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AFRICAN STORYTELLING - Master Man Play

Master Man
A Tall Tale of Nigeria

Told by Aaron Shepard

Reader’s Theater Edition #27
Adapted for reader’s theater (or readers theatre) by the author, from his picture book published by HarperCollins, New York, 2001

For more reader’s theater, visit Aaron Shepard’s RT Page at
www.aaronshep.com/rt

Story copyright © 2001 Aaron Shepard. Script copyright © 2001, 2002 Aaron Shepard. Scripts in this series are free and may be copied, shared, and performed for any noncommercial purpose, except they may not be posted online without permission.

PREVIEW: Shadusa thinks he’s the strongest man in the world—till he meets the real Master Man.

GENRE: Tall tales, folktales CULTURE: West African, Nigerian THEME: Machismo

READERS: 12 or more READER AGES: 8 and up LENGTH: 10 minutes

ROLES: Narrators 1–4, Shadusa, Shettu, Woman, Baby, Master Man, Farmer, Porter, Stranger, (Other Farmers), (Other Porters)

NOTES: This is a tale of the Hausa, the largest ethnic group of northern Nigeria. Mostly Muslim, they have lived mainly in towns and villages on the savannah. For best effect, place NARRATORS 1 and 2 at far left, and 3 and 4 at far right, as seen from the audience. BABY’s noises can be made partly while others speak. Shadusa is pronounced “sha-DOO-sa,” rhyming with “a goose a.” Shettu is pronounced “SHET-oo,” rhyming with “get two.” Wah is an African exclamation with no literal meaning.

NARRATOR 1:  Once there was a man who was strong.

AFRICAN STORYTELLING - Master Man Story

Master Man
A Tall Tale of Nigeria

Told by Aaron Shepard

Adapted for storytelling by the author, from his picture book published by HarperCollins, New York, 2001

For more resources, visit Aaron Shepard’s Storytelling Page at
www.aaronshep.com/storytelling

Copyright © 2001, 2002 Aaron Shepard. You are welcome to tell this story in live performance or broadcast, but please mention the author and the children’s book, if any.

PREVIEW: Shadusa thinks he’s the strongest man in the world—till he meets the real Master Man.

GENRE: Tall tales, folktales CULTURE: West African, Nigerian THEME: Machismo

AUDIENCE AGES: 4 and up LENGTH: 10 minutes

NOTES: This is a tale of the Hausa, the largest ethnic group of northern Nigeria. Mostly Muslim, they have lived mainly in towns and villages on the savannah. Shadusa is pronounced “sha-DOO-sa,” rhyming with “a goose a.” Shettu is pronounced “SHET-oo,” rhyming with “get two.” Wah is an African exclamation with no literal meaning.

Once there was a man who was strong.

AFRICAN STORYTELLING- Who Is Anansi?

Several of the folktales and fairy tales that we will read feature a character that is always playing tricks on other characters in the story and always fooling around.  In African folk tales and fairy tales, this trickster's name is Anansi. He appears in stories in many different forms but the two most popular are as a spider and as a human.  In the Akan dialect, which is one of the languages of the West African country Ghana, the name Anansi means spider.  Anansi is often referred to as the most important of all the West African gods.  This may be due to the fact that he is present in so many stories and because many of the tricks he pulls are on behalf of his father, the sky god Nyame.  One of the honest jobs that Anansi performs is to bring rain to the earth to stop fires.  What story or song do we know of that mentions spiders and rain?