Based on folk tales from the Central African country of Cameroon, Tortoise, the trickster loses his smooth, shiny shell, when one of his tricks goes awry. He has tricked the birds out of their feast, and they take revenge by taking back the feathers they had loaned him, giving him no way to return to earth, except by jumping.
The tale tells how Tortoise became king of the animals by outsmarting the other animals.
In this version of the stories, an interloper arrives to challenge Tortoise – it is Anansi, who visits from West Africa, and tells Tortoise how he was able to trick the Creator, Nyame, into giving him all the stories in the world.
The play has twelve characters, but can be played by five actors who use puppets, and double up on some of the parts.
Keywords:Â Cameroon, Anansi, Tortoise, Tricksters, Africa