Fractured Folktales: Reimagining African Folktales in Contemporary Picture Books
with Ugo Anidi
Ugo Anidi, a picture book and middle grade writer, who is a part of the Igbo tribe of Nigeria.
As a descendant of a rich tradition of storytelling, she acknowledges that folktales are dying. One of the biggest tribes in Africa, the Igbo tribe is a tribe of storytellers. Storytelling is an integral part of the culture where it not only entertains but gives life lessons, ethos, and educates to the next generation.
Under the stars, around a bonfires, captivated by elders, Ugo loved when she got to go to the village on special occasions. There she'd met the "aunties" and "uncles" who told the children stories through call and response, and oral storytelling. Many children enjoyed it and it was a highlight for her as a child.
Nowadays, folktales are being forgotten due to parents having no time or from not understanding the language and not knowing the cultural lessons of the folktales.
Ugo Anidi wanted to find a way to preserve these folktales.
With her academic brain, Ugo took off and did research on how to write folktales!
What's a folktale?
-traditional story
-passed down from generation to generation
-reflection of culture of community
What's a fractured folktale?
A retelling of a folktale that honors tradition and creates something new. It must be culturally authentic, balancing of culturally significance elements and injecting of your own flavor into the story.
Then, she told us a story about a tortoise.
In Igbo folktale, the tortoise is a trickster. In this particular folktale, the Tortoise is hungry and wants to go to the sky feast, so he asks the Eagle for one feather, who generously has multiple birds gift enough feathers to make wings.
They all go to the sky feast, where the trickster Tortoise suggests everyone make new names, his being "All of You." When the food came out, it was announced it was for "all of you," so the Tortoise ate all the food, only leaving scraps. Then drinks came... and the gifts, all announced for "all of you." Livid, the birds took back feathers and left the Tortoise in the sky. Now with no way to return, the Tortoise begged the Eagle to have his wife to find any and all things that were soft to cushion his fall. Mad, the Eagle told his wife to find every sharp object, hence the reason the Tortoise has a cracked shell. For when he fell from the sky, and landed on the sharp objects, his shell shattered and had to be pieced back together.
Moral: Don't be greedy.
We were all captivated by this origin tale.
After the story, she asked—
What changed? What stayed the same?
And from there, chose our own folktales, and walked through how to make them Fractured Folktales. We considered each of the following elements, and changed just enough to have it similar to the original but become a new tale.
HOW TO RECREATE FOLKTALES
Essential components of the folktale
1. Character
2. Structure
3. Refrain
4. Moral lesson
It was quite incredible to hear what everyone came up with, with only a few minutes to workshop their folktales. I think we might have birthed a few books in that session—perhaps even one of my own!
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