People in the performance . . .

Marthinus Basson - Director
Marthinus Basson started his theatrical career in the 1974 at the Cape Performing Arts Board as propsmaker and as actor/stage-manager at The Space Theatre, both in Cape Town. Since 1985 he has established himself as a 
director and designer and has worked in most genres ranging from Community Theatre to Opera. His recent work includes Why are those that toyi-toyi in front always so fat? by Antjie Krog; Johnny Cockroach by Breyten Breytenbach; Fall of the House of Usher and Boks for ARCA in Gent, Belgium; six operas for the Spier Summer Festival, a contemporary interpretation of William Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona for the 2002/2003 Maynardville season in Cape Town and the tango operita Maria de Buenos Aires for the 2004 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. 
 
Basson, who currently lectures at the Drama Dartment of the University of Stellenbosch , serves on the committee of the National Arts Festival. He is also a founder of Vleis, Rys & Aartappels, a theatre venture focusing on new writing, staging contemporary international work, performance art and community work. As part of this venture, he directed and designed 3 new plays by Belgian playwrights, Aars! and Romeo and Julia by Peter Verhelst and Mamma Medea by Tom Lanoye.
 
Mervyn Millar - Assistant Director
Mervyn is a theatre director and puppet designer from London, UK. Specialist puppetry direction in the UK includes work for the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, West Yorkshire Playhouse and BAC, as well as five installation/theatre pieces for his company wireframe (www.wireframe.org.uk). His puppets have also been seen internationally in productions by theatre-rites and Trestle. He was supported in his visit to Handspring by a Professional Development Bursary from the Arts Council of England.
 
Khephra Burns - Playwright

Handspring Puppet Company 
When it was formed in 1981, Handspring Puppet Company initially focused on creating plays for children. This changed in 1985 when they produced their first play for adults, Episodes of an Easter Rising, which was an unanticipated success both in South Africa and at the triennial international puppetry festival in Charleville-Mézičres, France. On returning to South Africa they staged A Midsummer Night´s Dream (1986/87) the first production in which puppets and actors interact, a device which has become an important part of their style. Tooth and Nail, which followed in 1989, used actors and life-size puppets. Their first major international success came in 1991 when Starbrites, a fable about renewal, directed by Barney Simon, performed for six weeks in London. 
 
In 1992, with Woyzeck on the Highveld, Handspring began the first of many collaborations with the artist William Kentridge – combining puppets and film animation. Since then they have performed widely at festivals in Europe and America with plays such as Faustus in Africa, Ubu and the Truth Commission, Confessions of Zeno, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse (all with Kentridge) as well as The Chimp Project. They have appeared at major festivals such as Festival d’Avignon (twice), Festival d’Automne (where they performed at the Pompidou Centre in Paris), and in theaters in cities including Rome, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam (where they performed for the Queen of the Netherlands) and Brussels (where they performed for the King and Queen of Belgium). In the USA they have performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, NYC’s Lincoln Center, at the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre at the Public Theater (three times), and in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Chicago.
 
Episodes, an exhibition of Handspring’s puppets from previous productions, toured South Africa from mid 2001, ending at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town in March 2003.
 
Adrian Kohler - puppet master
Adrian Kohler is Handspring’s master puppet designer and maker. He studied Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, majoring in sculpture. However, as a young boy, he had made and performed puppets with his mother, an ardent amateur puppeteer. So, after graduating in 1974, he spent a year in the resident puppet company at The Space Theatre. In 1977 he and his partner, Basil Jones, moved to Botswana, where he led the National Popular Theatre Programme, using puppets to promote development.

In 1981 Kohler and Jones returned to South Africa to start Handspring. For five years the company produced plays for children, touring to schools across southern Africa. In 1985, he proposed the production of Episodes of an Easter Rising, the company’s first play for adults, designing and making the puppets.

Working with a succession of directors interested in the interaction between puppets and people, Kohler designed and made puppets in a wide variety of techniques and scales. However, once he started working with William Kentridge, his style changed. The carving became more vigorous and expressionist. Slowly the structural workings of the puppet became much more evident to the audience and with The Chimp Project in 2000, the puppets had become plywood and cane structures covered with translucent fabric, which when lit from behind, had an almost lantern-like appearance.

A major retrospective exhibition of Kohler’s work was co-ordinated by The Goodman Gallery in 2001 and toured to most of South Africa’s city galleries including the South African National Gallery in 2003. He has received numerous awards for set design, costume design and Best Production awards as co-Creator of a number of productions with William Kentridge and others. His puppets for Woyzeck on the Highveld have been acquired by the Munich City Museum.
 
Sogolon Puppet Troupe
 
Yaya Coulibaly – puppet master
Yaya Coulibaly comes from an ancient family of puppeteers with roots in the Bamana kingdom of Segou. He began his initiation into the magical world of puppet and masquerade figures at the age of ten as an apprentice to his father. Later he studied art at the Bamako National Institute of the Arts, and puppet theatre at the Institute International de la Marionette in France. He formed his own puppet company, Sogolon, in 1980 and has since become the leading custodian of the Bambara puppetry tradition, the oldest and richest of Africa’s surviving puppetry traditions.

Coulibaly has created a new and dynamic puppet theatre that draws from the ancient traditions of puppetry in west Africa. His performances incorporate traditional folk tales and legends and episodes from Mali’s great epics, as well as colonial history and commentary on contemporary life in Mali. The techniques in his performances include hand puppets, rod puppets, marionettes, masks and live music. He has performed widely in Europe and the USA.

Coulibaly is also the custodian of a vast collection of puppets, many of which have come down to him through his family. A selection of this collection is currently being exhibited at the Gold of Africa Museum in Cape Town.
 
Téhibou Bagayoko – puppeteer
Téhibou Bagayoko was born in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast - his parents still live there - but moved to Bamako in Mali when he was 15 years old to complete his schooling.
Living with his uncle Yaya Coulibaly and watching him sculpt puppets, inspired Bagayoko to develop his own wood carving skills. So began a process of apprenticeship during which he learnt all about the different kinds of puppets which the Sogolon Puppet Troupe uses and how to manipulate them.
 
When he turned 18, he decided he also wanted to learn to dance - dance is an integral part of puppet performances in Mali. After attending dance classes in Bamako, Bagayoko was auditioned for Sogolon and was accepted into the company.
 
Besides his work with Sogolon, Bagayoko has participated, as a dancer, in the opening ceremony of Mali’s hosting of the 2002 soccer Africa Cup of Nations and in the Mali biennale.
 
Nana Traoré - puppeteer
Nana Traoré attended the National Art Institute (INA) in Bamako from 1998 to 2002. Following her graduation Traoré pursued her passion for dance, performing at the Palace of Congress as a member of Troupe DO, and with other INA graduates at the Palace of Culture in Mali. She last appeared in the play Koro-Tilu with an Italian theatre company. She is happy to be a part of this touring season of Tall Horse. This is her first role with Sologon Puppet Troupe.
 
Yacouba Magassouba - puppeteer
For 24-year-old Yacouba Magassouba it was almost inevitable that he would become a puppeteer - his whole family is involved in puppetry. There is his father who makes and performs and his three brothers who are all involved in the puppetry field. There is also his uncle (his mother’s brother), Yaya Coulibaly, in whose Sogolon Puppet Troupe Magassouba has been working since he completed school. Besides puppet manipulation, Magassouba han been doing lighting and sound for the company, technical aspects of production which he studied along with accounting after he completed high school. He has travelled with the Sogolon to festivals in France and Spain.
 
Koffi Kôkô - choreographer
Koffi Kôkô, the dancer and choreographer from Benin, is a child of the Nago people and was born in the sacred city of Ouidah, the cradle of Voodoo culture. Kôkô has traveled the world to teach, collaborate, create and meet with artists from different backgrounds and horizons. A selection of his many professional achievements include the creation of d’Une Rive a l’Autre (from one riverbank to another) commissioned for the Dance Biennale of Lyon (1994); being named Choreographer at the National Ballet of Benin (1995); co-producing Sisi Agbe with Peter Badejo for Dance Umbrella (London and UK tour); creating the Carmen- Kôkô Company with Marie Carmen Garcia; performing Passage in New Orleans and an American tour with the writer Olymphe Bhely-Quenum and Dagbo Hounon, the Supreme Voodoo Leader of Benin (1996/7); completing a 10-month project at the Paris Opera; organizing the Atout African Festival in Benin (2002); and, most recently, being appointed as Artistic Director for the radical In Transit Festival 2004/5, at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin. In November 2003, Kôkô returned to London's Barbican, co-starring in The Maids, a dance theatre piece directed by Yoshi Oida, and winner of the Time Out Performance of the Year Award, 2003. 

