The Clever Monkey: A Folktale from West Africa (Story Cove)

This trickster monkey from Africa will teach readers the importance of sharing and trustworthiness.

The Clever Monkey is a classic folktale from West Africa told by Rob Cleveland. One day two greedy jungle cats discover a large piece of cheese. They want to share the piece of cheese but cannot decide how they can divide it fairly. A very clever little monkey loves cheese as well and when he sees the two cats arguing over the cheese, he uses this opportunity to trick the jungle cats into allowing him to eat practically all of the cheese. Unfortunately for the two cats, they never realize that they were completely tricked by a very clever monkey.

This story comes from Africa. Variants of it ban be found among Brer Rabbit tales, with Brer Rabbit in the role of the monkey and Brer Fox in the role of the lion. There is a similar story in Native American folklore entitled, "How Rabbit Fooled Wolf." Rob Cleveland is storyteller-in-residence at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia and is the author of several Story Cove books.