In ancient times, when the world pulsed with magic and animals spoke the languages of wisdom, there lived a grand tradition that marked the turning of seasons and the passage of years. Once every year, in a land where the baobab trees stretched their ancient arms toward infinite skies, all the birds of the earth would undertake a magnificent journey to the heavens above.
This was no ordinary migration, but a sacred pilgrimage to mark the end of the harvest season and celebrate the completion of another year’s cycle. It was a time when the labors of planting, tending, and gathering gave way to a season of rest that stretched lazily from harvest’s end to the next farming season’s beginning.
In the celestial realm, their heavenly hosts prepared feasts of legendary proportions. The birds would indulge in rowdy celebrations that echoed across the skies, guttling mounds of delicacies and guzzling kegs of sweet wine until they were drunk with merriment and exhausted from joy. These festivals were spoken of throughout the year with anticipation and remembered long after with satisfaction.
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Now, in this particular year of our story, Torokee-the-Tortoise made a decision that would change the course of many lives. For thousands of years, he had lived harmoniously among the bird communities, sharing their territories and counting many of them as dear friends. Yet never before had he requested to join their sacred journey to the sky. This year, however, his curiosity and perhaps his growing appetite for adventure compelled him to seek an invitation to their celestial feast.
With characteristic confidence, Tortoise approached one of his closest companions, Magheb-the-Hawk, to make his unprecedented request known.
“Ha ha ha!” Hawk erupted in delighted laughter, flapping his powerful wings dramatically in Tortoise’s face. “But my friend, you have no wings! How on this earth of our ancestors do you intend to fly without feathers?”
Hawk’s amusement was genuine but not unkind. He knew Tortoise’s reputation well, after all, this was the creature who had won a race against Hare, the fastest animal in all the land. This was the trickster who had made a fool of Elephant, the largest and most powerful creature in their forests, in a legendary tug-of-war that still caused the great beast to lose sleep. Tortoise had even convinced Tiger to commit the unthinkable act of killing his own mother, then eliminated Tiger himself. Most recently, he had transformed the wealthy Pig into a pathetic, grunting creature doomed to dig the earth for the rest of his life.
“I know all of your legendary accomplishments,” Hawk continued, shaking his head in bemused admiration, “but this challenge seems impossible even for you.”
Tortoise’s eyes twinkled with the confidence of one who had never met an impossible situation. “My friend,” he replied with characteristic wisdom, “our people say that if you follow the king’s train, you will eat the head of a chicken. I will have wings. I will simply borrow feathers from all the birds.”
Hawk looked at his ambitious friend, suppressed another chuckle, shook his head in disbelief, and flew away, leaving Tortoise to contemplate the magnitude of his self-imposed challenge.
But Tortoise was never one to be deterred by skepticism. With methodical determination, he embarked on an ambitious campaign, traveling from home to home, friend to friend, nest to nest throughout their vast community. His powers of persuasion, honed through countless adventures and schemes, proved irresistible. Each bird he approached found themselves convinced to contribute a single feather to his cause.
Soon, Tortoise had accumulated quite an impressive collection, feathers of every size, color, and texture imaginable. He carried this precious bundle home to his wife, who possessed the skilled hands necessary for the delicate work ahead.
Using nleh, a powerful natural glue, Mrs. Tortoise carefully attached the assorted feathers all over her husband’s smooth shell. The transformation was remarkable, Tortoise now possessed a magnificent pair of functional wings that could actually support flight. His little head barely protruded through the elaborate bouquet of plumage that now adorned his form.
The result was so spectacular that some birds found themselves openly jealous of the beautiful patterns their own donated feathers had created on Tortoise’s shell. The intricate mosaic of colors and textures made him appear more regal than any natural bird, a living artwork that captured the eye and held it in admiration.
However, the other birds soon forgot their fascination with Tortoise’s transformation as they became absorbed in their own anxious preparations for the sacred feast. The excitement of the approaching departure consumed their attention entirely.
At last, the momentous day arrived, and all the birds assembled at gbweshi, the traditional place of gathering. The air thrummed with anticipation and the rustle of countless wings preparing for the long journey ahead.
