On International Forest Day

Hello there!(And welcome to new friends! Read this post if you’re not sure what Mythological Africans is about!)Have you been following along so far this year? We’ve been talking about how the natural world shows up in African mythology and folklore. In recent episodes, we’ve focused on forests and trees, although we took a small detour, last week, to talk about my newly released book, The Watkins Book of African Folklore. Yes, it does include a story about a tree! However, as some of you may know, Friday March 21st was International Forest Day. This is a day set aside by the United Nations to highlight the critically important role forests play in food security, nutrition, and sustainable livelihoods. This year’s theme was “Forests and Foods,” which emphasizes the relationship between forests and the global effort against hunger and famine. And so to commemorate that, in today’s episode, we talk about some food giving trees in African folklore. Enjoy!ReferencesWhere Animals Talk: West African Folklore Tales by Robert Hamill NassauChildren of Wax : African Folktales by Alexander McCall Smith. Buy the book here.Meanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe