Instead of Mr. Hare, Mr. Tortoise is the Trickster

In the previous story, instead of Mr. Hare renaming himself "Everyone" in order to get all the food, it's Mr. Tortoise who does, and his misadventure is the reason he has a hard shell today.

African Spurred Tortoise

So the story goes that Mr. Tortoise, along with the animals of the jungle were invited to the sky to attend the wedding of Mr. Hippo's daughter who was marrying the son of the sky god. On their way to the sky (dispatched on a rainbow) Mr. Tortoise told all the animals that it would be a good thing to rename themselves with cool, funky names and impress the sky dwellers. For himself he picked, "All of you" but the other animals only laughed, seeing no cool point.

Mr. Hare becomes "Everyone"

Normally the title of this story would be something like: How Mr. Hare Became "Everyone," or "How Mr. Hare renamed himself to get all the food" but for this blog I've revised it a little bit. In other versions, "Everyone" is replaced with "All of you."

hare & moon

Once upon a time, Mr. Hare and the animals of the forest were invited to a wedding in the sky. The daughter of Mr. Hippo had fallen in love with the son of the sky god, and the ceremony was to take place in the heavens. All the earth creatures were invited to the wedding. A rainbow was organized to fetch them from earth up to the sky and also return them safely to their homes once the celebrations were over. While the animals were heading to the wedding, Mr. Hare devised a plan.

Omugane gwokubanza: Ishe Katabazi 1

Midi pic

I've been debating if I should share these stories in my mother tongue--Rukiga--or English. I might end up doing both. I would like to maintain the Rukiga structure and if I translate them into English, I may play with form, aiming for brevity, cutting out repetitions, and perhaps even writing in a more epic poetry manner than oral story. I might also put a modern spin on both and see how that goes. Be my own trickster on what was and now is or could be. This being a project in the making. Anyway, decisions aside, here's the first story involving a character named Ishe-Katabaazi.

The Stylistic Practices of Trickster storytelling

The trickster figure Reynard the Fox from the wiki

Before I share a number of trickster stories allow me first to delve into their development and some of the qualities that stand out as stylistic conventions in my traditions.

Beginning of Digital Humanities Project

Coyote from the wiki

I didn't fully realize what I was up to when I started taking a tutorial on Digital Humanities and had to come up with a project. After some thinking it occurred to me that it would be a good idea if i start blogging about the stories my family and community members told me when i was growing up.

My favorite stories are in the trickster tradition. We didn't have the coyote or Ananse, but we had the hare, sometimes called Kalulu, sometimes just Mr. Hare.In the stories he is celebrated for outwitting everyone. Sometimes he falls short but is quick to get himself out of the trap. Always a he. Crafty, cunning, cheating. Perhaps that says something about my community; what males were more likely to do compared to females since there is a belief that animals symbolize humans. This site for a start aims to share trickster stories across cultures and languages.