Among his many awards is the French Chevalier de l’Ordre du Merite for Arts and Language.
  
Warrick Sony Music Composer
Warrick Sony has been working for the last four years at Milestone studios in Cape Town, South Africa and together with partner Murray Anderson, has composed and produced music for various film, theatre and commercial commissions, the most recent being John Boormans film of the Anjie Krog book: Country of My Skull.
 
Warrick composed music for the Handspring/ William Kentridge collaborations Ubu and the Truth Commission and Faustus in Africa as well as Handspringąs Chimp Project. He has released ten albums under the name Kalahari Surfers (five of these during the turbulent 80ąs through ultra leftist Recommended Records who are still based in London) and has collaborated and worked on various musical events, recordings, workshops with artists ranging from Brian Eno, Chris Cutler, The Orb and Massive Attack to Louis Mhlanga, Vusi Mahlasela, Lesego Rampolokeng and Johannes Kerkorrel.
 
Bheki Vilakazi - Geoffrey St Hillaire
Bheki Vilakazi’s interest in theatre grew out of his love of poetry. The playwright Gibson Gibson Kente was also a source of inspiration. 
 
Without any formal training Vilakazi launched his acting career with Kotulo, which toured Europe under the auspices of the Market Theatre Laboratory. 
 
In 1997 Vilakazi worked with Dogtroep, an Amsterdam-based theatre group, on the production Sweet Pham Pham, which was seen at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, the Oudtshoorn Festival and the Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg. 
 
Later in the same year he returned to Amsterdam with other South African actors to work on another Dogtroep   production, Two Room 2. Other theatre production in which he has appeared include My Truth My Freedom, The Other Side of the Coin and Waiting for Godot and more recently, Ways of Dying. His television work includes Phindi, Isaiah the Prophet, the second season of Yizo Yizo, Generations, Dube On Monday and Khululeka 11. Besides his acting career, Vilakazi has written and directed a play - The Drum - which won him a Best Director Award at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg.
 
He was most recently seen in the film, Tsotsi.
 
Sandile Matsheni - Atir
Sandile Matsheni matriculated from Meadowlands High School in 1999 and subsequently attended classes in performance at Mzini Dramatic Art in Soweto. He made his theatrical debut the following year in Trouble in my House directed by Sibusiso Mhlongo. He continued his theater career under the direction of Duma Mnembe in Calamity, Enough is Enough, and They Must be Sick; the latter two garnering him with Best Actor Awards at the National Stop Crime Drama Festival in South Africa.
 
Mbali Kgosidintsi - puppeteer
Mbali Kgosidintsi, originally from Botswana, moved to South Africa with her family in 1992. She was awarded an entrance scholarship to study theatre and Performance at the University of Cape Town. In addition to hre extensive movement and voice training her production experience includes: playing 'Pumla' in Myer Taub's Lekker Faith (2003). She played the lead role of 'Greta Flynn' in Anne Devlin's After Easter directed by Liz Mills (2004). Also played 'Thembalethu' in a revival of the award winning Horn of Sorrow wrtitten by Nicholas Ellenbogen and directed by Luke Ellenbogen, that opened at the Grahamstown festival in 2004. She played 'Thandiwe' in Waiting for Thandiwe written by Lulama Masimini, produced by Theatre for Africa which she still performs occasionally for schools. In her final student production she played 'The Model' in David Hare's Blue Room. She graduated at the end of 2004 with a BA in Theatre and Performance and was on the Dean's Merit list for acting. Her professional debut was at the Maynardville Open Air Theatre, where she played the young lead role of "Hero" in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing directed by award-winning director Fred Abrahamse.
 
Craig Leo – puppeteer
After completing five semesters of a Bachelor of Fine Art and Architecture Degree, Craig Leo was apprenticed to the designer and South African circus guru, Keith Anderson. Together, they revived the Cape Performing Arts Board’s Puppet Company, which had last existed in the 1960s.
 
