Tricksters. More African Tortoise Tales

Since the Igbo and Edo stories that I shared in yesterday's post were collected over a century ago, I wanted to be sure to share a more contemporary project. This is not focused on Tortoise stories per se, but it's no surprise that Tortoise shows up in this wonderful collection of stories from the African Women's Network in Dublin, Ireland... and yes, it's got a very long title even though it is just a very short book: Horses and Tortoises and Rabbits and Elephants and Birds and Hippos and Lions and Sisters and Frogs and Dogs and Hares and Jackals and Murder: Stories From Africa.

There are ten stories here, written and illustrated by members of the collective, which are intended for use in elementary schools so that Irish children can learn about African and also for African children living in Ireland to celebrate their heritage, thus furthering the goal of this organization: "a just society where there is equal opportunity and equal access to resources in all aspects of society: social, cultural, economic, civic, and political." Most, but not all, of the stories are animal stories, and each story has its country of provenance along with the name of the storyteller for that particular story. Of the ten stories here, two are about Tortoise: The Tortoise and the Hare and The Birds' Party, and each of those comes from a storyteller in Kenya. 

Because we read this book recently for Anansi Book Club, you can find out more in that post about the Tortoise stories and about the other stories in the book too.

Both of these are very well known Tortoise stories. To win his race against the faster animal, Tortoise uses a trick; usually he uses other Tortoises to stand in for him along the race-course, but in this version of the story he uses a different trick.

As for the story of the Tortoise and the birds' party, you can find another wonderful version in Tololwa Mollel's The Flying Tortoise (which I blogged about in the previous Tortoise week a couple months ago), and also in this version by a Bemba storyteller in Zambia (Helen Nde shared this one in a Twitter space recently): Why Tortoise's Shell is Cracked. This is from Lisa Grainger's book Stories Gogo Told Me, with illustrations by Celia von Poncet:

And there are other Tortoise stories in that book too: Why Crocodile Has No Tongue (a story told by Gcina Mhlophe!), The Race Between Hare and Tortoise (this version uses the substitution trick), The Incredible Mr. Tortoise, and The Forbidden Fruit.

So, while Tortoise is a predominant trickster in some western African traditions, you can find him in other places in Africa too, as in these southern and eastern African tales. Enjoy! And I'll be back with more Tortoise tricks tomorrow.

Stories Gogo Told Me

by Lisa Grainger

Horses and Tortoises and Rabbits and Elephants

and Birds and Hippos and Lions
and Sisters and Frogs and Dogs and Hares
and Jackals and Murder: Stories from Africa