Sulwe

Sulwe, the Hare, is the master trickster of Ila storytelling and the hero of the main cycle of Ba-Ila animal tales. Small and physically weak, he prevails over larger and stronger beasts through wit and guile, and the Ila regarded these stories as a mirror of themselves, the virtues they prized, the vices they condemned and the follies they mocked all set out in the doings of the Hare. He belongs to the great southern-African family of hare-tricksters known elsewhere as Kalulu or Sungura. His cleverness is not unbeatable: in a body of tales the Tortoise, Fulwe, proves shrewder still and turns the trickster's own methods against him.

Domains

• trickery
• cunning

Powers

• outwits stronger animals by cunning

Relations

• rival: FulweIn several tales the clever Hare is outdone by the still shrewder Tortoise.Smith and Dale, The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, vol. 2 (1920), tales in which the Tortoise bests the Hare (primary)

Sources

• Sulwe the Hare is the central trickster of the Ila tale-cycle, the small clever animal who outwits the strong, and the main run of Ba-Ila animal stories turns upon him.: Smith and Dale, The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, vol. 2 (1920), folklore section, esp. p. 341 (primary)