Story outline

A basic outline breaks the story into episodes and is a useful way to introduce the film to an informal or formal education audience.

1. Kirikou is born and learns of the wickedness of Karaba the Sorceress. He starts to try to understand why she is so mean, but finds no answers.

A cock crows and through the trees we see the village... Inside a hut there is a pregnant woman. A voice calls, 'Mother, bring me into the world!' and a little boy gives birth to himself and declares, 'My name is Kirikou.' As he washes himself in a calabash full of water, Kirikou learns from his mother that the village has no spring since Karaba the Sorceress dried it up, and that, when all the men went to fight her, she ate them.

Only one man remains, his uncle, who is on his way to fight Karaba. When Kirikou catches up with him on the road across the savannah, his uncle sends him home. But Kirikou takes a hat from the old man talking to the children under the baobab tree and hides under it on his uncle's head. When they reach Karaba's big hut she refuses to stop her evil spells and sends her fetishes to attack the poor uncle. Each time, Kirikou warns him and he manages to defend himself with his spear.

Karaba thinks the hat is magic and she wants it. Kirikou has a plan: His uncle leaves the hat, but Kirikou runs after him hidden under the hat. A fetish chases him but by the time it has caught up with him he has made a fake hat out of leaves, which makes Karaba very angry.

Kirikou's uncle introduces him to the villagers. Kirikou asks why Karaba is so mean and wicked and the old man says, 'You're too young to understand.'

2. Karaba's fetishes burn down a hut. Kirikou saves the village children from two of Karaba's tricks.

Karaba's fetishes demand all the gold of the villagers. The women go to Karaba and kneel, while Kirikou runs up and asks her why she is mean and evil. She says, 'You're much too small to waste my time on.'

When the women return to the village, the fetishes follow them, searching for any remaining gold. They find it and set fire to the hut it was found in. The villagers cannot put out the fire because the spring has dried up. Kirikou's mother says, 'We can live without gold, but not without water or without those we love.'

She walks with Kirikou to the river to collect water. The village children are playing there, and Kirikou stays to look after them. They won't play with him 'You're too small to play with us!' When a beautiful boat arrives, Kirikou warns them to leave it, but they all jump on. Suddenly it starts to speed along the river, but Kirikou grabs a knife from a woman cutting fruit from a plant and races ahead of the boat. He jumps on board and makes a hole in the bottom so that the boat slows down and the children escape. They dance and sing, 'Kirikou's small in size, but he's very wise! Kirikou is tiny, but he is mighty!'

As they walk home they see a pretty tree. Again, Kirikou warns them to leave it alone, but they jump up into its branches which snap shut around them. As the magic tree runs on its roots towards Karaba, Kirikou grabs another knife and chops down the trunk. The children sing, 'Kirikou is brave and through him we're safe!'

Kirikou arrives home and announces to his mother that his next plan is to do something about the spring.

3. Kirikou almost drowns when he makes a hole in a monster so that the village spring will work again.

Kirikou climbs in through the entrance to the spring and crawls along a tunnel until he reaches a gloomy underground cave. There he finds a huge monster drinking all the water. Kirikou isn't sure what to do, but outside the spring he notices the poker an old woman is using to stoke a fire. He grabs it and runs back to poke a hole in the side of the monster. All the water bursts out of the monster and the cave is filled with water, which rushes through the tunnel to the outside. The old woman calls the villagers who arrive and sing and dance with joy.

Kirikou's mother asks where he is, and at that moment Kirikou pops out of the spring, apparently dead. His mother picks him up and cradles him. She starts to sing sadly, and soon they have all joined in, 'Kirikou is so brave, thanks to him we're saved. Kirikou is my friend, my friend to the end. Kirikou is very bold, with a heart of gold. Kirikou is very small, he's part of us all. Kirikou is small in size, but he's very wise. Kirikou to the end, is our little friend.' Suddenly, Kirikou coughs and his eyes open. He looks around and says, 'I did it!' As the villagers dance and sing, Karaba hears them and is very angry.