During the following years Leo designed for Jazzart Dance Theatre as well as Magnet Theatre Company in productions, such as, Medea, Bolero and I Do x 22. In 1998 he trained in circus arts. In addition to performing with The Zip Zap Circus, he performed as the lead character in the 2000 Sun City extravaganza Baletsatsi.
 
Following this, as artistic director of his own acrobatic theatre company, Myth, he toured both Germany and Austria for two years. While in Austria he designed costumes for the Retzerland, Feuerigesland cultural festival. He returned to South Africa to resume work on Magnet Theatre’s Onnest’bo, an outdoor physical theatre piece. In 2004 Leo completed the production design and skills training for Rain in a Dead Man’s Footprints, a Jazzart Dance Theatre/Magnet Theatre collaboration. After the completion of the South African Tour of Tall Horse, Leo went on to design costumes for Pieter Torien’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and for the Sun City Extravaganza, Aphrodisia. 
  
Fourie Nyamande - puppeteer
Fourie Nyamande’s acting career started with Skhwenene Dhlamini’s productions of Reaping the Whirlwind and Faces of Madiba in 1994 and 1995. In 1997-8 he studied drama at the Market Theatre Laboratory and was one of their star graduates. His first work as a puppeteer with Handspring Puppet Company began with The Chimp Project in 2000 and he subsequently worked with the company on Zeno at 4 am, Confessions of Zeno, the revival of Il Riturno d’Ulisse and Tall Horse. He also premiered the role of AIDS activist Simon Nkoli in Your Loving Simon written and directed by Robert Coleman at the Market Theatre. 
 
Fourie was a puppeteer of the greatest talent and promise. He was selected to be part of the production of Warhorse at the National Theatre in London. However, he contracted meningitis in November 2006 and passed away shortly thereafter. 
 
He is very sadly missed by the acting community in South Africa. He left his partner Puleng Mchejane and daughter, Kamohelo, born a week before his passing.
   
Busi Zokufa - puppeteer
Busi Zokufa was born into a family of musicians and her early professional work was as a vocalist. In 1987 she joined Sibikwa Players in Daveyton where her first stage role was in So where to? which played at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and also toured abroad. Zokufa performed as a puppeteer for the first time in 1990 with Handspring in Barney Simon’s Starbrites. Ever since, she has had major roles in all Handspring’s productions She also does television drama work and recently appeared at the Market Theatre in Bruce Koch’s production of Best Wedding Ever and at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in Xoli Norman’s production of Ma’s Got the Blues. In 2003, Zokufa started the Savela Storytelling Puppet Project which performs plays and does puppetry workshops at schools. She was nominated as Woman of the Year in 2003 in an annual competition run by a major South African retail store.
 
She last appeared in April Fool’s Child directed by Phyllis Klotz.
  
Enrico D. Wey - Puppeteer
Enrico D. Wey, conceived in Arizona, relocated to Taiwan and then most recently, New York. As a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, he studied experimental film, literature, and performance. His interest in puppetry began while working with Dan Hurlin. Last seen in Rappaccini’s Daughter, as a member of the Octopus Ensemble in NY, Enrico is excited to continue his puppet work with Handspring and ready himself for the next big plunge.
 
Wesley France – Production Manager and Lighting Design
Wesley France has twenty five years experience in production, company management and lighting design for the performing arts. He was senior production manager at the Market Theatre for eight years and has since been lighting designer and company manager for numerous international tours. Since 1991 he has toured internationally with Handspring Puppet Company for their productions Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa!, The Chimp Project, Ubu and the Truth Commission, II Ritorno d’Ulisse, Zeno at 4am and Confessions of Zeno. Most recently he has been lighting designer and production manager for the productions Green Man Flashing and Tshepang.
 
Leigh Colombick - stage manager
Leigh Colombick first worked with Handspring Puppet Company during her period as stage manager at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg between 1989 and 1993, when she stage-managed Starbrites. She has since worked with Handspring on The Chimp Project, Zeno at 4 am and Confessions of Zeno.
 
For the past nine years she has been freelancing in a variety of capacities, touring productions internationally, arid has been associated with the following productions: The Magnet Theatre’s The Show’s Not Over ‘Till the Fat Lady Sings, Sue Pam and DJ Grant’s Take the Floor, Athol Fugard’s Valley Song and Captain’s Tiger, Gcina Mhlophes Love Child and Waves and Tales, Mandla Langa’s Milestones and YaeI Farber’s productions of SeZaR and He Left Quietly.
 
