Hausa Supestitions and Customs by A.J.N Tremearne

The Image of the Giantess seems to have appeared all over the world including in the folk stories of the Hausa People of Africa. One tale tells the story of ‘The Boy And The One-Sided Giantess’. This is the story of the King’s Son who has decided to go out and see the world. He comes to a big lake where he meets a Giantess. This Giantess has ‘one arm, one leg, and one eye’. She drinks the water from the lake and begins to cry ‘saying that her thirst was not quenched’. She then goes on to make porridge and soup made of 2 big bulls. She eats the food and begins to cry again as the food has not filled her. After seeing this the boy runs home saying ‘O my Father, I have seen what is in the world’.

It’s interesting that again in this story the Giantess, like Mrs Yoop, is linked to the consumption of food and unhappiness, themes that are easily linked to the modern concepts associated with large women, compulsive eating and comfort eating. In both stories the women are terrifying figures who need to be escaped from. The boy has seen what is out in the world and does not want to travel into the outside world again. However thinking about this story and african poverty, the story might be linked to the fear of lack of water and food outside of the King’s land.