Ture is a character in the

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

of the

Zande people The Azande are an Ubangian ethnic group in Central Africa. They live in the south-central and southwestern part of South Sudan, southeastern Central African Republic, and northeastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congolese ...

of North Central Africa. A

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story ( god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...

figure, he is "the chief character in Zande folktales", in which he employs what among the Azande is called ''sanza'', or speech with a double meaning. According to

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, Kt FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University ...

, who collected and published a number of Zande stories, most of them involve Ture. In one Zande animal story, he is named in a short song as someone who might call a child to entice it away from her mother. He is also named in a proverb: ''ba iwafu ture a du sa'', "Ture...had only one operator of the rubbing-board oracle". This is glossed as, "A man has only one real friend among so many acquaintances, who is the one who helps him. There are not many people who would help a man. There are very few who would help him."

List of tales

*"How Ture Killed Bigtooth" *"Ture and Yangaimo" *"The Running of Ture and One-Leg" *"The Fathers of Ture who were Bambasi and Bangirimo" *"How Ture Killed His Father" *"Ture and Bakureako" *"Ture and Duwainga" *"How Ture Burnt Leopard All Over" (in which Leopard consults a poison oracle) *"Ture, the Youth, the Old Woman, and the Ripe Fruit" *"About Ture, a Shield, and a Man and His Sister" *"Ture and a Man's Fish" *"Ture, Frog, and the River Baku" *"Ture and Man-Killer Again" *"Eye-Bees and Big-Eared Men" *"Ture and Eye-Bee" *"How Ture Fought with Nzangirinza"

Publications

A collection of Zande stories about Ture, and the most important source of them, ''Sangba Ture'', was published by the missionary Mrs. Edward Clive Gore in 1921, and republished in either 1951 or 1954 (by Canon Riley); the first and revised editions were published by the Sheldon Press in London. Mrs. Gore and her husband were with the Church Mission Society, which had a station in

Yambio Yambio is a City in South Sudan. Location The City is located in Yambio County, Western Equatoria State, in southwestern South Sudan, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its location lies approximately , by road, west of ...

. According to Evans-Pritchard, many of the tales in her collection were written down by a Zande at a nearby Catholic mission, and then loaned to a Major Larken, a district commissioner for the British

Colonial Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

, who in turn gave them to Gore. The foreword to the collection was written by Enoka Mangbondo, who may also be responsible for the other stories in the collection. They were, according to Evans-Pritchard, all recorded before 1921 in the Sudan.

Bibliography

* Rev. ed. 1954. * Rev. ed. (edited by G. Riley) 1951.

References

{{Zande people Zande people