Simon Mahoney - Sound engineer
Simon Mahoney has worked extensively on sound in the theatre, film and television studios. His live theatre experience includes engineering sound for the Handspring/Kentridge productions, Faustus in Africa and Confessions of Zeno, and engineering sound for musicals like A Chorus Line and Fiddler on the Roof. 
 
Jaco Bouwer – video animator
Jaco Bouwer received an Honors Degree in directing at Stellenbosch University and completed a Master’s Degree in 1999. He has been working professionally as director, actor and dancer for the last five years and has performed in Aars!, Tango Del Fuego and Mamma Medea directed by Marthinus Basson. In 2003 Bouwer received the Fleur de Cap Young Director Award for Spanner written by Saartjie Botha. Recently, he has specialized in video and animation and his most recent video works include Two Gentlemen of Verona, Maria de Buenos Aires and the Fair Lady South African Fashion Awards. Bouwer is currently working on his short film called Lovesick.

. . . and the people who worked behind the scenes
 
PUPPET COSTUME MAKER
Hazel Maree graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art from the University of Pretoria in 1982 and completed a cutting course at Fashion Design and Management in Johannesburg before her involvement in theatre. She has designed, created, and coordinated costumes for the Market Theatre, the SABC and the Civic and Wits Theatres.
 
She has also worked on several musical productions, including Juke Box at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg. Her work with Handspring includes Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa and The Chimp Project.
 

HUMAN COSTUME MAKER
Phyllis Midlane
Before taking up costume design and fabrication, Phyllis was for 12 years a professional ballet dancer with CAPAB. She qualified at the Cape Town School of Fashion Design returning to CAPAB as a costumier, where she worked for a further five years before branching out on her own.
 
Subsequently she has been involved in a multitude television and theatre productions, notably Master Harold and the Boys, Suip, Equus and gleaned several nominations for best costume design in both the FNB Vita and Fleur du Cap Awards. Her most recent theatre costumes appeared in La Rosa's Blood Wedding at Oudelibertas.
 
ASSISTANT PUPPET MAKERS
Thami Kitty is an experienced sculptor based in Khayelitsha. He was born in the Eastern Cape near Mount Frere. He first studied art at the Community Arts Project in Woodstock, Cape Town. There, he was able to develop his skill sufficiently to enable him to exhibit his sculptures at venues, such as, the University of Cape Town’s Irma Stern Museum in Rosebank and the Association for Visual Arts in Cape Town’s city centre. He has carved a number of puppet heads and hands for Tall Horse.
 
Kevin Willemse, who lives with his mother at the Haven Night Shelter in Kalk Bay, knew nothing about the theatre or puppets when he came to work at Handspring’Puppet Company’s studio. However, three months after he arrived, he had quickly learnt enough carpentry and fabric printing skills to make a major contribution to the completion of the more than 60 puppets in Tall Horse.
 
Basil Jones - producer
Basil Jones studied Fine Art at the University of Cape Town and worked in museums and art galleries in South Africa and Botswana during the late 1970s, before founding Handspring Puppet Company with Adrian Kohler. He is both a master puppeteer and the company’s producer.
   

Running time
90 minutes, no interval
 
Bookings
Relevant theatre 

 
2005
 
Note: Public performances only listed here. Residencies will include student performances, panel discussions, master classes and other events and programs.
 
GERMANY
Theatre der Welt Festival, Stuttgart, Germany
July 8th-10th 
 
US TOUR
USA Tour produced by Lisa Booth Management, Inc. 
Sponsored by AngloGold Ashanti
 
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
'62 Center for Theatre and Dance
September 30th, October 1st
 
BAM Harvey Theatre at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn New York
Opening event at the Next Wave Festival 2005
Tel (718) 636-4100
October 4th – 9th
 
Byham Theatre at Pittsburgh Cultural Trust with African American Cultural Center, Pennsylvania
Tel (412) 471-6070
October 14th, 15th
  
Power Center at University Musical Society (UMS), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
Tel (734) 764-2538
October 18th-22nd
 
Memorial Auditorium, University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill NC
Tel (919) 962-1449
November 5th, 6th
 
