Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore Tales - Robert Hamill Nassau

So the Antelope Tribe had to acknowledge, “Yes, you, Kudu, have surpassed our champion. It’s a great shame to us; for, we had not supposed that a slow fellow such as we thought you to be, could possibly do it, or be able to out-run a Mbalanga.”

So the Council decided that, of all the tribes of animals, Tortoise was to be held as greatest; for, that it had out-run Antelope. And the Animals gave Tortoise the power to rule.