Three African Stories

The Boy and The Girl

(Cameroon)

Once, there was a man who was a hunchback. When he went courting, he saw a woman who was also a hunchback. He said to the woman, “I wish to marry you, because you are a hunchback, even as I myself. Therefore, I wish to marry you.”

The woman assented, and they were married.

The  man  happened  to  hear  of a  person  who  had  the  power  to  heal hunchbacks, so he arose to go to this man. As he was journeying on the road, he came  upon  a  very  old  man, and  he  gave  him  some  food. The man was offensive and ugly and dirty, but he nonetheless gave him of his food.

The  old  man  said  to  him, “My  young  man, when  you  have  reached the town and they cook food for you, then take the food to a house that is old and tumble-down; do not object, but go and eat there.”

And the young man did that. When he reached the town, they cooked food  for him, then took  it  to  a  bad-looking  house. He  went  there  and entered the house and began to eat the food.

Suddenly, he  noticed  a  very  old  man  lying  there, and  he  took  part  of his food and gave it to the old man.

The old man asked him, “Who instructed you in this matter?”

He answered, “I myself.”

Then  the  old  man  said, “This  very  night, if they  come  and  ask  you,

‘Which  do  you  prefer, a  charm  covered  with  the  skin  of the  genet  or  a charm covered with the skin of a civet cat?’ you reply, ‘I prefer a charm covered with the skin of a genet.’ And if they ask you, ‘Which do you prefer  to  be, straight as  an  arrow  or bent over?’ you  answer, ‘Straight  as  an arrow.’”

When  night  had  come, they  showed  him  a  house  in  which  he  was  to sleep.

During the night, they came to him.

“Which do you prefer, a charm covered with the skin of the genet or a charm covered with the skin of a civet cat?”

He said, “I prefer a charm covered with the skin of a genet.”

And they asked, “Which to do you prefer to be, straight as an arrow or bent over?”

And he said, “Straight as an arrow.”

And thus he was healed.

He returned to his own town, a man healed completely.

When his wife saw this, she was very much grieved, because she and her husband had both been hunchbacks, but now her husband was a well man.

So the woman jumped up quickly and started to go.

But her husband called out to her, “Wait! I will instruct you as to what you should do.”

But  she  replied, “No!  Did  you  say  anything  to  me  at  all, or  even  say goodbye, when you went away?”

So she went in great haste.

And when she came upon the old man lying by the roadside, she spat

on the ground, and said, “What a horrid old thing this is!”

And the old man, in turn, said, “My youthful woman, go on to where you wish to go.”

The  woman  said  to  him, “I  see  that  you  wish  to  offer  me  insult  with your talk.”

She left him lying there and went on her journey.

When  she  had  come  to  the  town, they  cooked  food  for  her, and  they took the food to the house where the old man was staying.

She said, in her pride, “Am I of no account that they take food for me to such a horrible place?”

The  people  said  to  her, “We  know  of no  better  place  where  you  can go to eat.”

And the woman ate all the food herself. Not a bite did she give to the very old man.

When night came, they showed her a house to sleep in.

They  came  to her during  the  night and  asked  her, “Which  do  you prefer to be, straight as an arrow or bent over?”

She said, “Bent over.”

They asked her, “Which do you prefer, a charm covered with the skin of a genet or one covered with the skin of a civet cat?”

She replied, “A charm covered with the skin of a civet cat.”

And the hunch on her back became even worse than the one she had previously borne.

When she returned home to her husband, he said to her, “I will never live in marriage with you again.”

Thus did the woman go went from bad to worse. Upon whom rests the blame for this affair? Is it upon the woman herself or her husband? Thus did the woman go from bad to worse.

The Sultan’s Wife

(Somalia)

There was a sultan who had a son.

His son said, “I want to marry.”

So the sultan gave him many presents and also a ship. The sultan’s son set sail and came to a town. When he arrived at the town, he became friends with a sultan, and the sultan gave him a house.

The young man made a hole between the house he was in and the sultan’s house, and he became friends with the sultan’s wife.

One day, the young man said to the sultan’s wife, “Make some food for me just as you are accustomed to make it for your husband.” Then he went to the sultan and said, “Tonight, will you take food with me?”

The sultan said, “Well and good.”

The young man said to the sultan’s wife, “Tonight, when I and the sultan are having our food, I want you to serve us the food.”

The woman said, “The sultan will know me.”

He said, “He will not know you. I will say you are my wife.”

She said, “If he does not know me, I will go with you and be your wife.”

