Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Many of the stories told in the novel, including Tracker’s, are lies. The strongest example of this appears in the different versions of the boy’s story that circulate and recirculate. The reception of these stories—acceptance or rejection—also varies. At one point, Leopard “feed[s] on [Bunshi’s] story like someone starving, or like someone glutting” (165); this story was not the complete truth, but what he wanted to hear.

James’s frame narrative—the interrogation—explicitly mentions the relationship between stories and truth: Tracker says, “What you wanted was testimony, but what you really wanted was a story, is it not true? [...] Truth is just another story” (523). The Inquisitor is comparing his story with other testimonies; at the end of the novel, Tracker asks about “another story,” Sogolon’s story. Discovering the truth is choosing which story to believe.

In addition to the Inquisitor requesting stories, some monsters require stories, but evaluate them based on how entertaining or moving they are. Kamikwayo will only release Tracker from his spiderweb if he tells a story. Tracker interrupts the story of Lissisolo’s son (the most recirculated story in the novel) with the phrase, “But that is not the story” (588), multiple times.