Mbeku
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This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (March 2020) |
Mbeku // (from the Igbo word for tortoise) is the trickster tortoise in Igbo and West African folktales.
Tales
In one aetiological tale Mbekwu gets taken by the birds to a feast in the sky. When he eats all the food, the birds stop him from flying back to the earth, and he falls, which is how the tortoises got the patterns on their shells.
In an Igbo fable Mbekwu (or Mbe) persuades Grasshopper (Ukpana) to help fake sadness on the death of his father-in-law, so that he can get food from his kinsmen, but breaks his pledge to share the food. The grasshopper betrays him to his kinsfolk, who kill him.
Bibliography
- The Flying Tortoise, Tololwa M. Mollel, illustrated by Barbara Spurll, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-540990-6.
- Anthropological report on the Ibo-speaking peoples of Nigeria. Northcote W Thomas, 1913, London, Harrison
See also
- Àjàpá the Yoruba tortoise trickster
References
Categories:
- Pages using the Phonos extension
- Articles with short description
- Short description matches Wikidata
- Articles lacking in-text citations from March 2020
- All articles lacking in-text citations
- Pages including recorded pronunciations
- African fairy tales
- African folklore
- African mythology
- Fables
- Folklore characters
- Oral tradition
- Storytelling
- Mythological tricksters
- Igbo culture
- Legendary turtles
- All stub articles
- African mythology stubs