Mashii’yeh-the-Parrot, serving as the expedition’s organizer, made a quick but thorough head count. All the birds had arrived punctually, their excitement palpable in the crisp morning air.
Before Parrot could announce that it was time to begin their celestial journey, Tortoise cleared his throat with deliberate ceremony. The unexpected sound drew every eye to his magnificently feathered form.
“Did you swallow a toad for breakfast?” Parrot teased, eliciting boisterous laughter from the assembled birds.
“Now that you mention it, I wish I had,” Tortoise replied with perfect timing, drawing even more laughter. “But I have a proposal to make. I suggest we change our names for this journey.”
The suggestion created an immediate stir of curiosity and confusion among the birds.
“Why?” inquired Toor-the-Sunbird, his tone distinctly suspicious. Sunbird had never fully trusted Tortoise and, if truth be told, envied his celebrated cunning.
“This element of surprise will intrigue and impress our hosts,” Tortoise replied with his characteristic poise and confidence. “Let’s choose names they’ve never heard before. They’ll wonder why they’ve never given such beautiful names to their own children. I’m certain our hosts will see this innovation as delightfully creative.”
The proposal divided the assembled birds. Some protested vigorously and refused to participate in what they saw as unnecessary complications. Others, however, agreed that it was indeed an intriguing idea. Many viewed it as a playful addition to their festive journey, after all, weren’t they traveling to the sky specifically to enjoy themselves?
Nchanewe-the-Clockbird, the dedicated keeper of time who rose early each morning to enjoy the sweet fragrance of waking buds, quickly chose the name “Flower.” Ghane-the-Swallow followed this example, selecting “Arrow” for his incredible speed. Mashii’nki-the-Kingfisher, the sleek waterbird known for his healthy appetite, baffled everyone by choosing “Long-Throat,” though the name seemed to suit his well-known love of food.
When his turn came, Tortoise announced quietly but clearly, “My name shall be ‘All-of-You.'”
This declaration produced mixed reactions among the birds. Some laughed at what they considered a ridiculous choice, others looked nervous without quite understanding why, some scoffed and berated him for such a seemingly meaningless name, while still others simply shrugged it away as another of Tortoise’s harmless eccentricities.
When all the birds who wished to participate had chosen their temporary new identities, the great flock took flight, rising together into the endless blue sky. Their wings created a magnificent symphony of sound as they climbed higher and higher toward their celestial destination.
Their heavenly hosts welcomed this gregarious group of guests with warmth that rivaled the sun itself. Comfortable seats were provided, and the traditional greetings began immediately.
“Have you arrived safely?” their hosts inquired with genuine concern. “Welcome, welcome!” they enthused with obvious joy. “How was your journey? Are your relatives at home in good health? How was the harvest this year? We hope no storm clouds troubled your flight.”
The guests joined enthusiastically in the cheerful conversation and good-natured chitchat. While some hosts engaged the visitors in pleasant dialogue about their families and communities, others hauled out enormous basins loaded with Herculean proportions of assorted foods, placing them with ceremonial flourish before their honored guests.
The visiting birds were visibly impressed by the spectacular spread before them. Their hosts had prepared an incredible variety of dishes: achu, koki, jollof rice, rice and beans, fufu corn, rich meat stews, food was abundant that year, and every dish seemed more tempting than the last.
With the tables magnificently set and the feast laid out in all its glory, the birds prepared to quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger after their long journey. But just as they were about to begin eating, Tortoise loudly cleared his throat, commanding the attention of every creature present.
The excited rustle of feathers gradually quieted as all eyes turned toward him. Tortoise cleared his throat once again with deliberate ceremony.
“Before we begin this magnificent feast,” he inquired with seeming innocence, “may I ask for whom this wonderful food has been prepared?”
“For all of you,” the hosts replied in perfect unison, their voices warm with hospitality and generosity.
Tortoise looked solemnly around the gathering, made himself even more comfortable in his seat, and calmly began to eat. He consumed the food without haste, with deliberate, methodical precision. The more slowly and deliberately he ate, the angrier and more frustrated the other birds became.
