Kaffir Folk-Lore: A Selection from the Traditional Tales Current among the People Residing in the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony

Record summary

George McCall Theal’s Kaffir Folk-Lore is a nineteenth-century printed selection of tales associated with Xhosa-speaking communities in the eastern Cape. It is valuable for examining animal narratives, etiological stories, colonial editorial practices, and the transformation of orally circulated material into a book intended for European readers. The collection also offers a comparison with other southern African compilations, though similarities do not automatically establish common origins. Researchers should determine which stories were directly collected, which were translated through intermediaries, and whether Theal standardized or rearranged the material.