Eisenhower Theater at Kennedy Center, Washington DC
Tel (202) 467-4600
November 11th, 12th
 
 
2004
Baxter Theatre, Rondebosch Cape Town
Thursday, 9 September: preview, 20.00
Friday, 10 September: premier, 20.00
Saturday, 11 September: 14.30 and 20.00
Sunday, 12 September: 18.00
Tuesday, 14 September: 20.00
Wednesday, 15 September: 12.00 noon and 20.00
Thursday, 16 September: 20.00
Friday, 17 September: 20.00
Saturday, 18 September: 14.30 and 20.00
For more information and bookings, ring the Baxter Theatre on 021-680 3989 or 021-685 7880; Baxter Theatre block bookings (10 people or more) on 021-680 3962; Computicket on 083 915 8100
 
State Theatre, Pretoria
Wednesday, 22 September: 20.00
Thursday, 23 September: 20.00
Friday, 24 September: 20.00
Saturday, 25 September: 14.30 and 20.00
Monday, 27 September: 20.00
Tuesday, 28 September: 20.00
Wednesday, 29 September: 12.00 and 20.00
Thursday, 30 September: 20.00
Friday, 1 October: 20.00
Saturday, 2 October: 14.30 and 20.00
For more information, ring the State Theatre on 012-392 4000
 
Dance Factory, Johannesburg
Tuesday, 5 October: preview 20.00
Wednesday, 6 October: 20.00
Thursday, 7 October: 12.00 and 20.00
Friday, 8 October: 20.00
Saturday, 9 October: 15.00 and 20.00
For more information, ring the Dance Factory on 011-833 1347
 

• Geoffrey St Hilaire, the renowned French naturalist who accompanied the giraffe to Paris named her Sennari (after her origins in Sennar, Sudan). She is currently preserved in the Museum of Natural History in La Rochelle France
• October, 1826: the giraffe arrives in Marseilles, France
• May 20, 1827: The giraffe begins her 880 kilometre trip to Paris.
• June 30, 1827: the giraffe enters Paris
• 1839: a second giraffe arrives, 13 years later, as a companion
• 1845: The giraffe dies, having lived in Paris for nearly 18 years without seeing another giraffe for 13 years
• 1849: Mehmet Ali dies
• 1852: Bernadino Drovetti dies
• Atir lives in Paris, looking after the giraffe for 12 years, but there is no record of what happens to him after the giraffe’s death.
• 1889: the Eiffel Tower is built for the World Expo in Paris to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution of 1789. People of the time referred to the tower as “the giraffe”. 

• 46 BC first giraffe arrived in Rome. More giraffe brought to Rome in 247 AD (10 giraffe) and between 270 AD and 275 AD.
• Menagerie established at Constantinople in the 11th century when Constantinus 1X received an elephant and a giraffe from the Sultan of Egypt.
• Animal parks were common among Arab royals and the first zoological garden was established in Europe when the Arabs conquered Spain. In AD 936, when Abderrahman 111 founded the city Zahra (near Cordova) and established a garden where rare animals and birds were kept in cages and enclosures. 
• In southern Europe the first menageries were established at the court of Frederick 11 (1212 – 1250) king of the Two Sicilies. Frederick had an elephant sent to him from India and he presented a white bear to the Sultan of Egypt in exchange for a giraffe. Frederick was “well-disposed” towards Muslims and on such good terms that his tolerance of them gave rise to suspicions about his orthodoxy.
• In the 15th century Ferrante, Duke of Naples, and Lorenzo di Medici are some of better known menagerie owners of the time. Both had giraffe in their menageries.
• In 1414 Chinese emperor Yong'le began funding spectacular voyages seeking to reassert a Chinese presence on the Western seas and enhance the prestige of his rule and dynasty. In 1414, a fleet led by the explorer Zheng, was sent north to Bengal, India, where the Chinese travellers saw a giraffe for the first time. The giraffe which the travellers saw in Bengal had been brought there as a gift from the ruler of the prosperous African city-state of Malindi, one of the several trading centres along the east coast of Africa. The Chinese persuaded the Malindi ambassadors to offer the animal as a gift to their emperor and to send home for another giraffe. When Zheng returned to Beijing, he was able to present the emperor with two giraffe.