bad Gifts” deals with the question of how to find a place in the world when you are adopted. Another shocking tale was “The Coming of the Dawn Dance” which described the rites of womanhood - and some of the more complicated initiations that exist in Sierra Leone. Others contain wicked step-parents and siblings, how dangerous the hunger for affection can make one to the world around them, and how to tell whether or not someone’s intentions are pure.
The Runaway Princess and Other Stories is an essential collection. These traditional stories remain relevant today, and still offer a vast array of lessons to their readers. To learn more about the stories within the book and the artists who contributed, as well as more about the Mythological Africans and Anansi Archive projects, follow this link: https://www.helennde.com/projects/the-runaway-princess