Studies of Africa's ethnic Yoruba culture and performance tend to focus mainly on standardized forms of performance and ignore the more prevalent performance culture which is central to Yoruba people's everyday lives. What the Forest Told Me conveys the elastic nature of African cultural expression through narratives of the Yoruba hunters' exploits. Hunters' narratives provide a window on the Yoruba understanding and explanation of their world, a cosmology that negates the anthropocentric view of creation. In a very literal sense, man, in this peculiar world, is an equal actor with animal and nature spirits with whom he constantly contests and negotiates space. What the Forest Told Me offers new insights into key aspects of Yoruba culture, while providing a close appraisal of particular contexts of oral performance forms, presenting a fresh view of the poetics of oral performance. (Series: African Humanities)