The King’s Daughters
A long time ago, a wealthy king had three beautiful daughters. They had everything they wanted offered to them on a platter of gold. However, only one thing was lacking in their life, none of them had a husband, nor did they have a suitor. This made the king very unhappy. He had food, but he could not eat. What shall we do now?
He asked his wife. I want my children to be happily married, but they think that no one is good enough for them. The king’s daughters’ were however not bothered. “I want to marry the richest man alive,” said the oldest sister. “I want to marry the most handsome man,” the younger sister said arrogantly. As for the youngest sister, “I want to marry a king like my father. Only he will be richer and more powerful. Oh! What a life I shall live being the queen of a great empire.” Their mother the queen added, “Whoever marries my daughters will be a lucky man, seeing how beautiful they all are. Oh no! My daughters will only marry the best men in the whole land.” The king’s heart was very troubled. He told his wife, “ I’m finding my daughters men who will love and care for them. I will not watch them grow old without husbands and children.”
Do whatever you want, said the queen, but my daughters will only marry anyone who can tell their names. That way, I will be sure they are marrying the wisest man in the entire land. It was announced throughout the land, that the king wanted the wisest man to marry his children. Whoever could tell their names would be given their hands in marriage. The rich and famous went with gifts to the palace to try but they couldn’t guess the princesses’ names. No one ever called them by their real names. Everyone called them “the princesses”. Soon, every available man in the land had gone to ask for the princesses’ hands in marriage, but no one could tell their names. So, the tortoise, a very crafty animal decided he would give it a try. But before he went to the palace, he sneaked around the princesses, following them everywhere without their knowledge. Just when the tortoise started to think there was no hope for him, luck smiled on him one day. The princesses went apple picking on the outskirts of the town. They hadn’t gone very far when the youngest princess saw a bike. Now, a bike was a very uncommon sight in those days. The youngest princess was so excited that she started singing. As she sang, she called her older sister by her real name. The younger sister rushed over, and she did the same, calling their oldest sister. They ended up singing together, dancing around the bike and calling each other’s name. That was how the tortoise knew all their names. But alas, the tortoise remembered all the princesses’ names. He went to the palace and told the king. The whole town gathered, and the tortoise said the name of each princess. Everyone was shocked. The king had no choice but to give all his daughters to the tortoise as his wives. The princesses and the queen were extremely sad. But there was nothing anyone could do. And so, the tortoise started to take the princesses home as his wives. On their way to tortoise’ home, the princesses were so ashamed, that they each chose a very different livestyle rather than become the tortoise’ wife. And so it happened that since that day, no one ever saw any of the princesses again. The king and queen were very sad, but there was nothing anyone could do. If only the princesses and their mother had known, they would not have been so proud and arrogant in choosing their husbands.
A Woman and a Bird
Once upon a time, there was a pregnant woman in a village waiting for her child to arrive. One day, she gave birth and took her maternity leave. One week passed, then two weeks. On the third week, she said, “I have to go to work in my field. There is no one else who will do it for me.” And as there were no nurseries in the village, she took her child on her back and went to the field.
When she arrived, she cut grass and piled it underneath a big tree. She placed a cloth across the grass and on it put her child. She took another cloth and covered her child to protect him from the sun. After a break, she took her hoe and began to work. As she worked, she moved farther and farther away from the child.
Around late morning, she was already at the other end of the field. The child woke up and began to cry because he did not see his mother. He cried and cried, but his mother was far away and could not hear as the child continued to cry. In the tree above him there was a bird that heard the crying child and went down to look at him. The bird thought the child was cute and so did what birds do and took the child back with him into the tree. There he had a big nest. He put the child in his nest and cradled him until he fell asleep. Meanwhile, his unassuming mother worked in the field.
At midday, the mother decided it was time to go home. She went back to where she left her child and the child was no longer there. She started to cry. She said, “Who took my child? I left him right here, who took him?” Unfortunately, no one answered her so the mother was scared. She told herself that maybe a lion passed and ate her child while she was working. Then she cried even more. She cried so loudly that the sleeping child woke up and started crying too. His mother heard him but did not know where he was. She looked up and saw him in the tree and wondered how he got up there.
