Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Reading Diary A: Nigerian Folktales

Here are my favorite stories from the second half of the Nigerian Folktales unit. I enjoyed reading the first half of the unit for my extra reading diary last week and wanted to finish the unit this week.

Lightning and Thunder: I enjoyed the story of The Lightning and the Thunder. I really liked that the storyteller made the thunder a sheep and the lightning a ram. It provided excellent imagery as I was reading. The ram gets angry and creates damage within the town. Soon after, the sheep yells and punishes her son by making loud noises. This irritates the entire community so the king banishes them into the sky. It is interesting that the ram still gets mad and creates lightning while his mother still punishes him with noise.

Why Dead People are Buried: I liked the story of Why Dead People are Buried. It was interesting to glance at the Nigerian burial story. It was almost amusing that the entire message on how people should be laid above the ground with wood and they will rise again the next day was lost in translation. Instead, the message changed to that people should be buried below the ground, but this way they cannot rise again. I found this a very different take on why a community buries their dead.

Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes: I really enjoyed the story of Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes. I always like stories of the moon and thought this was a great one. I found it interesting that the moon came down to give a starving woman food from her body, which is why the moon gets big and small. So in a way the moon is a being that eats more or less at different times of month. The moon is constantly changing its weight.

Tortoise, Elephant, Hippo: I liked the story of How the Tortoise overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus. I enjoy stories where the smaller character outsmarts the large confident characters. In this case, the small turtle outsmarted both the elephant and the hippopotamus. Also, this story gave the origin of why some turtles live on land and why some live in the water.



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