An African lullaby in Swahili and English in which a little boy says good night to all the animals and ends with his mother.
Lala Salama
Tanzania
Materials from Tanzania
Lala Salama
A mother relates the events of a peaceful day along the banks of Lake Tanganyika to her baby, wrapped up and ready for sleep.
Only The Mountains Do Not Move
Nobody can say he is settled anywhere forever;
it is only the mountains which do not move from their places.
So goes a Maasai proverb, and so goes the lives of the Maasai in Africa. For hundreds of years they have moved with their herds of cattle and goats across thousands of miles in Kenya and Tanzania.
Today the Maasai face new challenges. Their traditional way of life is threatened, lands are overgrazed, and wildlife is in danger. Maasai tribes are meeting these obstacles head-on adapting their lives and agricultural practices while keeping their vibrant, close-knit culture alive.
Award-winning author-photographer Jan Reynolds presents a striking glimpse of these dynamic people. Only the Mountains Do Not Move shows one Maasai tribe’s remarkable ability to forge a delicate balance between the richness of the past and the needs of the future.
Handa’s Hen
Every morning, Handa, a young girl from the Luo tribe, feeds breakfast to Mondi, her grandma’s black hen. This morning, however, Mondi is nowhere to be seen. So Handa and her friend Akeyo set off on a hunt, coming upon two fluttery butterflies, three stripy mice, four little lizards, five beautiful sunbirds, and many more intriguing creatures. But where could Mondi be? Is that a faint cheeping they hear under the bush? Might Mondi have a surprise in store (or maybe even ten of them)?
The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks
In this retelling of a Masai tale, a mongoose helps an ostrich get her chicks back from the lonely lioness who has stolen them.
Peering down from her treetop perch, a lonely lioness admires the noisily cheeping clan of Mother Ostrich and thinks, “I would be happy to have just one child.” So she leaps down, gurum! and steals all four ostrich chicks. Accepting the lioness as their mother, the chicks follow right behind he. Mother Ostrich is frantic! As she chases after the lioness, she enlists the help of gazelle, hyena, jackal, and mongoose.
Sungura and Leopard: A Swahili Trickster Tale
A small but clever hare and a fierce leopard agree to share a house, but as the hare’s family grows, he realizes that he must find a way to get rid of his bad-tempered neighbor.
What the Animals Were Waiting For
Cowbells tinkle. And over there, a family of elephants munches on dry grass, flaps huge ears like slow fans, and waits. It is a time of waiting. The gazelles, the wildebeest and the zebras are all waiting. The lions, too, and the crocodiles are waiting. Little Tepi watches the animals and wonders what is coming. Soon there will be rain, and food for everyone! In simple, stirring verse, this stunningly illustrated picture book tells the story of the dramatic cycles of life on the Masai Mara range in Africa — one of the last great, wild places on Earth.
Shadow Dance
When the crocodile she has rescued tricks her, little Salome must use some cunning of her own to escape becoming his next meal.
Song Bird
An adaptation of a folktale from southern Africa, in which a magical bird helps a kind young girl get back her people’s stolen cattle from Makucha the monster.
Ananse’s Feast: An Ashanti Tale
Unwilling to share his feast, Ananse the spider tricks Akye the turtle so that he can eat all the food himself, but Akye finds a way to get even.