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changeling stories

Parchment-style illustration of Esinam meeting the Serpent Mother, a river spirit from Togolese folklore, in a sacred forest.

The Daughter of the Serpent Mother

In the old days, when the forests of Togo grew thick and wild and the rivers sang their ancient songs with voices like distant thunder, there lived a poor girl named Esinam. She walked through life as solitary as a single bird in an endless sky, with no brothers or sisters to share her joys and sorrows, no family to

Painting of a West African woman holding a baby as she confronts a glowing spirit woman in a forest, surrounded by ethereal beings scene from a coastal folktale.

African Folktales·Central African Folktales

The Fishwife and the Changeling

Along the shores of the great African waters, where the mighty waves crash against ancient cliffs and fishing boats dance like water birds on the restless sea, there lived a fisherman’s wife whose heart was as vast as the ocean itself. Her mud-brick home, crowned with palm thatch and painted

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changeling stories

The Daughter of the Serpent Mother

The Fishwife and the Changeling

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