Les contes Zairois.

Abstract

The introduction of this work explains the importance of folktales for Africans in all their cultural and educational aspects. These stories also describe the geographical area and the people to whom they belong. The first chapter presents folktales where people are the principal characters. It shows how they act and what they gain from their way of life. At the end of each story, there is a moral which gives advice to everyone. The second chapter contains stories whose main characters are animals. These animals, however, in reality represent people. Africans wish to teach a lesson, also, through these animal stories. The same purpose is found in the tales in Chapter III, where the characters are parts of the body or abstract things such as hunger, anger, etc. These folktales are recorded here because of the desire to preserve them and to transmit them to children and friends so that they can learn some stories with true African roots. The folktales which appear in this thesis come from the author's own experiences as a young girl in Zaire. Her parents and their friends told her these and many other interesting stories. Her brother and her" sister have contributed to this work, too.