animal wisdom tales

Parchment-style illustration of West African curious bird inspecting sleeping owl’s fake horns in forest clearing.

The Curious Bird and Owl’s Secret

African Folktales·Guinea-Bissauan Folktales·West African Folktales

In the time when the world was still soft and new, when the first rains had barely settled the dust of creation and the great baobab trees were still learning how to reach toward the sky, there lived in the vast forests of West Africa a community of birds unlike any that had come before or since. These were not

a hare sitting by a bright fire while a hyena coughs sadly in thick smoke, symbolizing wisdom over carelessness in a Senegalese folktale

African Folktales·Senegalese Folktales·West African Folktales·Wolof Folktales

The Hyena and the Hare with the Fire

In the old days of the Wolof people of Senegal, when the sun dipped low and the earth cooled, animals gathered to share warmth and wisdom. Among them lived the clever hare, admired for his quick mind, and the greedy hyena, often mocked for her foolish pride. Their rivalry was

Parchment-style drawing of sparrow and parrot debating inheritance under baobab; African folktale scene.

The Sparrow and the Parrot

In the days when the boundaries between the human world and the

The Curious Bird and Owl’s Secret

The Hyena and the Hare with the Fire

The Sparrow and the Parrot

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