Category:Resources/Hausaland Tales from the Nigerian Marketplace

Source: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8293173/

McIntosh is Canadian but spent from 1981 to 1983 as a teacher in a Nigeria in the Hausaland area, a small town called Gwadabawa, in Sokoto state. During this time there was money for the schools thanks to the prior oil finds, but soon after things changed. The time was perfect for collecting stories and folk tales, and this is what McIntosh did with much of his free time. When there was no tv, the one with the best stories was the most popular person in the school or village. This book is the result of his story collection year in Hausaland.

This book has been previously in Austin city library's collections; then it was in Recycled Reads where I could not resist but had to buy for reading and afterwards liberating. 
It's definitely not just for kids - I enjoyed the animal stories.

These tales are included:
* Why the red-necked lizard nods his head
* The race
* Why vulture has a bare neck
* The leopard and the rat
* Millipede and tortoise make a trade
* Louse joins a herd
* Why gorilla lives in a jungle
* Ostrich in the desert
* How man found a friend
* The carver and the panther
* Tortoise meets the river goddess 
* The deer woman

There are also some sayings after each story in the local language and translated in English. Some of those that seemed interesting:
- Maganin maki gudu ban kashi -- desperate times call for desperate measures.
- Abin da zuciya ta dauka gangar jiki bawa ne -- where tehre is a will there is a way.
- Kowa ya zubar mani da tsamiyata sai in zubar masa da mononsa -- pay back in the same coin.
- Komi nisan jifa kasa zai fadi -- he who laughs last, laugh longest.
- Mugu shi ya san makwantar mugu -- set a thief to catch a thief.
- Kowa ya kona runbunsa, ya san inda toka ke kudi ne -- apparent stupidity can be concealed wisdom.
- Kashin turmi ba na wadan kare ba ne -- do not attempt what is beyond your powers to perform.
- Ba a shan zuma sai an sha harbi -- success comes after tears.
- Idan wata ta koni mutum, in ya ga toka sai ya gudu -- once bitten, twice shy.
- Ba kullum a ke kwana a gado ba wata rana ko a kasa sai a kwana -- life is a mixture of the sweet and the bitter.
- Kowa ya daure kura ya san yadda zai yi ya kwance -- look before you leap.