Seychelles’ folklore is populated by various mythical creatures that have entered the Seychellois folktale tradition via sea routes. The points of convergence for the stories that host these creatures are colonialism and slavery.
A Brief Historical Perspective
African and Malagasy slaves were transported to Mauritius from late 1600’s by the Dutch, and to Réunion, then Ile Bourbon, around 1660’s. With regards to Seychelles, most of the early French settlers moved with their slaves from Mauritius and Réunion in the last quarter of the 18th century. As such, Seychelles shares the same source of slaves as these two islands.
Consequently, ancient story repertoires which had already merged on the east coast of Africa and Madagascar, were moved from these areas to the plantation islands of Réunion, Mauritius and Seychelles by French colonists for the purpose of a slave-based exploitation of these islands.
Indian Ocean African Slave Trade 1500-1900
The general areas from which the slaves came include Guinea and the West African coast, the East African coast, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Port of Suez, including Ethiopia and Egypt, and the Malabar Coast. The slaves who were brought in later, mainly through the illegal slave trade which continued after abolition, and those who were dumped by the British Navy in the 1860s, would have come directly from Madagascar and East Africa.
It is through the movement of these slaves as well as their masters that these mythical creatures were introduced into the Seychellois folklore. Some of these mythical creatures are briefly discused below:
Soungoula
One of the most important characters in Seychellois tales is Konper (or Brother) Soungoula (or Sougoula) who is defined as a “hare” (‘sungura’ in Swahili). Soungoula is usually portrayed with a monkey (zako) face, a long tail, wearing old torn pants and an old khaki overcoat. He is a mythical being who is identified with a hare (but the hare does not belong to the fauna of the Seychelles, any more than the tiger, the elephant or the monkey, other characters dear to the tales of the archipelago).
Illustration of Soungoula by C. Vincini, Contes de Seychelles A.Abel (1981)
For the old Seychellois storytellers, Soungoula was surely a very cunning man. He always manifests the triumph of cunning over the strength and stupidity of his adversaries. Soungoula’s main characteristics include duping others, stealing and tricking others to survive, and playing pranks on all and sundry, from animals to humans. He is generally seen as a pest by fellow characters in his stories, especially since he almost always manages to escape punishment, again through trickery.
For Antoine Abel, Soungoula is a “mythical character, between man and beast…so much so that he crystallizes on him all the faults and vices of humanity…greed, perjury, parasitism…”
Soungoula often has as opponent animals such Konper Kousoupa (Brother Hyena), Konper Torti ( Brother Turtle), Frer Sousouri ( Brother Bat) Konper Zako (Brother Monkey), Konper Tig (Brother Tiger), Loulou (or wolf); and the king (Lerwa) as the ultimate judge.
Some Protagonists of the Seychellois Folktales
We will elaborate more on Soungoula in a future post where we will also post some of the folktales where he is the main protagonist.
Tizan (Fr. Petit Jean)
The hero of the wonder tales is Tizan. The tales around Tizan reconnect with the tradition of European tales although they also integrate elements of the Malagasy or Indian narrative tradition. He is a clever boy who has a whole series of adventures.
Tizan is described as a Creole boy in the sense of ethnic mixing between African and European. He is a young boy who also embodies cunning and who often struggles with Loulou (the wolf), an animal which is, of course, completely unknown to the Seychelles.
One of the many Faces of Tizan
Of all the characters in the folktale repertoire, Tizan is perhaps the most complex. In many instances, he starts as an ‘unpromising character’, but ends up the winner.
As opposed to Sougoula, there is no sure description that actually gives us his physical characteristics. We do know though that he has Malagasy, Bantu and European connections. For example, he is the hero in Tizan, Zann ek Loulou (or The Defiant Girl), which originates from East Africa and Tizan Kalkalandye, where he is up against the wolf, or the Malagasy Itrimobe, which is a monster that was half man, half bull, with a long, pointed tail.
The Malagasy Itrimobe,
In the European wonder tales, he often plays the role of the third son who is transformed into a valiant knight who wins the tournament (Set Zeni sorti dan Lesyel), or rescues the princess/es (Kanmpepe Kanmpelo) or solves the riddle (Martin I Mor).
In some tales he appears to be omnipotent and indestructible and is merciless in the lessons he teaches. Tizan is also a trickster. For example, in Mr. Bossy, he dupes both the king and the sexton and gets a lot of money from them. He also has no difficulty teaming up with his enemy. Interestingly enough he is even rescued by none other than Soungoula! This is a good illustration of the way in which stories from different traditions have merged in Seychelles.
Kousoupa
How does Kousoupa look like? We do not really know. His appearance has never been described, so what Kousoupa is exactly has remained ambiguous. However, in Makhuwa, which is the primary Bantu language of northern Mozambique, ‘kusupa’ is given as the name for the hyena.
Kousoupa
In Africa, the hyena is usually portrayed as an abnormal animal, considered to be sly, brutish, and dangerous. It further embodies physical power, excessiveness, ugliness, stupidity, as well as sacredness.
Konper Torti (Frère Tortue)
Konper Torti (Brother Tortoise) is portrayed in Seychellois folktales as cleverer than Soungoula and who often gets the better of him. He is by far the most popular and most formidable of Soungoula’s opponents.
