SANKOFA CREATIVE COMPETITION #1-HOW DEATH CAME INTO THE WORLD-AN IGBO FOLKTALE

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“Ahhhhh! My stomach.. This wife of mine would kill me one day. How many times would I tell her not to put those accursed herbs in my food, now the son of Okonkwo will die in this farm because of her. Mba, no, I must let this monster loose”.

Amadi, the Sloth, dropped the hoe he had been using to weed his tiny farmland and sprinted towards a nearby bush, gripping his buttocks lest he bathe himself with the faecal matter that threatened to burst out of him like a broken dam.

When he found a spot that wasn’t crawling with soldier ants and insects looking for a nice anus to call home, he squatted, dumped a huge pile of shit on the leaves and wiped himself with some leaves.

“Well, this has spoilt my mood, so today is gone. Farm work will have to wait. My buttocks are too sore to bend over these stupid mounds”. With that he walked slowly and gingerly home.

Meanwhile in the forest, the other animals had a much bigger problem.

“She has to die, I can’t not stand another insult from my mother-in-law...” cried the mouse.

“...no food, I have no space to keep my children, the old ones have taken them all”, wailed the pig.

“No, our fathers are our wisdom, who will teach us if they are gone!”, roared the Lion.

“We want death.”

“No, life, life!”

The animals screamed over each other, teeth were bared, claws were gleaming, heads bearing sharpened horns were tossed restlessly from side to side. A deadly fight could start at any moment.

“Let us have a race!”

Squeaked a voice. A hush fell over them, and everyone looked to their neighbours, wondering where the voice had come from.

“I’m up here. Let us have a race, those animals who want death should choose their champion, and those for life should choose theirs too. We will send them to the gods and whoever reaches first is the winner”.

Heads turned towards the source of the voice, it was the bat. He had been woken up from his sleep by their quarrel and had immediately fallen asleep after giving his advice.

The animals, both great and small, all agreed that this was a brilliant idea.

Those that didn’t want death to come quickly chose the dog as their champion, he was the fastest amongst them and could run great distances. He was perfect.

The other side decided to draw lots, when the lot fell on Mbe the tortoise, the slowest of them all, they knew that all was lost and most went home grumbling.

“Hahaha! Wonders shall never cease to happen. You! Tortoise! Against me? This would be very easy. I will even give you a headstart, you really need it”.

The dog swaggered to a tree and promptly fell asleep, while the tortoise extended his leg as far as he could and started his laborious journey.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking, the tortoise stopped to rest.

Soon enough, the dog reached him and started laughing, he laughed so hard and jumped so much, it made him hungry.

The dog had packed no food for the road, his hunger was about to do him in, but his nose caught the whiff of fresh faeces and his salivating mouth followed,
“it’s just a little food, I will catch up with the tortoise, let me eat first”.

The dog ate and ate and ate some more, when his belly was full, he decided to rest a little, but he fell into a deep sleep.

While the dog slept, Mbe the tortoise crawled steadily towards the sky, slowly, softly.

Finally, he reached the home of the gods and delivered his message, and the gods sent him home on the wings of the eagle.

The silly dog woke up hours later and raced to the sky, flinging himself and his message at the feet of the gods.

“THE TORTOISE CAME FIRST, AND THE FIRST MESSAGE HAS REACHED THE GODS”, the gods thundered

The dog begged and begged but it was futile, he was devastated and went home shamefully.

That was how death came into the world, and why the dog eats faeces till this day.

MORAL

1. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE ANYONE.
2. THE RACE IS NOT OVER UNTIL IT IS OVER.
3. BE FOCUSED AND PREPARED
4. SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE.

This is the story of the origin of life and death that my people told me and now I share it with you, please learn from it.

Your comments are highly appreciated, so I can improve myself. If you like this, you can upvote or resteem this post. Thank you.