Then she saw the bird flying around the child and understood that it was the bird that stole him. She said to the bird, “Beautiful bird, you did well to keep him safe, but now I have to go home. Beautiful bird, please bring back my child.”
The bird refused.
The tree was very tall and the mother could not climb. Once she realized this, she cried again. She cried so much that an old man who was passing by heard her. The old man approached slowly and found the mother crying. He asked her, “Madam, why are you crying?”
The mother said, “It’s my child.”
The old man said, “What did your child do?”
The mother answered, “Look! There in the tree.”
The old man looked and said, “How did he get up there?”
The mother said, “It’s that bird that took him.”
Then the old man said, “Stop crying. Ask the bird if he will bring you back your child.”
The mother said, “But I asked him, and he does not want to bring him back to me.”
The old man said, “But that depends on how you asked, madam!”
The lady said, “I told the bird you did well to keep him safe, now bring him back to me.”
The old man said, “No, madam, that’s not how you should have asked!”
The lady said, “But what should I have done?”
The old man said, “Well, you tell the bird the same thing but singing the way birds sing. They only understand songs, so you say bring me my child but while singing. Madam, I warn you, if there is a false note in your song, it will not bring back the child. For the bird to bring back the child, you have to sing true and respect the rhythm.”
The mother had already cried a lot, so there was a chance that she might sing badly.
Now let us imagine singing with the mother so that the bird can bring the child back. If we sing well, maybe the bird will bring back the child, but if we do not sing well he will not bring back the child and it will be a pity!
The child is called Tshianga and, while singing, our chorus will have the name: Tshianga. Let’s go!
“Beautiful bird, bring back my child, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga, beautiful golden crown bird, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Beautiful bird, bring my child, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga.
Beautiful bird, are you my twin? Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Beautiful bird, time is passing, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Beautiful bird, the breasts are swollen, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga.”
The bird, who was wary of what the lady was singing, sang back, “If I come down right away, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga, you will shoot me, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tashianga. You will call the whole village to kill me, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. You will go tell your husband, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. That the bird stole the infant, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Let’s look for the arrows to launch, Tshianga Tshiangala Tshianga.”
And the lady sang to the bird, “Why tell him the hurt of Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Beautiful bird, bring back my child, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Beautiful bird, you are my twin, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Beautiful bird, time is passing, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga. Beautiful bird, the breasts are swollen, Tshianga Tshiangalala Tshianga.”
Because we sang well, the bird came down with the child and his mother brought him home.
Why Hawks Kill Chicks, Not Owlets
Once upon a time, there was a hawk that carried a young owlet away whilst the parents watched quietly.
When the hawk arrived at its homestead, the hawk’s parents asked what mother owl said. He responded that mother owlet was quiet and never said a thing. The hawk’s parents advised him to return the young owlet because one could not tell what was in the mind of a quiet or undemonstrative person: they could be plotting some acts of deep and cruel revenge in their minds. The next day, the hawk carried the owlet back to his parents and left him near the nest.
He then flew around, trying to find some other birds to prey upon but, because all the birds had heard that the hawk had seized the owlet, they hid themselves and would not come out when the hawk was near. He therefore could not catch any birds.
As he was flying home, he saw a lot of fowls near a coop basking in the sun and scratching in the dust. There were also several small chicks running around, chasing insects, or picking up anything they could find to eat, with mother hen following, clucking, and calling them from time to time.
When the hawk saw the chicks, he made up his mind that he would take one, so he swooped down and caught the s smallest with his strong claws .
As soon as he seized the chick, the cocks began to make a lot of noise. The hen ran after him and tried to make him drop her child, calling loudly, with her feathers fluffed out and making dashes at him. But he carried it off, and all the fowls and chicks ran together into their coop, screaming, some taking shelter under bushes and others trying to hide themselves in the long grass.
He then carried the chick to the king, telling him that he had returned the owlet to his parents since he did not want him for food. The king then told the hawk that in the future he could always feed on chicks. The hawk took the chick home. There was a friend who dropped in to see him.