While Soungoula symbolizes cunning, the slow turtle, all enclosed within itself, is the symbol of wisdom, of righteousness, justice, equity and perseverance.
However, Konper Torti is also a trickster in his own right. He is symbolically very important to the Seychellois and is affectionately called Per Kobe (Father Kobe). This is illustrated by the leading role given to this character in the first carnival organized in the country in 1972, and in other festivals and carnivals featuring the island’s créolité.
Konper Torti (Brother Tortoise)
This respect for the wisdom and abilities of this species is reflected in the folktales as well because the Seychellois have never permitted the master trickster, Soungoula, to get the better of Konper Torti. In fact, not only does Konper Torti catch Soungoula when other animals cannot. In a version of the race between two animals, Konper Torti is substituted for the turtle so that the race takes place in water.
Frer Sousouri (Fr. Frère Chauve Souris)
Frer Sousouri (Brother Bat), is a character that can be considered as being peculiar to the Seychelles folktale tradition. He is probably an example of a character that was invented in these islands and adapted to inherited characters from the trickster tradition of Eastern Africa. This is how the Seychellois have merged elements of their new environment to older, pre-settlement traditions. Like Konper Torti, Frer Sousouri who is a native of these islands, plays nemesis to Soungoula.
Frer Sousouri does not feature in many of the Seychellois folktales. In Zistwar Frer Soungoula ek Frer Sousouri (the story of Soungoula and Brother Bat), the bat teaches Soungoula a lesson for trying to steal all his girlfriends. Soungoula actually dies in this story. This happens when Brother Bat drops him from a great height, after he sneaked into Brother Bat’s bag to court Jupiter’s daughter on Planet Jupiter. In the second story, Brother Bat teams up with Konpere Torti to play a trick on Soungoula for boasting that nothing could scare him. They convince the trickster that the earth had grown teeth and almost scares him to death.
Konper Zako (Fr. Frère Singe)
Konper Zako (Brother Monkey) is often portrayed as a dupe of Soungoula. He is depicted as being very stupid, and Soungoula is always playing some trick on him. The pair is often depicted as being great friends, in spite of Soungoula’s dirty tricks. He has all the vices of Soungoula, for he is often his partner in crime, but he almost always meets with some misfortune because he is too gullible.
Konper Lyev (Fr. Frère Lièvre)
Konper Lyev (Brother Hare) is also often portrayed as a dupe for Sougoula. He is Konper Zako’s partner when they go to pay their respects at Papa Tig’s death. But, in the killing of mother’s story, Konper Lyev convinces Konper Zako to kill his mother for food and then pretends that his own mother escaped. The story that best illustrates Konper Zako as a dupe is the one where Soungoula is stung by wasps. He takes Konper Zako on a false mission to get honey, ensuring that the latter is stung too. There are also rare instances when Konper Zako tricks Soungoula, but he always pays dearly for it.
Loulou (Fr. Le loup)
Generally, Loulou plays the role of the big bad wolf who represents danger. He consistently tries to fatten up other characters to eat with his friends or his children.
Loulou has been rationalized into an ordinary wolf, in the process of linguistic adaptation. From a malevolent spirit, in the Malagasy language, it has become a symbol of the European ‘big bad wolf’, in the Seychellois narrative and imagination.
Loulou
As far as the written history and oral memory of Seychelles goes, there have never been wolves in these islands. The wolf, or Loulou in Seychelles, originates from the Malagasy word, lolo, which is a spirit. It has easily transferred into the French language ‘le loup’, which with agglutination in Creole has become ‘lelou’ or ‘loulou’.
However, the mythical aspects of Loulou which come from its original culture, have been retained through the survival of original stories which have undergone very little transformation from the time of their transference. In the Seychellois context, Loulou is also a product of hybridization in the pre-colonial era in that it represents both the Bantu swallowing monster and the Malagasy malevolent spirit. Generally, this comes out in all the older, original stories. Whereas in new Loulou stories, he is simply an animal character who interacts with other animals, and is portrayed as either a simple miscreant or a dupe.
Serpan (Fr. Serpent)
The snake appears in the Seychellois tales as a symbol of magic and the supernatural world. For example in the tale “Sen Disparet” (Abel, 1977:41), a hunter picks up in the forest a small snake which, arriving at the hunter’s house, transforms into a pearl necklace and during the night becomes a child. In all this tale, the snake is a beneficent being, associated with the forest, a wild and unknown place. The fact that, in this case, the snake is endowed with magical power shows that it is symbolic of the supernatural world.
Conclusion
I have given a very brief description of the main characters of Seychellois Folktales. If you wish to read more on the topic, I suggest that you source the many publications by Ms. Panda Choppy. They are very detailed and highly informative. In future posts, I will offer some more information on Soungoula and Tizan.
Link to Brief Description of Soungoula
Link to Brief Description of Tizan
Reference:
- https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/111109/1/2301ISSISS600005069745_1.PDF
- https://unisey.ac.sc/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Grannter-and-Creole-Roots-Presentation.pdf
- https://seychellesresearchjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/monsters_mythical_creatures_and_island_hopping_in_seychellois_folktales-theresia_penda_choppy-seychelles_research_journal-5-2.pdf
- Creolica, 26 juin 2007 – Sirandann ! Zanbaget ! Contes créoles des Seychelles – Sibylle Kriegel, Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh (eds)
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