Kicking Tongues transposes Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to modern-day Nigeria. Forty travellers gather at the Eko Holiday Inn, Lagos, intending to journey to Abuja, the new federal capital. Selected by their 'melancholy hostess', they range from a wealthy tribal chief to a humble petrol pump attendant, from a rain maker to a woman in purdah. They are united only by their dissatisfaction with Nigeria's chaotic and corrupt regime, a concern which is reflected in the widely differing stories they tell on the journey - bawdy tales, sharp satires, poignant narratives and moral fables.