Читать книгу The Girl Who Married A Lion - Alexander McCall Smith - Страница 5

his is a collection of traditional stories from two countries in Africa – Zimbabwe and Botswana. Although these differ in ethnic and linguistic terms, they share many of the folk tales which are found throughout neighbouring countries of Southern Africa. This sharing of oral literature is not uncommon. Folk tales throughout the world have a striking number of common features, and many familiar themes crop up in folk traditions that are culturally very different. In a sense, then, these tales are part of a universal language which can speak to people across human frontiers, just as music does.

There are many fine collections of sub-Saharan African folk tales, many of them compiled by scholars of oral literature. I do not count myself amongst such experts – far from it – and this collection therefore makes very modest claims. In order to present the stories in a way which will interest and entertain a broad readership, I have deliberately taken certain liberties with re-telling, added some descriptions of landscape, and deepened the treatment of certain emotions. I hope that in doing so I have been able to bring out the beauty and poetry of these stories. A word-for-word transcription would not necessarily do them justice in that respect.

I collected many of these stories myself some twenty years ago in the southern part of Zimbabwe known as Matabeleland. These stories were told to me – with the assistance of an interpreter – by people living in the Matopos hills, to the south of Bulawayo. They were also recounted to me by people in Bulawayo itself. Sometimes they were told by old people – by grandmothers – sometimes by children. It was a particular pleasure to hear the stories from children, as they told them with such spirit and enjoyment. All of these stories were recounted to me with generosity and warmth – qualities which those who know that part of Africa, or even just visit it briefly, will recognise as being so typical of the people there. I have expanded this original collection of stories, published some years ago under the title Children of Wax, to include stories from Botswana. These stories were obtained for me from people living in the Mochudi and Odi areas of Botswana. They were collected by Elinah Grant, a friend of mine, who runs a small museum in Mochudi. Elinah translated the stories from Setswana into English, and I am most grateful to her for her labours. Again, I have retold them, using some of the original language and some of mine.

And what wonderful things are contained in these stories! Not only do we find all the familiar human emotions – jealousy, ambition, love – but we see moral rules set out very clearly. We see loyalty rewarded; we see greed punished; we see the encouragement of those values of community which are so important in Africa and from which we can learn so much. But we are shown more than that: we are introduced to a fascinating world view in which the boundaries between the animal and human worlds are indistinct and fluid. This is a traditional African vision, but it is also something very modern that we are only beginning to understand in Western countries. We are not the masters of nature – we are part of it.

The two countries from which these stories are drawn are remarkable places. The people who inhabit them are generous-spirited and have a superb sense of humour. In these stories we are afforded a glimpse of the values and traditions that have made their societies so extraordinary. They speak to us from the African heart. I count myself fortunate indeed that I have been given the chance to hear them and to help pass them on to others. But the stories remain the property and creation of those who told them to me, and any credit for these is theirs alone.

But let us pass from these serious matters to the true business of this book. How can a girl possibly have married a lion? How can a man have a tree growing out of his head? And how can a woman have children made of wax? The stories in this collection make these questions seem simple, everyday ones – with, as it happens, simple, everyday answers.

Alexander McCall Smith

Edinburgh 2004