The article presents the main features of cohesion and coherence in African fairytales. The authors of the study examine the socio-cultural and linguistic specificity of African writers’ texts, namely the expression of the main means of cohesion through rhythm, lexical cohesion, substitution and ellipsis. The article also emphasizes the special role of fairytales in getting to know and penetrating into a well- or little known culture as they constitute textual material that reflects the traditions, mythology, literature, etc. of the country. The main objective of the study was to examine the linguistic and structural specificity of African fairytales on the material of post-colonial Nigerian literature for children (Chinua Achebe and John Iroaganachi’s “How the Leopard Got His Claws”) and Ivorian fairytales by Bernard Dadier’s (the collection “African Legends”) from the point of view of the concepts of cohesion and coherence, which provide not only the cohesion and interaction of meanings, but also a certain unity in the means of their creation. The main result of the undertaken research was the identification of the most frequent means of cohesion and coherence of the text of fairytales. The authors conclude that C. Achebe and J. Iroaganachi often resort to parallel structures and lexical repetition as well as lexical cohesion, which helps the writers to teach children how to use conversion, metaphor, and personification. In Bernard Dadié’s fairytales, cohesion as a conceptual and linguistic unity is achieved through non-extended homogeneous elements and diacope. Climax and climactic repetition, reduplication, and anadiplosis are not used as actively. However, these expressive means often contribute to the imagery created by the author.