The Egg Polisher and Other Tales

This collection represents in substance and style folk tradition in the North-West Region of Cameroon. Contained herein is a sampling of various human emotions parental concerns and societal conflicts: emotional insecurity deceit obstinacy power and control trickery malevolence greed jealousy and more. The stylistic representation is reflected in the double writing as shown by the dialogues the songs and the use of choruses. These tales are ageless placeless and therefore anonymous; yet they are also the collective wisdom of a people who are supposed once to have walked the planet and communed with other animals and non-animals on the same terms. That is how humans animals vegetation water and hills/mountains are equally animate and have linguistic expression for their thoughts and sentiments. Folktales served primarily as entertainment and also as a convenient way of teaching history and culture and they invariably promoted good listening and speaking skills in the vernacular language as children learned to model the rhetorical patterns of their adult folklorists - with children taking turns night after night till they had gone full circle and then started recounting the same tales over. While the morale of some of the tales is obvious that of other tales is not; and that again is typical both of the traditional mind set and of the educational backdrop of storytelling.