A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A childless woman gathers a particularly well-shaped yam and wishes that it could be her daughter. The yam answers and sets a condition: she must never reproach the child for having been a yam. Upon receiving that promise, it becomes a beautiful girl whom the woman names Adzanumee. The daughter makes bread, gathers produce and sells it at the market. Her transformation joins practical household companionship to an explicit rule governing recognition and speech.
When Adzanumee is delayed, her mother angrily calls her only a yam and denies that she deserves her name. A bird hears the words and carries them to the girl in song. Adzanumee returns weeping, then walks towards the yam field while her mother follows with a sung denial. She changes back into a yam before the woman arrives. The broken promise ends the human relationship; no subsequent spell or reassurance in this witness restores the daughter.
Origins & earliest records
Barker and Sinclair collected versions from experienced teacher-training students at Accra and selected, arranged and retold them for this 1917 volume.
Records & interpretation
The selected tale attests the represented actions. The introduction explains the collection method; individual speakers and unedited transcripts are not provided here.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
West African Folk-Tales
Adzanumee and Her Mother
- 02
West African Folk-Tales — XII. Adzanumee and Her Mother
W.H.Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, West African Folk-Tales, London: George G.Harrap & Company, MCMXVII(1917), CompletePress WestNorwood. Title and selected introduction methodpp14–16 independently read; stories collected through Accra teacher-training students, multiple versions selected and retold, not unmediated transcripts.
Family, evolution & connections
Adzanumee and her mother after the yam transformation
Tale XII, pp. 77–79, in the collectors’ retelling.
Scroll sideways to see all branches. With a keyboard, focus the tree and use the arrow keys.
- Unnamed woman (narrative mother)
The woman names the transformed girl, and both repeatedly identify their mother–daughter relationship. The yam becomes and later ceases to be the daughter; forms are not separate generations. No father or siblings are supplied. This edition retells collected material rather than presenting original transcripts.
Unnamed woman in Adzanumee and Her Mother
The childless woman promises to treat the speaking yam as her daughter; after transformation both call each other mother and daughter. This is narrative motherhood, not a biological descent claim.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
West African Folk-Tales
W.H.Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, West African Folk-Tales, London: George G.Harrap & Company, MCMXVII(1917), CompletePress WestNorwood. Title and selected introduction methodpp14–16 independently read; stories collected through Accra teacher-training students, multiple versions selected and retold, not unmediated transcripts.
- Adzanumee changes from a yam into a daughter under a condition that her origin not be reproached; the broken promise returns her to yam form.
XII. Adzanumee and Her Mother, complete tale, printedpp.77–79; introduction methodpp14–16
Collection’s selected/edited English student versions, not exact first oral attestation or universal cultural biography. Introductory colonial judgments and editorial claims of removing spurious elements remain attributed. No songs, prayers, magical invocation wording or current zoological explanation copied; no whole book/introduction review asserted.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected and arranged oral taleAdzanumee and Her MotherResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Collector methodologyIntroduction — collection methodResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
