The stories in this collection form part of the rich body of oral tradition which survived in the New World. Although many of these tales are from Brazil, some have variants in islands of the Caribbean and in the southern part of the United States of America.

African tales seemed to have survived in the New World in cycles, depending perhaps, on the cultural origin of the transmitters of the tales, so that Anansi stories abound in Jamaica, stories about Brer Rabbit in the Southern Part of the United States of America, while in Brazil, the Monkey seems to be the predominant figure.

Except for Haiti, Brazil is often considered to be the country in the New World in which elements of African culture survived longest and the Yoruba group, perhaps the most numerous, and certainly the most culturally vital in Brazil, already had an established society with a well defined culture and a complex mythology.

Enid D'Oyley, originally from Jamaica studied at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Between Sea and Sky, co-editor of Women of our Times, and contributor to Many Cultures, Many Heritages. She lives in Toronto.

Larissa Kauperman, originally from Lithuania, studied art at the National Art Institute of Lithuania and at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Israel. She has had several exhibitions in Israel, the U.K., Venice and Toronto and she is the author of "The Story of Plucky".

CATEGORIES:

Cultural History, History, Fiction, Literature