Week 7: Famous last words... TORTOISE!

It was good to get back a full week ahead now; this is my last Week 7 assignment, and it was also so cool to see my famous last words from last time where I embedded the countdown clock... it's still counting down.

And I had so much fun with my Week 7 project which was adding the Tortoise page to my Trickster Storybook! 

I have tortoise stories from different countries, but as it turned out all the stories I included were from Nigeria, so it was cool to include a map of the languages of Nigeria, where it's possible to see the Efik and Igbo regions to the south. What a lot of languages, though: it's amazing!

And I just love these trickster stories so much... the more I read them, the more I want to read them. The current plan is that I'll be working on African and African American trickster stories for the whole rest of the 2021 calendar year. Plus I think I want to prepare a primary sources book too; that one will probably just be pdf and ebook since I won't want to deal with the hassle of formatting it for print. I've been thinking a lot about that and I am soooo tempted to start working on that now, but I know I really can't. This semester is seriously kicking my butt, and I don't have time. But soon: I will have time.

Last week I did a presentation with a friend who teaches Gen. Ed. science about student web publishing in Gen. Ed. classes, and it went really well, and that made me more confident for the OERxDomains conference in April. It is the first time ever that I have been asked to give a keynote address, which is pretty overwhelming, but I am excited too. Anyway, no time for new projects... I should start working on that keynote project now and make it a whole website or something because of course I know I won't have time to say all the things I'd like to say. They're going to announce the other keynote speaker(s) next week. I am sooooo curious who it will be. This is the tweet where they made me official. :-)

We are delighted to announce our first keynote speaker for #OERxDomains21 - Laura Gibbs! @OnlineCrsLady Early bird registration is still open. Register here from £99 - https://t.co/sjnuHukT0k #altc #OER21 #Domains21 pic.twitter.com/2HP2VIk33v

— OER Open Education Conference (@OERConf) March 3, 2021

At the time, I thought last week really sucked (and, for various reasons, it really did suck), but looking back on it, everything worked out fine. And I am very happy with my tortoise stories! Next up will be SPIDER.

Week 7 Story: Trickster Tortoise from Nigeria!

My focus this semester is on African trickster stories, so the Africa reading units are great sources for me: there's trickster Anansi the spider in the West Africa unit, plus more Anansi in the Jamaica unit, plus Brer Rabbit, and... the trickster tortoise of Nigeria who I will be writing about in this post. Here is my version of "The King's Magic Drum" in Elphinstone Dayrell's book, Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria. The story is quite long (around 2500 words), and I have condensed it down to four 100-word stories.

Tortoise and the King's Drum

The King's magic drum produced unlimited food and drink. The King alone knew the drum's secret: if the drum's owner stepped over a stick, warriors would come out of the drum and attack him.

Tortoise, who was poor and lazy, wanted that drum. He climbed a palm-tree and waited. When the King walked by, Tortoise dropped a palm-nut.

The King picked it up.

"You stole my food!" Tortoise shouted. "I'm poor; you must pay!"

"Take whatever you want," said the King kindly.

"Give me the drum!" said Tortoise.

Smiling, the King agreed, but he didn't tell Tortoise the drum's secret.

Tortoise is Rich

Tortoise rejoiced. "With this drum, I will have food and drink without working!"

Tortoise ate, and he was happy.

Tortoise fed his family, and they were happy.

Tortoise feasted the whole village, boasting about his wealth. Now everyone admired Tortoise.

One day Tortoise got drunk on palm-wine and started to dance. As he danced, he stepped over a stick. 

He wanted more wine, but when he beat the drum, the warriors emerged, armed with whips and clubs, and they attacked Tortoise.

Tortoise was angry. "I should not be the only one to suffer!" he thought, and he made a plan.

Tortoise's Revenge

"When I was poor, everyone mocked me," Tortoise thought. "Now they only pretend to like me, but I'll teach them a lesson."

Tortoise announced another feast. He invited all the men and animals, but he sent his own wife and children away.

Then, when everyone arrived, Tortoise beat the drum. The warriors appeared and attacked all the guests. Tortoise kept drumming, and the warriors kept attacking.

Tortoise didn't stop until all the guests were lying on the ground, groaning in agony.

Then Tortoise went to the King. "This drum is no good!" he said. "You must give me something else."

Tortoise and the Breadfruit-Tree

The King showed Tortoise a magic breadfruit-tree. "Every morning, the tree produces breadfruit. Harvest only once each day, not twice."

Tortoise gathered breadfruit each morning, and his family ate happily.

Tortoise's son asked where the food came from, but Tortoise wouldn't say. So the son poked a hole in Tortoise's sack and filled it with ashes. After Tortoise returned with breadfruit, the greedy son followed the trail of ashes. But when he reached for a breadfruit, a thorn-bush sprang up and swallowed the tree.

When Tortoise came the next morning, there was no tree. 

Just a thorn-bush.

No more magic.

Author's notes.

Here is a link to the story: The King's Magic Drum. 

The motif of a magical object that can bestow food or punishment regularly shows up trickster stories, including African American trickster stories, like this Anansi tale: Anansi and the Avocado Tree. 

The story starts by explaining how the king uses this magic drum to keep the peace: whenever his enemies showed up, the king would use the drum to summon a huge feast, and instead of fighting, he would feed his enemy, and they would leave happy. The king is a very sympathetic character in this story (not always the case with kings in folktales!).

In the original story, it was the princess who picked the palm-nut up and then Tortoise petitioned the king, but to keep the story short, I went straight to the king. 

Also, in the original story, the tree drops cooked foo-foo; you can read about foo-foo (fufu) at Wikipedia. I made it a breadfruit tree, since foo-foo is not a familiar term in American English. Breadfruit is not familiar, but at least you can tell right away that it is some kind of foodstuff; more about African breadfruit.

The thorn-bush at the end is called "prickly tie-tie palm" and that is where tortoises supposedly live today.

Image information. 

Drum: ìyáàlù bàtá drum.

Warriors: Leopard society of Nigerian Egbo warriors.

Breadfruit: Treculia africana.

Breadfruit: also called ukwa.

Tortoise: called ijapa in Yoruba language.