Ti Malice is a

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

character and nemesis of Tonton (Uncle) Bouki in Haitian folklore. While Ti Malice is smart and guileful, Uncle Bouki is hardworking but is also very greedy. It is the manipulation of this greed that allows Ti Malice to often get the best of Uncle Bouki. These characters are said to be a split of

Anansi Anansi or Ananse ( ; literally translates to ''spider'') is a character in Akan religion and folklore associated with stories, wisdom, knowledge, and trickery, most commonly depicted as a spider. Anansi is a character who reflects the culture ...

, the trickster character of the Ashanti of

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. Bouki and Malice have their origins in African

oral traditions Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reporte ...

. In

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

and neighbouring countries, these two characters appear in animal form. Bouki is represented as a

hyena Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the sma ...

, which is called "Bouki" in the

Fulani The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, ...

and

Wolof Wolof or Wollof may refer to: * Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...

languages, while Malice is a

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores and live Solitary animal, solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are precociality, able to fend for themselves ...

called "Leuk" in Senegal. From there, character traits develop that identify the two companions. Bouki, the hungry and skinny hyena and Leuk, the hare with a mischievous character and legendary cunning. Two equivalent figures, also a hyena known as Bouki and a hare (called Lapin), are known to exist in Louisiana folktales.

References

External links

Jacques Stephen-Alexis retelling of Bouki and Malice
Haitian mythology Storytelling Trickster gods {{Folklore-stub Caribbean legendary creatures