He asked him what the parents of the chick did when they saw their child taken away. The hawk said, “They all made a lot of noise and mother hen tried to chase me but, although there was a lot of disturbance amongst the fowls, nothing else happened.”
His friend said that, because the fowls had made much fuss, it was safe to kill and eat their chicks. The people who made plenty of noise in the daytime would go to sleep at night and not disturb him, or do him any injury.
The people to be afraid of were those who, when injured, kept silent: you could be certain they were plotting mischief and would do harm at night.
Why the dog barks
The dog and the tortoise were once good friends. Both of them had farms. The dog was very hard- working but the tortoise was lazy. While the dog and other farmers worked on their farms, the tortoise would go around bragging that his harvest would be bigger than that of anyone at the next harvest festival. When people doubted him for they had never seen him plant anything on his farm, he would tell them he had bigger farms in the other town. As the yearly harvest drew near, the King sent out the town crier to announce the day of the harvest festival, and that the farmer with the biggest tuber of yam would be handsomely rewarded by the King. When the harvest finally came, everyone harvested their yams, but the tortoise harvested nothing. Later he went into the King’s in-law’s farm and stole the big tubers of yam there. He gave five of them to the dog, his friend. He told him to have a taste of his farm’s yam. The tortoise promptly went to report to the King that he saw the dog stealing from the King’s in law’s farm. The dog was immediately arrested and the day for hearing and judgment fixed. Before judgment day, the tortoise visited the dog in the cell, and lied to him that he had pleaded with the King to release him. The King had agreed under one condition: the dog had to bark at every question; if he did so, he would be released. So the dog agreed. On the day of the trial, the dog was asked why he stole the yam that he and his family was caught eating. Instead of giving the answer, the dog kept barking. This annoyed the King, who decreed that the dog be kept in jail and forbidden from speaking again in the midst of people; otherwise, he would be executed. Meanwhile the tortoise took over the dog’s farm. One day, at a palm wine stand, the tortoise joked about his wisdom, and revealed what he did to gain the dog’s farm. This information leaked to the King’s hearing. He ordered that the tortoise be punished while the dog should be released; however, because Kings don’t back down on their words, the dog has had to keep barking till today.
Why The Eagle Flies Higher than Other Birds
Edarais the last son of Akhema, a skillful carver and sculptor. He was also a well-known farmer, well-known across Uzedo, his kingdom. Any carved or sculpture work done by Akhemahad had no rival. He had taught his sons how to carve and sculpt, and they were all doing well in the art. One morning, Edera, the last son of Akhema, was accompanying his father to the farm to work and cut wood for carving.
On their way, they met his father’s friend.
As soon as they saw each other, his father’s friend began to call his father by his nickname, “Ahielenkpen,” which means “The Eagle”. After his father and his friend had greeted, they left each other and headed towards their intended direction. As soon as they parted, Ederaasked his father what his nickname meant and his father told him “eagle”.
“Why eagle?”
“Because eagle flies higher than every other bird, besides, it has other qualities which other birds do not have,” his father replied.
“Why does the eagle fly higher than every other bird?” His son asked?
“I shall tell you the story my son,” his father began.
“When the Creator created each animal he gave them the opportunity to make a special request, which he granted…” After the eagle was created, he made his own special request, which was that the creator should grant her the ability to fly above every other bird.
The creator granted it with a condition, that it would be only through practice so that her eaglets could acquire the skill of flying higher than other birds. It would not be hereditary. The eagle agreed and left.
Since then, the eagle had learned to teach her children how to fly higher than other birds. The eagle started by making her nest on top of the tallest trees where she laid her eggs, incubated them and hatched them.
When it was time for her eaglets to learn to fly, the tallest trees formed the lowest base.
The eagle took her eaglets on routine flight practice. By so doing, the eagle flies higher than every other bird.”
Akhematold told his son to let his own success form his beginning so that he would fly higher than him in the practice of their family business -carving and sculpturing.
Woe Or Happiness?
Once upon a time in a village lived the King, his wife, his daughter and the whole population of the kingdom. One morning, a man who lived in the kingdom decided to go to the forest as usual to look for food for his family. When he arrived, he saw a hare and began to pursue it.
