Ti Malice and Bouki
Ti Malice is a trickster character and nemesis of Tonton (Uncle) Bouki in Haitian folklore. While Ti Malice is smart and guileful, Uncle Bouki is hardworking but is also very greedy.[1] It is the manipulation of this greed that allows Ti Malice to often get the best of Uncle Bouki. These characters are said to be a split of Anansi, the trickster character of the Ashanti of Ghana.[citation needed]
Bouki and Malice have their origins in African oral traditions. In Senegal and neighbouring countries, these two characters appear in animal form. Bouki is represented as a hyena, which is called "Bouki" in the Fulani and Wolof languages, while Malice is a hare called "Leuk" in Senegal. From there, character traits develop that identify the two companions. Bouki, the hungry and skinny hyena and Leuk, the hare with a mischievous character and legendary cunning.[2]
Two equivalent figures, also a hyena known as Bouki and a hare (called Lapin), are known to exist in Louisiana folktales.[3]
See Also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "Haiti Literature - Haitian folktales" (PDF). Teaching for Change. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
- ↑ "Le bestiaire africain de la diaspora : " retour au peuple "". vuesdumonde.forumactif.com (in French). Retrieved 2022-11-08.
- ↑ Gaudet, Marcia (1992). "Bouki, the Hyena, in Louisiana and African Tales". The Journal of American Folklore. 105 (415): 66–72. doi:10.2307/542000. ISSN 0021-8715. Retrieved 24 August 2024.