The Big Five – Africa vs. Toto

Toto is a fictional character created by the American author Louis L’Amour. He was described as a small, silver-haired child who lived with his cousin near the village of Kigali on the eastern coast of Kenya. At six years of age he was taken away from his mother and sisters and sent to live with his uncle, a vet, in a nearby village. From this point in his life he was moved frequently, first to a boarding school in Nairobi, then to an orphanage in Mombasa. Eventually, after a spell in Mombasa, he was returned to Kigali with his cousins to live there.

Because his name was already in the public domain, several articles were written about him and his experiences in Kigali. Eventually a book was published under the title ‘Tuto the Little Tail of Kigali’. The book describes how toto escaped from a reformatory and later worked with Mumbiya, a gorilla trainer, learning to speak and practice gorilla sign language. It also includes a game called Totonato, played with him. Finally it describes the way in which toto acquired a second name, Toti, from an American called Frank Terminelli who had the same surname as his friend, Gikuyu.

The book concludes with a description of how toto’s case was settled and the winning prize given to him. At first Tuto was not very happy to accept the prize, but he eventually did. The case was heard by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNECSO), an agency that helps maintain and enhance world culture, education, science and technology for the benefit of mankind. At the conclusion of the article it was agreed that Tuto should continue to live at his farm at Mombasa. However he was told that should he wish to travel to the wilds of Ngorongoro Crater to hunt some wild gorillas he would need to apply for and obtain an additional number of permit to accompany his family.

In accordance with the rules of the tournament the winning species were chosen. On hearing the news of the event the millions of visitors in Singapore were glued to their television sets waiting anxiously for the next stage of the struggle between Toto and Mumbi to become the first ever pair to grace the Big Five music chart. At the conclusion of the episode, Toto was declared the new king of the jungle. The show concluded with Toto, accompanied by Mumbi and Mpeko walking over to the stage where the awards were presented.

At the opening ceremony for the tournament, The Big Five Music Awards was opening with Dr. Ken Saro-Wiatt reading out the following message to the assembled audience; “The winner of this year’s contest has been awarded a grand prize of fifty million dollars. There are still two more days of competitions left. We expect that the prize pool will continue to increase as people vote for their favourite toones”.

Following the presentation of the trophies to Toa, Mr. Arthur Lim Siow Jin joined the crowd to bid him well and wished him luck. “It is a great feeling, actually. I am so happy and fortunate to have reached this level and I thank everybody for their help and support. Now I just have to wait for my turn to present my trophies to Toa,” Toa stated, while he grabbed his award and held it above his head. The crowd then broke out into hearty laughter as Toa presented his first official trophy to Mumbi – the second of the day.