The King of the Snakes and Other Folklore Stories from Uganda

Author(s): Rosetta Baskerville

Genre(s): Culture & Heritage Fiction, Myths, Legends & Fairy Tales, Myths, Legends & Fairy Tales

Narrators: Laurakgibbs

Number of Chapters: 32

Length: 02 hours and 26 minutes

Language: English

Rosetta Baskerville was the wife of George Baskerville, a missionary in Uganda. Some of the folktales in this book, published in 1922, are stories that Baskerville heard herself, while other stories she adapted from the Baganda folktales collected by Apollo Kaggwa [1864–1927]. You will find origin stories here, like "Why the Bat Sleeps All Through the Day," and "How the Grey Parrots Got Their Red Tails," along with many other animal stories, including trickster stories like "The Leopard and the Goat." There are fairy tales, like "The Story of the Fairy Bee," as well as stories of heroes and monsters like "The King of the Snakes" and "The Story of Kibate." The story of "Walukaga the Blacksmith" tells the story behind a proverb, and the book also includes a selection of proverbs. In addition, Baskerville published is a second book of Ugandan folktales in 1925, and you can also listen to that book at LibriVox: The Flame Tree and Other Folklore Stories from Uganda. - Summary by Laura Gibbs