Tortoise helped himself generously from one dish after another while the others sat in stunned silence, watching their feast disappear before their eyes. Their hosts observed this strange behavior with growing confusion. Why was this magnificently feathered bird eating alone while his companions waited respectfully?
Since they had never seen such unusual plumage in their celestial realm, the hosts concluded that this creature must be the earthly birds’ king, a leader who possessed the ceremonial honor of eating first while his subjects waited respectfully for him to complete his royal meal. Different peoples have different customs, they reasoned, and continued to watch Tortoise consume what had been intended as a communal feast.
At last, Tortoise requested water to wash his hands, released a loud, satisfied belch, reclined comfortably in his chair, and began picking his teeth with the tip of his tongue. There was barely anything left of the magnificent spread that had greeted them upon arrival.
The other birds grudgingly fought over Tortoise’s meager leavings while their host snored contentedly, his belly full and his scheme perfectly executed.
And so, at the conclusion of what was supposed to have been an end-of-year festival of shared gluttony and communal indulgence, the birds thanked their confused hosts and departed for their long journey back to earth, their stomachs empty and their hearts filled with bitter resentment.
As soon as they were safely out of earshot of their hosts, a fierce quarrel erupted among the traveling party.
“I was suspicious the moment he asked us to change our names,” Nshee-the-Weaverbird flared up with righteous anger.
“You’re absolutely right, Weaverbird,” agreed Mashii’mbaa-the-Palmbird with bitter frustration. “I don’t understand why we ever allowed that crook to accompany us. He completely ruined what should have been our most joyous festival of the year.”
Membenke-the-Crow did not waste time listening to the growing litany of complaints. As far as she was concerned, this yearly feast was their private paradise, their sacred Xanadu, and Tortoise had irreversibly tarnished their enthusiasm for future celebrations.
Without further discussion, she deftly pulled her contributed feather from Tortoise’s elaborate shell and flew away, her black wings carrying her swiftly toward home and away from the object of her disgust.
One by one, following Crow’s decisive example, the other birds approached Tortoise and reclaimed their donated feathers. Each retrieval left his shell a little more bare, his magnificent disguise a little more threadbare.
Tortoise had anticipated that there might be some trouble following his successful deception, but the possibility of losing his borrowed wings had never seriously crossed his calculating mind. Soon his shell was completely naked, stripped of every feather that had enabled his flight.
He looked down at his bare, exposed shell and felt genuine panic for perhaps the first time in his long life of successful schemes and narrow escapes. What could he possibly do now, suspended in the sky with no means of reaching earth safely?
But Tortoise had not survived countless adventures by dwelling on his misfortunes. His agile mind immediately began working on a solution to his seemingly impossible predicament.
He approached his old friend Hawk with a humble request. “Please carry a message to my wife,” Tortoise implored with uncharacteristic desperation. “Tell her to put all the soft things we own outside in the nsaa so that I might have a safe landing.”
But Hawk, still angry about the ruined feast and Tortoise’s betrayal of their friendship, declined coldly to carry any message and flew off toward earth without a backward glance.
Tortoise spoke desperately to each of the other departing birds, but they all refused his requests with varying degrees of anger and disgust. Finally, when hope was nearly extinguished, Parrot offered to deliver the message.
However, when Parrot arrived at Tortoise’s home and stood before Mrs. Tortoise, he delivered a very different message than the one he had been asked to carry.
“Your husband requests that you put all the hard objects you own out in the yard,” Parrot announced with apparent sincerity.
Mrs. Tortoise looked at the colorful messenger with concern. “How is my husband faring on his journey?” she inquired.
Parrot regarded her kindly and replied, “Oh, he is quite well. He ate perhaps a bit too much at the feast and couldn’t keep pace with the rest of us on the return journey. He will be home soon enough, I’m sure.”
Mrs. Tortoise thanked Parrot gratefully and offered him some palm nuts as a token of her appreciation. Parrot accepted her hospitality graciously and flew away, leaving her to carry out what she believed were her husband’s instructions.
Left alone with her task, Mrs. Tortoise dutifully filled the nsaa with everything they owned that was hard and unforgiving: her heavy mortar and pestle, the grinding stones, sharp cutlasses, iron pots and pans, farming hoes, in short, everything they possessed that was anything but soft.