However, like any living soul, the hare was afraid of being caught and killed, so he hid in a hole near an old tree. While the man was pursuing this animal, he was not alone. There were other pursuers – the Lion and the Snake. When he arrived in front of the hole that the hare had entered, the man saw the Lion roaring at his side and the snake that tried to break into the hole in which the hare had hidden. By disrupting the hole, the old tree nearby fell on them. All of them began to cry for help, “Help, please save us!”
Suddenly, a hunter who happened to live in this forest heard the cries of anguish and decided to approach to get a better understanding of what was happening. As soon as he arrives, he sees the man, the lion and the snake stuck under a tree and needing the hunter to save them. The man said to the hunter, “Please save me; I am a human being like you. I am also someone who will come to help you in difficult times. Please save me.”
The lion at this moment also began to beg the hunter, saying, “Please, hunter, you and I have known each other a long time in this forest, I have never eaten you even when I was very hungry. I’ve always considered you my greatest friend. Now, please be nice to me, get me out of here and one day I will make you a gift that you never dreamed of.”
The snake then told the hunter, “Please sir, I know that there is always enmity between you and me. You hate me, but today I swear I will do thee no harm. Save me and see that I also will save you one day.”
The hunter said to all of them, “You’re all lying! What proves that you are not lying to me? I will not save you. You’ll stay there until you die.” Then he started berating the man and said, “Today, you tell me to save you because you’re human like me, but you forget that you are jealous of others, you are a thief. I will not help you because if I do, one day you may betray me.”
Then he turned to the lion and said, “Look at you lion! You eat men like me, you also sow terror in the forest, eating animals like you, and you say that you are the king of the forest. Although you are a king, you call the people of your kingdom to come and save you. Certainly, you will eat me if I release you.” But the lion still begged the man to be lenient with him and let him out of the trap. The hunter turned to the snake on the side and said, “You snake, you know that you bite people, you even bite animals in this forest. If I release you, you will turn against me and you will bite me too, so I cannot save you.” The snake told him, “No my lord, that will not happen.
Please do save me!” Therefore, the hunter took pity on them all and released them.
A few days after the hunter helped the man, the lion and the snake, the King’s daughter told her servants that she needed to go swimming in the river in the forest. Once the King’s daughter and her six servants arrived near the river, the lion sprang, attacked and then fell on the King’s daughter; all her servants panicked, running in her direction while crying, “Help us, help us!!” In the meantime, the lion had caught the King’s daughter. He refused to eat her but carried her alive in appreciation of the hunter who had saved him. The lion said to the hunter, “Dear hunter, you remember the day I was stuck under the tree and asked you to save me, I made you a promise that I would offer you a gift that you never dreamed of. So my gift is this girl that I give you as a wife.” The hunter knelt before the lion and said, “Lion, I always thought of marriage, but all of the girls in the kingdom refused my advances. Now you bring me this gift so very precious to me. Yes, I understand now that you’re my friend.” The hunter took the King’s daughter as a wife. He told her to stay with him and not be afraid.
When the six servants arrived in the royal courts, they explained what had happened with fear and tears. They explained to the King that a lion attacked and threw himself on the only King’s daughter, “Then we do not know if the lion ate her or how,” explained the six maidens to the King and his council. The King fell on his face, saddened by the unexpected disappearance of his daughter, and began to cry for his only daughter. Later he ordered his military to fetch his daughter. But when the soldiers arrived to the place where the lion had attacked the royal daughter, they did not find any trace of blood. They looked for it everywhere, but without success. Then they said that the King’s daughter might have run away. They returned home empty-handed to the King’s palace, only to tell him that they had searched everywhere but had not found the girl. Following this, the King organized a memorial for his daughter, but signed a decree that he would give whoever found his daughter everything he owned except the royal power.
“But what will happen?” the man that had saved the hunter said to his wife. “We have nothing to eat. I’m going into the forest and maybe we can get something to eat.” His wife reminded him to be careful and not to make a misstep. As soon as he entered the forest, he saw the King’s daughter sitting next to the hunter. Quickly, he brought the news to the King., only to tell him that they had searched everywhere but had not found the girl.
