The Iroko-Man: A Yoruba Folktale

PreSchool-Grade 3-The Iroko-man, who inhabits the heart of a very old iroko tree, is a powerful spirit capable of both good and evil magic. When no babies are born in the village, the women appeal to him to lift the spell. In return, the farmers' wives promise food and animals, but the woodcarver's wife, having no food, rashly offers her firstborn. Predictably, the woman regrets the contract and breaks her pledge when the child is born. For this, the Iroko-man turns her into a bird. The woodcarver cleverly conspires to satisfy the spirit while keeping his child by carving a child-sized replica. The wooden child is the perfect solution: it never cries, and it always smiles. Kim includes details of clothing and housing accurate to the Yoruba, and her cut-paper collages have a primitive, folk quality appropriate to the tale. Iroko-man himself is imaginatively realized as a sort of leafy, arboreal monster-just a touch scary. Readers unfamiliar with the usual inconsistencies of folklore plots may reasonably point out that the basic premise is shaky. Why would a woman promise her firstborn in return for a child? Never mind. The story has a more clever and satisfying climax than most: a wooden child for a wooden man! Rarely anthologized, this unusual tale, with its chants that invite audience participation, should have success in story times. It is just the sort of mildly frightening tale young listeners relish. An author's source note is appended.
Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4-6, younger for reading aloud. "Once, in a village in Nigeria, it happened that no children had been born in many years." When prayers and songs do not help, the women of the village ask for assistance from the powerful spirit that lives in the Iroko tree. The Iroko-Man demands payment for his magic, and the farmers' wives offer yams, corn, and other fruits of the harvest. Oluronbi, the wife of a wood-carver, has only her firstborn to offer. When she is unable to give him up, the Iroko-Man turns her into a songbird. Her clever husband wins her freedom by devising a solution that satisfies the Iroko-Man and enables the parents to keep their child. Gershator's source is Yoruba Legends (Sheldon, 1929), and her text, which follows a traditional format with similarities to "Rumpelstiltskin," lends itself to both telling and reading aloud. Kim's acrylic-and-collage illustrations are bright and uncluttered, making this practical for presenting to large groups, but the complexity and religious symbolism of the story will be best appreciated by older children. Janice Del Negro