At night, the sultan came home and dressed himself, then went to the young man’s house. And his wife passed through the hole in the house and came to the young man’s house. Then she served the food to the sultan and the young man.

The sultan recognized his wife and got off his chair and went to his house. Before he reached his house, the woman passed through the hole and sat on her bed. And the sultan saw her.

When he saw her, he straightway came back to the house of the young man, while the woman came through the hole, and still he saw her.

The young man who was dining with him said to the sultan, “Did you think this woman who is serving our food was your wife? The woman is my wife,” he said.

And the sultan sat down.

The next morning, the young man said, “I am sailing.”

“Very good,” the sultan answered.

And the young man arranged matters with the sultan’s wife, saying, “In the morning, come through that hole; I am sailing.”

So the woman came through and came to the young man, and he took her to the ship and sailed.

And the young man, having run away with the sultan’s wife, married her.

Spider

(Liberia)

There was a spider. And a great famine came into the country so that there was no rice, no cassadas, no plantains, no palm-cabbage, no meat, no victuals: a great famine had come into the country. The spider and his wife had been begetting children for a long time: a hundred children. There was no food in the country for them to give to the children.

The spider became sick—it was a feigned sickness.

He said to his wife, “I shall die.”

And his wife said, “Do not die. We will work.”

The spider said, “No, I shall die.” And he said to his wife, “When I have died, do not place me in a reclining position. Instead, set me upright in the hole and lay boards on me, then put earth on the boards.”

His wife consented. The spider died. The woman said to her children, “Dig a hole.”

And they dug a hole, and they set the spider in the hole: they did not place him in a reclining position, they set him in the hole. With boards, they covered the hole.

Then, when evening came, the spider came out of the hole and went to a marsh far away.

He was still alive: he had not died.

He went and met a great woman, a chief. The woman possessed very much rice, very much rice was in her farm, and very much was in the store, and there were very many cassadas in the farm. But the woman was barren; she had no children.

The spider asked, “My mother, where are your children?”

She said, “I have no children.”

He said, “I have a medicine. I will give it to you. Drink it, and you will become with child and give birth.”

The woman said, “Give me the medicine. When I give birth, if I give birth to a child, I will give you a whole shed full of rice, two farms of cassada, and a great many plantains.”

The spider, because of the famine, agreed. He went away to take out the medicine by the way, and then he returned to the woman. She killed a goat and cooked rice for the spider and said, “Spider, here is rice for you.”

The spider ate the rice; he was satisfied.

Then he put the medicine into a bowl, put water into the bowl, mashed the medicine into a bowl, put water into that bowl, then mashed the medicine.

He said to the woman, “Bring a strip of cloth.”

He tied it around the woman’s eyes and said, “Drink the medicine. And when you have drunk the medicine, you will see me no more. I am going far away. In six months, you will give birth to a male child. Then I shall return so that you can give me my rice and all my victuals.”

The woman agreed. She took the bowl and drank the medicine.

The spider jumped into the bowl, and the woman swallowed the spider.

The spider was inside the woman.

And the woman brought forth a child: it was the spider himself.

The woman gave him water to drink; she cooked excellent rice and gave it to the spider to eat. The spider had been within her: her baby was the spider.

The woman did not know that her baby was the spider.

There is an animal in the forest, his name is deer. He is cunning.

The deer said, “I shall go and see the woman’s child; he has been eating the woman’s rice for six months.” The deer arrived and said, “My mother, I have come to see your child.”

The woman handed her child to the deer.

The deer looked at the child, and he saw that it was a spider. He handed the child to the woman. The woman took the child and laid it within cloths.

The deer went far away to a town, took a switch, returned, then took the cloth from on the baby and flogged him well. The baby ran and went far away. The deer said to the woman, “It was a spider, it was no child. The spider was an impostor.”

The spider went to his wife, hear!

All his wife’s rice had become ripe, she had very many fowls, she beat rice, and her children killed animals for meat. The woman cooked the rice, she cooked the meat, she put the rice into a bowl and put the meat into the rice.

The spider came in one evening and met his wife while she was eating rice. He pushed his wife’s hand, passed on, and stood there. The wife put her hand into the rice. The spider struck his wife’s hand again and said to his wife, “I died long ago and have now returned.”

The wife did not reply.

The wife’s child said, “My mother, it is my father.”

The wife said, “No, your father died long ago.”

The spider came, and said to his wife, “I am the spider.”

The wife said, “The spider died long ago.”

The spider is an impostor, hear!

Finished.

All three Taken from "African Tales".

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