Tales of African Peoples. Worldview, Lifestyle, Customs, Adventures, Monsters, Sorcerers, Cannibals, Animals

“There is not a single nation on the entire globe that does not have its own folk art, its own folk literature, the works of which are passed down orally from grandfathers and fathers to their grandchildren and sons. All the peoples of Africa possess such oral folk literature,” — N. A. Kun. Few know that the historian, writer, and educator Nikolai Albertovich Kun (1877–1940), in addition to the world-famous “Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece,” was the collector and compiler of the equally wonderful book “Tales of African Peoples.” For more than a hundred years, it has not been reissued, and today it is once again available to readers. Kun’s tales are unique in the volume of collected material and the depth of historical analysis of the everyday life and worldview of the peoples of the African continent. The book allows the reader to become acquainted with the worldview and customs of African tribes and better understand their culture.

About the author: Nikolai Albertovich Kun is a Russian historian, writer, and educator, professor at Moscow State University. The author's most famous book, written in 1914, is “What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Told About Their Gods and Heroes.” In it, Nikolai Albertovich is the second in the world and the first in Russia to present numerous myths of Ancient Greece in an accessible and fascinating manner. After 1940, the book was repeatedly reissued under the title “Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece,” has been translated into the main European languages and the languages of the peoples of the former Union.