Tales by Candlelight... A Sankofa Entry

It was late evening, sometime between dinner and bedtime. The power providers had seized the light, and four little kids had no particular thing to do. Being kids though, they weren't short on ideas. So to prevent a mini crisis, their dad decides to gather them round for a few stories...

Source

Illuminated by the light of a single candle, coconut cookie biscuits in hand, they all paid attention. This was a privileged moment.

One of those kids was yours truly, and though there's neither a power outage nor a candle currently lit, I'm about to tell you a couple of those stories...

Why the Yoruba's don't count people...

There once was a King in the ancient town of Ile-Ife. He was very prosperous and as a result he had a very large household, with many slaves to wait on him and his family.

However, his first son Jiboye was an arrogant fellow. He felt that being the prince made him better than every other person who wasn't part of the royal family. He carried himself in a manner that made people dislike him. One day, he said to his father the King,

"Father, how many slaves do you have?"

"I have so many slaves that I do not know how many." his father replied. "But what do you need that information for?"

"We need to count them so that people will know how influential you are. "

"But Jiboye" said his father, "Don't you think that will hurt their feelings, counting them like goats?"

But Jiboye insisted. "They're simply slaves father, why should we care what they feel?"

After considering for a moment, the king decided on what to do. "Alright Jiboye. Gather the slaves tomorrow, they shall be counted in the presence of the whole family."

The following day, the whole household gathered together, and Jiboye started counting them. When he was done, he declared the number of slaves to his father. His father, the king then stood up and declared.

"Thank you all for being patient. But that number is incomplete. There is one slave who has not been counted. He is Jiboye, the one who counted the rest of you."

"You see, long before my marriage was blessed with child, a female slave died under my care while giving birth to a son. Since we were yet to have children, we adopted this boy and took him in as our own. This boy is Jiboye. He may be my son, but he is also truly, a slave."

At this, the prince became tearful and looked sadly at the king. The king then told him, "I did tell you, no one likes it when they're treated differently from others."

Moral: Everyone should be afforded his/her dignity regardless of whether you're better off.

...

Sigidi the Beloved...

Sigidi was an idol in the beautiful town of Ayede. He was not just an idol, but a revered one. He was part of the history of Ayede, and as such he had a very important place in the hearts of the people.

Sigidi was a special idol. Though he was made of clay, he could talk. Whatwver he said he wanted was gotten for him. All the best offerings came to Sigidi's shrine. The people loved him, and treated him as such.

One day when Sigidi was been paraded around the town, he saw some people swimming in the stream. So he asked to be taken there to swim. But Sigidi was refused.

Sigidi wasn't pleased. He had never been refused anything he had asked before. So Sigidi threw a tantrum. At this his request was then granted.

But Sigidi found out the truth the bitter way. He was down at the bottom of the river and had almost melted away comoletely when his carrier dove in to fetch him out. Since then, Sigidi learned...

That no matter how much you are honored, there are limits as to what you can do. Pride they say, goeth before a fall.

---

Written for Sankofa Folktale Contest

I hope you enjoyed my candlelight tales