It is true that much of the early material collected, especially from southern Africa, was in the form of animal tales and that animal heroes (especially tricksters) are found across the continent. But these stories are almost never moral fables; instead, the animal world mirrors the human world in most regards (such as behavior, social relations, and other problems).
As an example of the differences, one might look to the classic story of the race between the hare and the tortoise, which in folktales the tortoise wins by guile: he lines up his kinsmen along the course, so that each time the hare calls out, a tortoise answers from somewhere ahead of him, and of course, one is waiting at the finish line to greet the frantic and exhausted hare (ATU 1074; variants of the story pit any one of a number of small and slow animals against larger and faster competitors). Other widespread animal tales include the hare's tug-of-war, in which the hare (or another small animal) pits the elephant and the hippopotamus against each other, each pulling a rope but unable to see who is pulling at the other end, or the story of how the hare ate the lioness' cubs and escaped. The animal world presents an array of stock characters (large or small, strong or weak, meat-eaters or prey, aquatic or terrestrial) rather than an accurate reflection of the local fauna.
Stories of human action are equally common, often involving the ordinary tensions of social existence: questions of marriage partners, rivalry of co-wives, and the position of children. One of the most widespread types uses the structure of ATU 480, The Kind and the Unkind Girls: a first actor is sent on a quest and returns with riches, whereas the second, sent in imitation, muddles the tasks and is rewarded with death or disgrace. The protagonists may be of either gender and almost any condition or status. Young women refuse all eligible suitors and finally go off with a man who proves to be a monster; some escape, but more, perhaps, are devoured.
Suitors understand the riddling messages sent by the maiden they are courting, and so they succeed in winning her hand. Hunters are seduced by women who prove to be beasts; in some cases these hunters marry maidens whom they know to be transformed antelopes, as the hunter has hidden her skin while she bathed. Wives are cast off because they are barren, and a child is born who eventually restores them to prosperity and esteem (see Birth; Infertility). Also frequent are adventure stories in which clever humans escape monsters; often the protagonists are a group of brothers who are saved by the preternatural ingenuity (or magic) of the youngest sibling. A frequent motif in this last series is the monster's attempt to eat the children during the night, which is foiled by the hero who switches the identifying markers with the monster's own children, so that they are the ones eaten instead.
In many cases, the action involves hunger and food: disorder comes from the desire to avoid sharing food or from attempts to conceal a supply. The trickster traps the elephant between two trees and trims off meat to allow the larger animal to get free. While working a field with a partner, the trickster goes off to “see a friend” but really eats all the supplies they have brought for the day; he answers inquiries with punning names: “I saw my friend "Still-some-left"” and later “It's-all-gone.” A greedy husband ends up being buried because he did not wish to share food with his family.
Cycles of trickster stories are found across the continent. The trickster is usually animal in shape: Ananse of the Ashanti or Ture of the Zande are spiders; Leuck of the Wolof is a hare, as are Kalulu of the Bemba and Sungura of the Swahili; Ajapa of the Yoruba is a tortoise, and there are other tortoises in tales from central Africa. The trickster's guile is employed to escape traps set by larger animals, to make off with the prize (food or other desirable objects), or to make a fool of a larger foil; the hyena is the frequent butt of the trickster's schemes. One tale type occurring across the continent is that of The Profitable Exchange (ATU 1655), in which the hero starts with an object of small worth and by a combination of persuasiveness and chicanery trades up to something of great value: from honey to grain to a chicken, ending with the chiefdom; or from a corncob to a chicken to a sheep and ending with a hundred slaves; or from a cockroach to a wife. Ananse (or Anansi) is the best known of the tricksters, and his actions often have a mythological dimension; he is the companion of the sky-god. Other tricksters such as Ture may not function in an overtly mythological framework, but their actions nevertheless may benefit humanity, such as by releasing hoarded waters or discovering fire. In some areas the trickster is a terrible child of a fairly specific type (often known as the enfant terrible), one who does the opposite of all normal actions, often with destructive effect. The series of adventures leads to confrontation with a chief and conclude in varying ways: the child finally dies, having chosen to kill a bird who is carrying it to safety, or the child may replace the chief on the throne.
