Brer (Brother) Rabbit is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahamians and Turks and Caicos Islanders.
He is a trickster who succeeds by his wits rather than by brawn, provoking authority figures and bending social mores as he sees fit.
He’s one of the secondary references for Takuan, who also relies on his wits and provokes all sort of authorities from city guard to governors to princes.
Popular adaptations of the character, originally recorded by Joel Chandler Harris in the 19th century, include Walt Disney Productions’s ‘Song of the South’ in 1946.
In a detailed study of the sources of Joel Chandler Harris’s ‘Uncle Remus’ stories, Florence Baer identified 140 stories with African origins, 27 stories with European origins, and 5 stories with Native American origins.
The Brer Rabbit stories can be traced back to trickster figures in Africa, particularly the hare that figures prominently in the storytelling traditions in West, Central, and Southern Africa. Among the Temne people in Sierra Leone, they tell children stories of a talking rabbit.
However, Cherokee culture also has stories about a trickster rabbit, and Brer Rabbit as a collective narrative is most likely an amalgam of both African and Cherokee cultures.