TOLD BY STARLIGHT IN CHAD – Joseph Brahim Seid

Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we are now in the C’s!!!

Country: Chad
Title: Told by Starlight in Chad
Author: Joseph Brahim Seid
Language: French
Translator: Karen Haire Hoenig
Publisher: Africa World Press 2007 (originally published in 1962)

The options for English translations of works from certain countries are extremely limited, and I had very options for a few upcoming countries.  Chad is one of them.  Told by Starlight in Chad was the ONLY work I could find translated in English. Luckily, Thriftbooks had a used copy available for purchase because the library has been a deadend for a lot of these selections.

Told by Starlight in Chad is a very slim volume of folktales/fairytales for the region. The oral tradition of storytelling and the importance of the land, faith, and their animals is prominent (as is the case in most folktales).  My favorite is “Bidi-Camoun, Tchouroma’s Horse” – a lovely little tale about a prince with a talking horse. (Bidi-Camoun is said to be the ancestor of the country’s “sturdy, swift steeds.”) “The Lion’s Justice” reminded me of another folktale I’ve read, I just can’t place it or the country. It makes sense – I’ve said before we are far more alike than we are different, and folktales the world over show that.

I am so glad I set off on this journey around the world.