The Tortoise Had a Plan

African animal fables retold with drums and laughter

Baraka Odhiambo2 episodes2 min of audio9 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Oct 12, 20260:542 plays Preview

The Hare, the Hyena and the Honey Tree

Hare promises Hyena all the honey in the baobab if he will wait quietly below. A Luo fable about patience, trickery and why Hyena still laughs at night.

S1 · E1May 31, 20260:517 plays Members

Why the Tortoise Has a Cracked Shell

The birds invite Tortoise to a feast in the sky and he borrows a feather from each of them. Greed, a very long fall, and the reason every tortoise shell looks stitched together.

About the show

Across Africa, the tortoise is the one who thinks, the hare is the one who hurries, and the hyena never quite gets his dinner. Baraka Odhiambo grew up hearing these fables from his grandmother in Kisumu, and now he retells them for children aged five to ten, with a hand drum, a kalimba and plenty of animal voices. Every episode is one complete fable, 15 to 20 minutes long, followed by a short chat about what the animals could have done differently. Baraka tells stories from Luo, Kikuyu, Yoruba, Akan, Zulu and Amharic traditions and always names where each one comes from. The show is made for family listening on school mornings, car journeys and the last half hour before bed. New fables come out every Thursday, and listeners' own endings, sent in as voice notes, are read out once a month.

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