Folktales of the Kxoe in the west Caprivi, by Christa Kilian-Hatz

Folktales of the Kxoe in the west Caprivi, by Christa Kilian-Hatz. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Cologne, Germany 1999. ISBN 3896450816 / ISBN 3-89645-081-6

Folktales of the Kxoe in the west Caprivi, by Christa Kilian-Hatz. The following is from the introdction.

The Character of the Animals

The animals in the stories are all persons. Thus, they behave like human eings. Most animals only have one story, their creation myth (e.g. the iopard, the chameleon, the bumble-bee, the korhaan). Some other animals re recurrent characters and appear in many stories. Among them there are ather marginal characters with no special or with varying behaviour (e.g. the teenbok, the buffalo, etc.), and central characters. These main characters ave a typical personality; thus they are stable symbols and can be identified asily. The most prominent personalities are 'Jackal' and 'Hare', and their antagonists, 'Lion' and 'Hyena'. As mentioned above under 2.2 'Main Motifs', there is a clear distinction between the contrasting concepts 'good' nd 'bad'. Jackal and Hare are considered as the most clever animals of the world. Especially Hare is a classical trickster in the folktales. Looking at tieir morality, they are not always beyond reproach: Often they misbehave and thus provoke a dangerous situation. But in the end they solve each problem, master every critical situation, and outwit every bigger, stronger, or more powerful opponent. The bad opponents are the lion and the hyena. Both are considered to be strong but stupid, and therefore to be very dangerous. In addition, the lion is a bad chief for all the animals. Without overinterpreting, one can state that the two small animals, the jackal and the hare, symbolize the clever Kxoe, whereas the big animals, the lion and the hyena, represent the various neighbouring tribes with whom the Kxoe are in contact. Thus, the tales also give an expression of tribal self-esteem, showing that the Kxoe, a minority tribe, that appears insignificant compared to the others, can assert itself successfully in conflicts with powerful neighbours.

The most common recurring animal characters are listed below:

Monkey: He is a thief and a cheat.
Baboon: He is a highly ambitious person who always tries to be chief. But he is of bad moral fibre and steals food and goods from others.
Crocodile: He is a bad animal, an insatiable glutton; and that is why he wants to kill everybody. Mentally he is stupid and naive.
Ostrich: Ostrich is said to be the fastest animal of the bush, and he is the one who brought the fire to the humans. He is, therefore, highly respected, and (until recently) was never killed by the Kxoe.
Tortoise: Tortoise is the slowest animal of the bush, and considered to be very clever too.
Elephant: He is the strongest animal on earth and therefore their chief. His role in the tales is mostly that of a 'policeman'. An elephant is someone that inspires fear and respect.
Hippo: In contrast to the elephant, the hippo is the chief of the animals living in the water. His nature is friendly.

2.4 Performance
Tiiceregu are narrated only at night. It is taboo to tell such tales during the day when there is light. If someone violates this taboo, it is said that such person will disappear and get lost in the bush, so that nobody can find and rescue that person or at least find his dead body. The reason for this law is that people have to respect their ancestors, the ultimate, original actors of the stories, who help their descendants, the humans in hunting. [...]

This is an excerpt from Folktales of the Kxoe in the west Caprivi, by Christa Kilian-Hatz.

Title: Folktales of the Kxoe in the west Caprivi
Series: Namibian African studies, Vol. 5
Author: Christa Kilian-Hatz
Editor: Wilfrid H. G. Haacke
Illustrations: Benat B. Diwana
Publisher: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag
Cologne, Germany 1999
ISBN 3896450816 / ISBN 3-89645-081-6
Original softcover, 16 x 24 cm, 338 pages, several illustrations