Long time ago when it was believed that animals could speak and there were no existence of human beings, there existed an animal kingdom called Songa. The kingdom was ruled by King Simba alongside other officials like General Kiboko, Commissioner Chui, Governor Ndovu and many others.

In that kingdom, there were two great friends, the Tortoise and Weaver bird. They lived together in the same house and even they shared food and could sometime go searching for food together. It could occur that if the weaver bird looked for food one day, the tortoise would look for food the day after.

However, tortoise had friends who would mislead him. His friends were hyena and rabbit. These are the friends who made the tortoise to become rude. It could occur that sometimes they would make the tortoise face punishments from king Simba for the problem they themselves had made like stealing.

It was just lately that rabbit and hyena were walking in the forest when they saw gazelle, who was from his shamba and had just harvested carrot. They went and beat up gazelle and stole his food and went with it away. Later that day, they went to the king and reported that it was the tortoise who did that. Tortoise was then called and punished.

On a certain day, the weaver bird told the tortoise that he would be going for a business meeting with his colleagues and he would be coming back late. Therefore the tortoise should leave some food for him. He agreed and on that day, the tortoise had brought home meat as their food.

Because the food was in excess, the tortoise invited his friends so that they could share. During that time, they had a great supper full of laughter. The tortoise then realized that the food was almost finished and he did not leave some food for weaver bird. He took the remaining food and because his friends were greedy, they wanted to finish the food.

They therefore thought of a trick. They told the tortoise that the weaver bird was not a good friend and in fact the meeting he went, they are planning on how to send you away from the kingdom. However, what they were telling him was not true. Due to that, the tortoise got angry and they finished the food for the weaver bird.

Later that night when they had finished and the hyena and rabbit had already gone to their house, the weaver bird came home very tired and hungry. He found the tortoise snoring. He then went to the kitchen to look for food and found none. When he saw that tortoise had cooked meat, one of his favorite meals, he got angry and planned on how to avenge.

The next day in the morning, weaver bird came to the tortoise and told him that he will fly him over the air so that the tortoise would see how kingdom Songa was very beautiful. The tortoise got amazed and got ready for the evening to reach. He did not know what weaver bird had planned for him.

In the evening, the weaver bird carried the tortoise on his back and flew up the sky. The tortoise became excited and happy. They flew allover the kingdom until dark approached. The weaver bird went over to a rocky place. He then reminded tortoise what he did last night. Tortoise tried to beg but just then, weaver bird let loose of tortoise.

Tortoise fell with a bang on the rocks. His hard shell broke into pieces and tortoise flesh could be seen. Because no one could attach the pieces, a magician was called to attach them. That is why tortoise had a rough shell to this day. The weaver bird then went to live with his fellow birds and tortoise was left to live alone.