The Honey Guide Bird Two Traditional Tales From Africa

Two funny, light-hearted traditional tales from Africa.

Part of a series for young African students and consisting of stories from all over Africa. The "JAWS" starters, which are at three levels, are intended to encourage children who are learning to read. In this story a bird guides Lesange and his sister to honey in a bees' nest.

An African folktale in which various animals peacefully follow a honey guide bird, but find that sharing the honey among themselves causes problems.

After teaching his son how to find honey by following the honey-guide bird, an African father insists that they thank the bird by sharing some of the honey with it.

The rich folklore culture of Africa has been passed down by word of mouth through countless generations. Dianne Stewart has a passion for collecting and retelling these stories, making them accessible to a whole new audience. In The Guineafowl’s Spots and Other African Bird Tales she has created a unique collection of African folktales, exclusively about birds. Drawn from across the continent, these tales often draw on human characteristics and are followed by African proverbs that illustrate various moral lessons. This fascinating collection includes classic tales such as ‘Why Flamingo Stands on One Leg’ from Nigeria, ‘The Laughing Dove’ from North Africa, and the Xhosa tale ‘The Bird That Could Make Milk’. Beautiful illustrations by Richard Mackintosh bring to life the magic of the stories and the beauty of the birds themsleves. Many of the tales include additional facts on the featured birds.

This collection of folktales from South Africa has been put together the author says, not for scholarship but for a love of the sunny country where he was born. Some stories originate from Dutch sources, and some have several versions. Most are tales told by the bushmen.