He said, “King, I found it, I found your daughter, she lives with a man in the middle of the forest.”
So the King asked the man who brought the message to explain it in these terms, “Son, please tell me, have you actually seen my only daughter that I’ve been searching for every day alive?” The man replied, “Yes, my King, I saw your daughter sitting next to a poor man in the forest. She’s alive.”
From the palace, the King ordered the Kingdom soldiers and the witness who saw his daughter to immediately stop the person who kept his daughter for several days without informing him. When the soldiers arrived in the forest, they found the King’s daughter and the hunter in their box and took them to the village. When the King saw his daughter, he ordered them to give to the one who found his daughter everything he needed, and they did it. But the hunter was imprisoned and sentenced to the death penalty. When the execution day came, the King told his advisors to inform the whole kingdom population to come and attend the execution of the man who had kidnapped his daughter. Everyone came to answer the call of the King to see how the hunter would be hanged. As everyone awaited the hunter’s death, the snake saved by the hunter in the forest came to see him in prison. The snake gave him an antidote and told him to take it while he stood guard, saying, “When the King decides to leave his house to give the order to execute you, I will bite him. We will then seek someone who has the antidote to save the King and then you will cry that you know how to save him.”
As the King left his house, the snake bit him just as he crossed the threshold of his house. The King fainted, everyone panicked and the King’s advisors began to ask the crowd, “Who can save the King?” But nobody answered.
For the second time, they asked, “Who knows how we can save the King?” The hunter in the prison cried with a loud voice, saying, “I’m going to save him.” Therefore, the King’s men led the hunter where the King was lying and gave him a few drops of antidote in the mouth. Once the King opened his eyes, he asked, “Who saved me?” His advisors said to him, “Please, King, it was the hunter you wanted to kill that saved you.” Against all odds, the King ordered the hunter’s immediate release, gave him his only daughter as his wife and made him second in succession to the King. After this event, the snake came again to see the hunter and said to him, “Do you remember what I told you the day I was stuck by the tree in the forest?” The hunter replied, “Yes, I remember you promised me that you would save me one day and that day is definitely here. I thank you with all my heart,” said the hunter to the snake.
Lesson: Why did the man that the hunter had helped not acknowledge his help? Why did he not try to warn the hunter to let the princess go back to her father lest he be arrested or under penalty of being sentenced to death?
From this story, we learn that we should be grateful to those who help us. Like the lion and the snake that recognized that they went through a very difficult time and the hunter that helped them, be grateful.
Why Antelope Lives In the Bush
In an ancient community, Goat and Antelope once shared a home with an owner. While they were being tamed, they were told not to tamper with their owner’s food supply. Goat and Antelope were herbivores, so they were only expected to eat grass.
But each time their owner or his wife returned from the farm with yams or vegetables, Goat and Antelope would leave for the farm and eat the food that had grown there. When their owner and his wife returned to the farm and found that the food there had been eaten, they would become irate, and warn Antelope and Goat not to repeat their actions. One day, the owner’s wife went to the farm and came home with the only tuber of yam left in the barn. It was planting season and they had planted their yams. She had put her pot on the stove in the kitchen, and had carried the tuber of yam on a tray.
Intending to peel the yam, she placed the tray on the ground and remembered that she had left her knife inside the house.
Immediately, she went back to retrieve it. When she returned, she discovered that Goat had eaten the yam. “Oh, no!” she cried. She took her cane and immediately began to flog Goat.
As she was flogging Goat, Antelope came in and saw how her friend was being treated.
She and Goat pleaded for forgiveness, and their master’s wife heeded after she struck Goat in the back.
Antelope sympathized with Goat, retrieved some herbs, and treated her. Another evening, Antelope roamed the back of the house and found vegetables sitting on the tray. Quickly, she began to eat them. When the owner’s wife discovered Antelope, she flogged him to a state of stupor. Antelope was weeping when Goat came into the house.
“What’s the matter?” Goat asked. “We cannot survive on grass and tuber peals alone, sometimes we also need part of what they eat. If they refuse to share their food with us, then we shall take what we find.”
