Bantu Folklore Tales of Long Ago

Effective missionary work is contingent upon the understanding missionaries have of the thought life of the people among whom they work. To know what children are told by their elders is to understand how their minds will react to new ideas. What children learn is retained by them in modified ideas throughout life. So every individual, young or old, can be helped by the missionary if his mental attitudes are known. The folk tales of the tribes are the elements from which this thought pattern develops.

Fred and Alta Hoyt, who for 34 years labored as missionaries among the Bantu people of Africa, learned to understand their minds as few people do. They entered into their joys and sorrows as friends and counsellors. They worked with them and taught them the Christian way of life. They helped the Bantu Christians to be free in mind and spirit as their thoughts emerged into the larger truths of Christian living.

In order that these tribal folk tales may be preserved for present and future readers, Alta Hoyt has painstakingly gathered them from the people whom she understood and loved. As the stories are read may they fulfill their purpose-that of helping the reader understand the mind of the Bantu people and appreciate more fully the blessing which the Gospel brings to the human heart.