Reading Room

Celebrating African heritage

In celebration of South Africa’s National Book Month during October, as well as recent Heritage Day celebrations in September; we thought we’d share some of our favourite African Tales for you to enjoy – young and old. These tales have been extracted from “When Lion Could Fly and Other Tales from Africa”. Read and enjoy the first of twelve free tales below:

We’ll be sharing these tales every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so plan your nightly reading schedules accordingly 🙂

The Elephant and the Rain

Read a tale about how animals, and in particular, a proud arrogant elephant, learnt about the importance of rain.

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The Kindly Aardvark – How Elephants Got Their Tusks

Read a tale about how elephants got their tusks and warthogs got shelter due to kind aardvarks.

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Why The Giraffe Has a Long Neck

Read a tale about why giraffes effortlessly and elegantly tower over the rest of the animal kingdom.

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How Zebras Got Their Stripes

Not all super heroes wear capes; some of them wear stripes… Read about how Zebras got their stripes in our next story.

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When Hippo Was Hairy

You know what really sets us apart from hippos? Their stylish fur coat of course. And here’s how they lost them.

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Monkey’s Heart

This tale, from the Swahili of East Africa, is about a clever monkey who outwitted a shark to keep his heart.

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Why Mongoose Eats Snakes

A tale about how mongoose and secretary bird were friends until a devious snake tried to ruin the friendship.

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Why Guinea Fowl Calls at Dawn

We bet you thought that lions and cheetah’s were the coolest animals in all the land? And we do agree; they are pretty cool. But they don’t get the sun to rise every morning, do they?”

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