“I cannot do that. How long am I going to receive these insults?” Antelope asked.
“Well, I am ready to take these insults as long as I live,” Goat replied. One morning, their master’s wife boiled a pot of water to cook beans for her family. She had used a sieve to separate the beans from the stones. Suddenly, it began to rain, and the wife went to retrieve some bowls in order to collect rainwater. As soon as she left, Goat and Antelope entered the kitchen and devoured the beans. When the wife discovered this, she told the owner of the incident, and both began to beat Goat and Antelope like they had never done before.
The beatings were so severe that Goat and Antelope had to be taken to the neighboring village for treatment. After they recovered and returned home, Antelope decided that she couldn’t bear the beatings anymore. Goat pleaded with her to bear the pain. She knew she had to bear the pain to survive, but Antelope refused goat’s plea because she knew she could survive in the bush without their tamers.
Once again, Goat and Antelope ate their owners’ yam, and were threatened with another beating. Before the owners managed to act, Antelope told Goat that she could not stand another punishment, and ran away. Because Antelope knew that she could fend for herself, she was able to escape punishment. However, Goat did not believe in her own independence, and therefore suffered another beating. When the beating was finished, Goat stood up and dusted herself down.
In order to survive, Goat tried to convince herself that, because of the punishment, she was stronger and more able to live with her owner.
However, try as she might, Goat could not shake off the idea that Antelope had managed to escape the beatings because she believed in her ability to act independently. Due to Goat’s lack of confidence, she would not be able to escape her owner and was doomed to live with him until today.
THE LION AND THE ANIMALS
There was a time of famine in the land of the animals. The famine was getting severe that all the animals in the forest were looking for what to eat. The squirrel and the bush rat started climbing the palm trees to search for ripped palm fruit. The lizard started eating the back of the forest trees. The ants were boring holes and taking some fresh leaves inside it. Other animals were running helter-skelter looking for a way to get food.
The lion did not know what to do. He dug a big hole at the back of his house and covered it. The lion said that he will pretend to be sick so that any animal that comes to visit him will fall into the pit and he will eat the animal. The antelope heard this and called all the animals for a meeting. “The lion has dug a big hole at the back of his house and pretend to be sick so that any animal that comes to console him will fall inside the hole and he will eat the animal” the antelope told the animals. All the animals were grateful to the antelope and thanked him for what he has told them.
The lion waited for the animals to visit him. No animal came and he died of hunger.
Moral Lessons:
- We should always work hard for our own daily food
- Avoid short cut in life
- Do not plan evil against your fellow people
- Stop playing tricks
A TERRIBLE FRIEND
a traditional African folk story by Elias Ozikpu
The leopard and fire were once good friends for several years, but during this lengthy period fire never visited the leopard in spite of the regular visits the leopard paid to the fire’s house. The leopard was very unhappy and felt cheated and less-important. One bright evening, the leopard disclosed its feelings to the fire and equally let fire to understand why it should be visited as well or their long lasting relationship comes to an end. Fire laughed briefly and showed some degree of eagerness to please a friend that has been so nice. Having agreed, it then told leopard that for the visit to fully materialized, there should be construction of firewood all the way before the visit will be possible. Secondly, that a big bundle of firewood must be heaped on leopard’s compound so that it may burn on them while the visit went on. Although it was a Herculean task, but the leopard obeyed all the instructions just to ensure that fire had no excuse.
On the evening of the visit, fire found its way to friend’s hut by burning through the firewood the leopard had arranged. They had fun during the visit until fire consumed the big bundle of firewood and had no other place to get hold of. The leopard started running helter-skelter in search of firewood or anything that might sustain fire but found only a few grasses but fire immediately burnt them to ashes and requested for more. When there was nothing to make fire flame, it immediately flew on the leopard’s hut and started consuming the reeds. The leopard attempted persuading friend from not burning down the hut but fire warned the leopard thoroughly. After further attempts the leopard ran off with wounds when it discovered the friend was completely beyond control.
That is why fire has no friend and leopard has spots. They are the scars of the wounds it suffered from fire while pleading for the hut to be spared.