"Was there a Trickster Rabbit tradition that had roots in Africa as well?"

See this excerpt from Three African Trickster Myths

"Almost all-traditional cultures tell stories featuring specific tricksters. For example, Coyote, Hare, and Raven are the featured tricksters across North America. West African trickster stories star Tortoise, Anansi the Spider, Zomo the Hare (African storytellers brought the latter to America where it was integrated with the native American hare eventually becoming Bre'r Rabbit) or Eshu, the mischievous messenger of the gods in Yoruba (Nigeria) mythology.

In Japan, tricksters are Badger, Tengu, mischievous trickster spirits, and Kitsune, a shape-shifter. In Europe and South and Central America the trickster can be Fox or Wolf. Norse mythology has Loki as their trickster. Greek mythology has Hermes as theirs. Of course, there are more in other cultures...

The common type of African folktale tells us about a very human-acting animal who uses his wit and cunning to take advantage of bigger and stronger animals. Sometimes this animal will help others, but it will always take care of itself first.

There are many, many African tricksters in myths and folktales. Some of them are:

1. Gizo- the spider trickster of the Hausa tribe of West Africa.He is sometimes a villain to the Hausa . His exploits include numerous adventures that are part of the repertoires of other African tricksters.

2. Anansi/ Kwaku (Uncle) Anansi- the spider, who behaves like a man, of the Ashanti and related Akan peoples of West Africa.
Anansi is the paramount trickster hero of the Ashanti and related Akan peoples. He is also a culture hero and, frequently, a buffoon. He is preoccupied with outfitting the creatures of the field and forest, men and even the deities.

Sometimes he is seen sympathetically, even as wise. He is more often characterized as cunning, predatory, greedy, gluttonous and without scruples. Although he may be admired for his frequent victories over those who are larger and stronger than himself, he does not usually gain moral approval. He can be shrewd, yet he is often stupid or an unwitting clown.

3. Ijapa - the tortoise of the Yoruba tribe of West Africa.
Ijapa is shrewd, sometimes wise, conniving, greedy, indolent, unreliable, ambitious, exhibitionistic, unpredictable, aggressive, generally preposterous, and sometimes stupid. Though he has bad character, his tricks, if ingenious enough, can excite admiration. Ijapa survived in the United States Black folklore as Brother Terrapin.

4. Spider - of the Fiote People of Central Africa.

5. Hare - of the Bantu peoples of the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia.

The Hare is found in stories in most parts of Africa. One southern African story tells how Hare lost humans the chance of immortality. The moon sent Hare to the first people with the message, "Just as the Moon dies and rises again so shall you." But Hare got the message wrong and told them, "Just as the Moon dies and perishes so shall you". When the Moon found out what Hare had said, she beat him on the nose with a stick, and since that day Hare's nose has been split.

6. Jackal - of the Hottentots of the Kalahari Desert and its fringes (Namibia and western Botswana).

7. Jackal - of Somalia.

8. Abunuwas (also called Kibunwasi) - from East Africa and other offshore islands of Zanzibar, Madagascar and Mauritius.
Abunuwas is sometimes also called Kibunwasi. He was originally a celebrated eighth century Arab poet. He is genial, clever, cynical and a flouter of morals. Abunuwas is the human equivalent of the spider, the tortoise and the hare of Africa folklore.

9. Eshu- the mischievous messenger of the gods of the Yoruba tribe of southern Nigeria.

When the first African Americans brought trickster tales with them to the United States and the Caribbean West Indies they began to make up new trickster tales of their own about the kind of animals they encountered in the American South, Jamaica, the Bahamas and other Caribbean Islands. All of these new tales kept the pattern of the African trickster tales where a resourceful animal hero having human traits used deceit and sly trickery, and sometimes magic, to get what it needed from bigger and strong animals.

Many freed slaves from England returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone after they fought for the British during the Revolutionary War. Some slaves from the Caribbean and those from slave ships captured by the British navy also returned to Sierra Leone. These peoples became known as Sierra Leone Creoles and today they outnumber the Mende and Temne inhabitants who had migrated from central Africa. So some trickster tales that had come originally from Africa, moved to America and the Caribbean and then returned to Africa through the Sierra Leone Creoles".