My post on ZIFF was the longest I’ve posted thus far, but it should have been longer. I completely forgot about my favorite part of the festival…though I think you will understand how I forgot it after typing about all of those serious films. Get ready for:
Tinga Tinga Tales: I’m not gonna lie, this was a kid’s TV show. Getting its name from the style of drawing that many locals favor in their paintings of scenes of African plains and their inhabitants, Tinga Tinga Tales has a large host of animal characters and each episode explains how an animal got its distinguishing characteristic (based on folklore). Did I mention that the entire show is in Kiswahili?! Yes, it is that amazing; even if I couldn’t quite understand the details of each story. Here are some of the stories Alison, Nida, Yu-Jin and myself saw (they played two every night before the main films began):
How the giraffe got its long neck (and legs?): The giraffe was super hungry for something sweet, so it stuck its head in a bee’s nest in the hole of a tree….but then it got stuck. Apparently, many years passed and the tree grew taller and taller and stretched the neck of the giraffe. Eventually, the animals collaborated, and grabbing onto all four of its legs pulled the girafe out of the tree!
How the giraffe got its long neck
How the elephant got its trunk: The elephant was super dirty and flies were bothering it all the time. It wanted to bathe in the drinking pool, but the other animals wouldn’t let it. The elephant sadly laid by the pool and fell asleep. That night the crocodile saw the elephant’s stub of a nose (thought it was something to eat?) and snapped at it and pulled. All of the animals woke up and grabbed the tail of the elephant and pulled and pulled until they finally freed the elephant…and this is how its nose stretched out so long. Conveniently, this new nose was the perfect bathing device and the elephant was able to draw water from the drinking pool, bathe his nasty body, and rid himself of all flies!
The elephant's first shower
Why the hippo has no hair: The hippo was super hot in the African sun, but it had loads of hair all over its body! It lay (out of the shade) complaining about the heat while everyone else had fun swimming in the drinking pool. I think they didn’t want the hippo to join them because they thought it would eat the fish? One night, the animals were around a camp fire (??) and when they fell asleep for the night the hippo’s tail caught on fire and very soon all of the hippo’s hair was in flames! The hippo screamed and ran to the drinking pool, and discovered its body was bald from the incident. The other animals told the hippo they were okay with it dwelling in the water as long as it opened its mouth regularly to prove that it was not eating the fish.
How the lion got its roar: The animals were super frustrated because the crocodile was hogging the entire drinking pool. Every time one approached the bank, the crocodile would snap at it. The animals had no idea what to do, and they pleaded with the lion (along with a personal, ear-whispering flea!)…but the lion was extremely apathetic (or nervous), and so he could not produce more than a mere quiet request to the devious reptile. Somehow, the lion ended up near a cave and was talking to his flea friend when he heard another voice speak to him from the inside the cave (you can be sure this was his echo). He asked “Who are you?” and when asked the same he replied “I am the king of all, who are you?” This kept repeating this louder and louder as he moved further and further into the cave, and soon he had reached the back of the cave and found himself roaring at himself! What a motivating moment! The lion quickly returned to the drinking pool, completely surprised the crocodile with the scariest roar ever (“I AM THE KING OF ALL, WHO ARE YOU?!?”), and opened up the pool for all the animals to enjoy!
[Many thanks to Maddy for the sporadic translation. Maddy is Yu-Jin’s Stone Town roommate from Oregon who studied at the University of Dar es Salaam last semester and has been teaching English and Geography in a secondary school here on Zanzibar for five months. She has been great for perspective and deeper knowledge that is hard to find from either English-speaking Zanzibarians or Westerners who don’t know much Swahili/have not lived here long.]
Why the woodpecker pecks wood: The African plain was super dark, since the stars and moon did not exist yet (??). None of the animals knew what to do, but this cute little bird (who couldn’t talk, but when it tried to an adorable flute sound accompanied its attention-seeking flapping of its wings) eventually flew high into the sky and pecked at the darkness until slivers of light shown down. It did this many many times and also did a large circle, creating the stars and the moon. The animals were so excited that they could see at night, and wanted to know who did this miraculous deed! The tiny bird eventually got their attention, and demonstrated its secret to them on the trunk of a tree: peck peck peck!
To get more Tinga Tinga Tales, visit their website…but don’t get your hopes up since it isn’t the ultimate edition, aka. in Kiswahili.