High above in the sky, Tortoise waited and waited, watching hopefully for some sign that his message had been received and acted upon. Finally, seeing no alternative and trusting in his wife’s compliance, he closed his eyes, said a prayer to the ancestors, and jumped from the celestial realm, beginning his long fall toward earth.
He fell and fell and fell through the endless sky, his shell cutting through the air like a stone dropped from a great height. People say that for the first and only time in his remarkably eventful life, Tortoise was genuinely stunned when he struck the nsaa with tremendous force.
His beautiful shell, polished smooth by countless years of careful maintenance, shattered instantly upon impact. The pieces scattered dramatically all over their compound, creating a scene of destruction that would have broken any observer’s heart.
Tortoise lay in absolute agony, his entire body lacerated and wracked with excruciating pain unlike anything he had ever experienced in his long life of adventures and misadventures.
Mrs. Tortoise, horrified by the catastrophic result of what she had believed were her husband’s own instructions, searched frantically throughout their compound. One by one, with tears streaming down her face, she recovered all the scattered pieces of her husband’s once-magnificent shell.
She carried her grievously injured husband to the renowned healer, Noghnegheb-the-Chameleon, whose skill in mending broken things was legendary throughout their region.
Chameleon employed every technique in his vast arsenal of healing knowledge, working with the dedication of one who understood that this was no ordinary patient but a creature whose story would be told for generations. Even so, it required six complete moon cycles for Tortoise’s terrible wounds to heal sufficiently for him to return home.
With infinite patience and masterful skill, Chameleon glued Tortoise’s shell back together piece by painstaking piece, creating a patchwork that would serve its function but would never again possess its original smooth perfection.
It is from this catastrophic incident that Tortoise lost forever the smooth perfection of his shell. The birds, when they tell this story, say that this permanent disfigurement serves as his eternal punishment, Tortoise will never regain the flawless beauty he once possessed.
For once in his long career of elaborate schemes and narrow escapes, the master trickster truly never saw his comeuppance coming.
Moral Lesson
This folktale teaches us that cleverness used selfishly ultimately leads to our own downfall. Tortoise’s greed and deception not only robbed his friends of their sacred feast but also cost him his physical perfection and the trust of his community forever. It reminds us that intelligence and cunning are gifts that should serve the community, not exploit it, and that those who betrayray trust will eventually face consequences they cannot scheme their way out of.
Knowledge Check
Q1: What does the annual sky feast represent in this African folktale’s cultural context? A: The sky feast represents sacred community celebration marking seasonal transitions and shared abundance. It symbolizes the rewards of collective labor and the importance of communal joy, making Tortoise’s individual greed a violation of fundamental social values.
Q2: How does Tortoise’s name choice “All-of-You” demonstrate his trickster cleverness? A: By choosing “All-of-You,” Tortoise creates a linguistic trap that allows him to claim all the food when hosts say it’s “for all of you.” This shows the trickster’s ability to manipulate language and social customs, turning hospitality into personal advantage through wordplay.
Q3: Why do the birds reclaim their feathers instead of simply punishing Tortoise directly? A: Reclaiming their feathers represents the community withdrawing support from those who betray trust. This collective action shows how communities naturally respond to exploitation, by removing the very cooperation that enabled the betrayal in the first place.
Q4: What cultural significance does Tortoise’s cracked shell hold as permanent punishment? A: The permanently cracked shell serves as a visible reminder that some consequences of betrayal cannot be undone. In African oral tradition, physical marks often represent moral lessons, ensuring the story’s message is literally embodied for future generations to see.
Q5: How does Parrot’s message reversal reflect the theme of justice in this folktale? A: Parrot’s deliberate message reversal represents cosmic justice, the community ensuring that Tortoise faces consequences for his betrayal. It shows how moral violations create conditions where even former allies participate in delivering appropriate punishment.
Q6: What role does Mrs. Tortoise’s obedience play in the story’s moral framework? A: Mrs. Tortoise’s faithful obedience to what she believes are her husband’s instructions demonstrates how innocent trust can become part of justice. Her actions show that moral consequences often involve those closest to us, extending the impact of our choices beyond ourselves.