4. Kirikou's mother tells him about the Wise Man of the Mountain, who knows the Sorceress's secret. Kirikou travels to find him, underground and overground.

Kirikou is at home with his mother. She wants him to have a nap, but he is too full of questions to sleep. He still wants to know why Karaba is so horrid, but more than that, why other people are horrid he has saved the children twice and they're still not nice to him. As his mother pounds the tall wooden pestle down into the vegetables in the mortar, she says that he must accept that this is the way things are. She tells him that the only person who knows the truth about Karaba is the Wise Man of the Mountain, who is also his grandfather. Kirikou listens and thinks. He asks, 'If I had an idea, would you help?' His mother says she would.

Out on the savannah near Karaba's hut, Kirikou is hidden under his mother's skirt as she tells him that past the bushes there is the Rocky Canyon, followed by the big red termite hill in which he will find the Wise Man. She gives him his father's dagger and he dives into a burrow hole, safe from the prying eyes of Karaba's lookout fetish.

Crawling along an underground tunnel he meets a zoril which he roars at and chases way, but the zoril leaves a terrible smell which makes Kirikou run, too! Then he comes across some baby ground squirrels, which are defended by their mother. When the zoril threatens them, Kirikou pulls its tail and it lets off another terrible smell. The ground squirrels run up to ground level and Kirikou follows them. The squirrels and Kirikou make friends.

He decides that the only way to get to the other side of the mountain is in disguise, out of sight of Karaba and her lookout fetish. Dressed in leaves as a bird, he catches a lift from a hoopoe and lands in the Rocky Canyon.

5. Kirikou reaches the Wise Man and finally learns the Sorceress's secret.

On the other side of the mountain, he is chased by a warthog until he realises that it is following him by sense of smell. He jumps on the warthog's back and sits up between his ears, enjoying a rest as he approaches the red termite mound. He jumps off the warthog, holds up his dagger and runs into the mound. At first it seems empty, but then a passage appears, guarded by rows of toucans which all call out his name. A wall lifts to reveal his grandfather sitting on a high platform.

Kirikou asks all his questions, until his grandfather tells him to stop. His grandfather explains that the drinking monster wasn't Karaba's work it was a little monster which went into the cave and then got stuck. The men haven't been eaten Karaba prefers to eat yams in a spicy sauce. Karaba lets the villagers believe she is responsible for these things so that they will stay scared. She is mean because she has been in constant pain since a terrible time when some men seized her and drove a poisonous thorn into her back. The thorn gives her magic powers. The only way it can be removed is if someone pulls it out with their teeth. Kirikou says that he will do it, but first he asks to have a little rest in his grandfather's lap because being such a tiny hero can be very tiring and frightening.

6. Kirikou ends the Sorceress's pain and her magic powers. The villagers are together and happy again.

Karaba warns her fetishes to look out for Kirikou, not knowing that he is at that moment burrowing up into her hut. He sees a big basket full of the gold she has stolen and makes a hole in the bottom so that all the gold falls out. Karaba sends a serpent in after him, but Kirikou blocks one of the tunnels. Karaba is angry with her serpent and fetishes, so she takes her poisoned spear and leaves to find Kirikou herself.

As she bends over in the forest, Kirikou jumps down and pulls the thorn out of her back with his teeth. She cries out in pain, but at that moment all the flowers begin to bloom. She is amazed. She says, 'I am not suffering any more I am free! I am myself again.' She thanks Kirikou and asks if she can do anything to repay him. He asks her to marry him, but she says that he is far too young. She kisses him, and suddenly he grows into a man. They hug.

The villagers had given up on ever seeing Kirikou again, and when he appears next to the baobab tree as a man they don't believe it's him until his mother confirms it. They are too angry with Karaba to accept her into the village, however Kirikou tries to explain that she's not a sorceress any more. They run at her with knives until, just in time, all the men of the village appear, dancing as they bang their drums and carry in the Wise Man. The Wise Man says that Kirikou is right and the men had not been eaten but turned into fetishes by one of Karaba's spells. Kirikou's mother runs to hug her husband, and soon all the families are reunited.