Ethiopian Folktales

Stories were collected in Harar in October 1998. The collection was organised and facilitated by Nejaha Alkerim and Riyad Ghazal of the Harar Education and Culture Bureau, who translated the stories from the Harari language. Translations from Amharic to English were made by Mikail Negussie.

Abdul Rahman Abdulahi, storyteller in Harar

The stories collected in Harar reflect its position on a great trading route connecting with the Red Sea and Arabia beyond. The exploits of Nasreddin and Abu Nawas are narrated all over the Middle East. Other stories (What The Eye Sees Money Can Buy and The Clever Wife) derive from The Thousand and One Nights. Given the close proximity of Harar to the Somali region, it is not surprising that some stories show marked similarities. The girl in The Brother and Sister, for example, takes refuge in a tree in a lake, like the heroine in the Somali story, The Girl and the Lion.

Contents:

	Story	Narrator
1	Abu Nawas and the Khadi	Yusuf Omar Osman
2	Irit and Nurit	Zaineba Abibeker Deremo
3	The Hyena and the Fox (1)	Zaineba Abibeker Deremo
4	Abu Nawas	Zaineba Abibeker Deremo
5	Why the Snake has no Legs	Zaineba Abibeker Deremo
6	The Good Wife	Yusuf Omar Osman
7	A Fire on the Lake Shore	Hajji Abdu Settar Mohammed Bashir
8	Sheikh Nasreddin in the Rain	Hajji Abdu Settar Mohammed Bashir
9	Sheikh Nasreddin at the Fork	Hajji Abdu Settar Mohammed Bashir
10	Sheikh Nasreddin Counts the Donkeys	Hajji Abdu Settar Mohammed Bashir
11	Sheikh Nasreddin and the Miser	Hajji Abdu Settar Mohammed Bashir
12	Fatima Zikel and Ahmad Zikel	Ay Nuria Yusuf Adbalha
13	The Brother and Sister	Ay Nuria Yusuf Adbalha
14	Why the Hyena Limps	Amina Mohammed Wazir
15	The Donkey and the Hyena	Abdul Rahman Abdulahi
16	What the Eye Sees Money can Buy or The Rich Merchant	Abdul Rahman Abdulahi
17	The Clever Wife	Abdul Rahman Abdulahi
18	The Washerwoman or The Curious Man Will Lose his Own Property	Zaineba Abibeker Deremo
19	The Holy Man	Abdul Rahman Abdulahi
20	The Noble Prince	Abdul Rahman Abdulahi
21	The Children and the Elephant	Yusuf Adem Mandre
22	The Hyena and the Fox (2)	Yusuf Adem Mandre
23	The Good Man and the Wicked Man	Ibrahim Sharif
24	The Pigeon would Save Me	Ibrahim Sharif
25	Atrasu and Amegag	Ibrahim Sharif

Audio Recordings: