The following are a series of Afrocentric folktales about a clever little monkey.
#1 The Monkey’s Heart
Aria, the clever little monkey, lives with her father at the top of a baobab tree. Baba warns Aria about the big bad croc but Aria’s curiosity prevails. She is peering at the croc in the lake when she falls from the tree and onto the croc’s back. She tricks the crocodile into believing the heart is the best part of a monkey to eat, and she left it home at the top of the old baobab tree. Croc allows Aria to leap back to the tree to fetch the heart and Aria instead hurls down a big juicy mango. ‘Oh, how hard is your heart, little monkey?’ roars the crocodile. In the end Croc realises he rather has a taste for mangoes.
#2 Aria and the Lion Cub
Aria, the clever little monkey, is very curious. During play with her monkey cousins, she encounters a lion cub that challenges her to a race, or else… Aria tricks lion cub Simba into believing she is running the race, but she works with her cousins who wait at the finish posts, and they all look alike to the lion cub. At the end of the race, the lion cub realises she has been outwitted, but says she doesn’t really want to eat Aria, but rather was lonely and looking for friends to play with. The story ends with the monkeys and the lion cub frolicking in the jungle.
#3 Aria, the Blinky Stars and the Water Hole
Aria, the clever little monkey, lives with her father at the top of a baobab tree. She loves the story of blinky stars. During a severe drought and Aria and Baba convince the animals to dig a water hole. Everyone participates except Jackal, who nightly steals with his clan into the water hole where they slurp and splash and dirty it. The other animals take turns to guard the water hole, but they all fall asleep, except Aria who stays awake thinking about the blinky stars. She wakes Baba on time to catch the culprits. Jackal and his family must now, alone, dig the water hole and make sure there’s enough water for everyone until the end of the drought.