Essay: Tricksters in nigerian Folk Stories

In the Nigerian Folk Stories, there were quite a few tricksters. For instance in The Pretty Stranger who Killed the King story a witch turned herself into beautiful woman in order to seduce the King. The King of this story was a greedy and selfish man. He gained his riches by enslaving people. This angered the people of Itu. The plotted to get rid of the King with the help of a witch. With magic, the witch turned herself into a beautiful woman and tricked the King into marrying. While the King was asleep the witch cut his head off.

Another trickster that can be found in this reading unit is the skull in The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull. In this story a skull falls in love with a beautiful young lady. The Skull knew that the girl would never fall for someone like him for he is scary and ugly looking. So to seduce the girl, the Skull borrowed different human body parts that when put together made him into an attractive man. The Skull was successful in seducing the girl and was able to bring her home into her his world -- the spirit land. As soon as the entered the spirit land the Skull's true form was revealed and the girl realized that she had been tricked.

(Skull)

A third trickster can also be found in the story of Why the Bat flies by Night. In this story a Bat tricks a rat into boiling himself. He does this by telling the rat that if you boil yourself before you cook the actual food, the food will be sweeter. The rat believes him and consequently boils himself to death. Because of this the bat is a wanted animal and therefore can only go out at night when no one can see him.