In the beginning African tales weren’t written they were passed from a generation to another by the word of mouth. People who could remember stories tell them well but highly he got it round Africa and it still exist. African folktales were used to pass an important information, ideas, tribal roles, and religious belief. Africans are the only people who have folktales for many different reasons, some stories tries to explain things about the world.

Our folktale for today is a based on a magical funny tale which is titled: Talk

One day a farmer went to the farm to get some yam to sell at the market. He began to dig for the biggest yam, he couldn’t find anyone. All of a sudden, he heard a voice saying:

“You don’t come to see me during the rainy season and I almost drown”
"You don’t come see me during the dry season and I almost die of hot”
" and you don’t come see me when all the weeds grow and I almost strangle to death and now that i got big and juicy you came with your digging stick and dig me up to sell me at the market place”
Well leave me alone!! (yam shouted)

The man was very surprised; he looked at his cow who was quietly chewing his curd.
Did you say something? His cow did not say anything but the dog did.”

“Well no” the cow did not say anything but here I did, he said “leave the yam alone and I think it was right”

The man was shocked, his dog has never spoken to him before, and besides that he did not like the tune of the dog voice. So he walked to the new tree and grabs the branch to switch the dog. As soon as he did, the tree spoke “Put that down!!

The man was shocked and he began to throw the branch he cut on the ground. Just then the branch spoke “Hey Mr let me down gently!!”
The man got frightened even so he followed the branch direction and gently laid the branch on the rock and the rock said “get that thing off my back!!”

That was just too much for the man and he ran for the village “Hooooooooooo”
He has gone too far when he came across a fisherman with fish trap on his head and the fisherman said “hey friend you are going to knock someone over running like that, then he replied, I am frightening, I have to get back to the village, everything started talking to me “the yam said leave me alone, the tree said put that down, the branches said put me down gently, and the rock said get that off my back”
That the most foolish story I have ever had do you honestly expect me to believe that? And the fish trap on top of the fisherman talk and he said” I want to know something did you take the limp out of the rock’s back or didn’t you?”

“Hoooooooooo” the fisherman throws away the trap and along with the farmer ran to the village shouting “Hoooooooo”.

Soon they came up on a tailor carrying a boat of cloth. Why are you running like that don’t you know you might knock somebody of and the farmer said: we have to get back to the village everything has started talking to me today “the yam said leave me alone, the tree said put that down, the branches said put me down gently, the rock said get that off my back and the fish said did you take the branch of the rock’s back or didn’t you?”
The tailor said what does that seem to be? Then the cloth the tailor is carrying also said, well,” if that happen to you, you run too!!” “Hooooooooooo” and the three began running to the village yawning “Hooooooo”Haaaaaaaaa””Hoooooooo”.

After several moments, they arrive to find the chief, sitting on a stool in front of his house. The chief shouted gentlemen quite-down!! What seem to be the problem? And the men spoke “this is the strangest thing, everything has been talking” “the yam said leave me alone, the tree said put that down, the branches said put me down gently, the rock said get that off my back, the fish trap said did you and the boat of cloth said you run too”

The chief said in loud voice “I want you three to return to work and I don’t want to hear anymore of this foolishness” The men tried to protest but the chief interrupted them” If you say anything again I will banish you from the village” it is people like you who cause trouble in the village then the king seat said “I couldn’t agree more who ever heard of our talking yell”.

Conclusively:

Don’t forget many of our characters in a folktale stories are object and animal (Yam, Cloth, Branches, Tree, Fish). This are example of a folktales where animals and objects play the main role by them talking and playing major character in a story.

Enjoy!!!!