Old Stories

ies

  by

  Mozambican Writers

  edited by Ingrid Schechter

  Copyright 2014 Mozambican Writers

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form.

  Acknowledgements

  The editor of this collection had the privilege of working at Universidade Pedagógica Sagrada Família in Mozambique for a year as a volunteer with CUSO/VSO. She wishes to thank Padre Ezio Bono and all at UniSaf for their support and encouragement.

  Table of Contents

  Karingana wa Karingana

  The Monkey and the Rabbit

  The Cooking Game

  The Staring Game

  The Sick Hyena

  The Lion and the Rabbit

  Rabbit Goes to a Party

  Monkey Eats his own Tail

  Why don't we Kill our Mothers?

  The Race

  The Monkey and the Turtle

  The End of a Friendship

  The Dancing Goat

  Obey the King

  Ku Do Teku

  Why Frog is So Ugly

  The Three Friends

  The Rabbits and the Tiger

  A Man and a Lion

  Ugly Boy and Old Bear

  The Curious Girl

  The Bank

  The Mason

  The Tar-Baby

  The Witch's Drum

  The Man who Married Two Women

  About these Stories

  In the Classroom

  List of Contributors

  Karingana wa Karingana

  It was night. The chill was everywhere. Grandma was happy. Mauro and Nuno were too. The moon was bright. No dogs were barking. The cicadas were singing happily. They could easily be heard.

  Only Maria was sad and quiet. Her beautiful eyes were red. Her face was wet. She was thoughtful. She had recently lost both her parents.

  “It’s OK . . . Oh Maria, don’t be sad. Mum and dad are now bright stars in the sky. They can see you from there. Look, can you see those two stars smiling at you?” Grandma said.

  “They are so bright…,” Maria said.

  “Hmmm…hmmm, you see?” Grandma murmured gently.

  “Oh grandma, I miss mum," she said.

  “Tell me a story, grandma,” Maria said, staring closely at her grandma.

  Maria was very tired. She had been crying the whole day, “Oh, oh dear.”

  “What kind of story would you like me to tell you?” Grandma whispered to her.

  “Hmm hmmm hmm…tell me the story of the clever rabbit, grandma . . ,” she said, staring at the bonfire. Her two elder brothers were silent. They were squatting beside the bonfire.

  “Here we go, sweetie . . . . . Karingana wa Karingana,” Grandma said, smiling at her.

  “Karingana,” Mauro and Nuno broke their long silence.

  So Grandma told the following story:

  A long, long, time ago, when animals had thoughts, feelings, and emotions, they behaved like humans. Stories of wars and battles were heard everywhere. The animals were fighting to find out who would be made the king. Birds like eagles, hawks, pelicans, flamingos, peacocks were trying to choose their king. So, they decided that if there were any birds with horns, those should automatically be kings. The owl heard that story. It lied and got elected as the king of birds. The race of owls ruled for more than one and a half thousand years. This age finished when two owls drank too much wine and had a fight! They ended up taking off those horn-like feathers. So, they were discovered and put off the throne.

  All the animals discussed and chose kings and queens that ruled and were thrown out. Conflicts between animals were very common. There was no rule for killing or hunting enemies. Snakes could kill impalas and zebras. Fierce lions could kill innocent gazelles. There was complete chaos. So, elephants and rhinos decided to summon all the animals to a meeting to solve these conflicts in the jungle. Thousands of animals came to that big meeting. After many days of discussion, all the animals decided to elect the lion as the king of the jungle. The king of the swamp, the crocodile, contested it but nobody listened. So, lions ruled the whole jungle for more than five thousand years.

  Centuries passed. Lions oppressed and killed many animals to use as food. The lion ruled ferociously. He dismissed the king’s advisers including the elephants and the rabbits. So some of the animals organized themselves and overthrew the king. After a very long debate, they decided to elect the elephant as the new king. Thousands of years passed and elephants ruled honestly. Rabbits were advisers to elephants. But after generations of easy life the rabbits became lazy.

  One day, Mr. Rabbit was hungry. So he decided to visit his friend Mr. Monkey. Rabbit was a shrewd animal. So he decided to see Monkey when it was lunchtime. When Rabbit arrived, Monkey was cooking four eggs for his meal.

  “Good afternoon, Monkey, it is always a pleasure to see you again,” he said.

  “Oh, beloved Rabbit, the pleasure is all mine,” Mr. Monkey replied. But at the same time he smiled sarcastically. “Can’t I live in peace at least for a single lunch? Do I have to be visited when I am about to eat my eggs? Can’t he come a little bit later?” he thought.

  It seemed Mr. Monkey was trying to think up an excuse to persuade Rabbit to leave his house before he took the eggs from the pot. They continued chatting away for two hours. Monkey was trying to invent an excuse.

  “Now I know what to do to get rid of this boring guy. I will pretend I am going to the toilet and then I will stay there for a long time and he will end up giving up and leaving.”

  So Mr. Monkey went to the toilet and remained there for two hours, but the Rabbit wouldn’t leave. During this time, Mr. Rabbit took three eggs and ate them. When Mr. Monkey came back from the toilet he found out that only one egg remained. John Monkey started crying and complaining about his loss.

  “Oh, Rabbit, we are no longer friends. You have just betrayed me. These eggs were being cooked so they could be hatched by the hen.”

  Monkey was so angry he decided he would report the case to the king.

  Three months later, the king signed a letter to summon Mr. Rabbit to a trial. So, the rabbit was more than three months at home. And when he arrived before the judge, he was all dirty.

  “We summoned you three months ago. Why didn’t you show up earlier?” the king asked.

  “Your Majesty, I didn’t mean to. I was cooking beans in order to sow them. That’s why I took a long time,” replied the clever rabbit. The king started laughing, and then he said,

  “Very interesting, Mr. Rabbit, but I would like to know how can you sow cooked beans?”

  “Well, if I cannot sow cooked beans, how can Mr. Monkey‘s hen hatch cooked eggs?” Mr. Rabbit replied. The king was surprised and didn’t know what to say!

  “If you were King Elephant, what would you say, sweetie?” Grandma smiled at her granddaughter.

  “I would say that you’re the best grandma in the world!!” Maria hugged her grandma tightly. The little girl was no longer sad. The night continued. Birds announced it was midnight. Maria was the happiest girl in the world.

  The Monkey and the Rabbit

  Once upon a time, the monkey and the rabbit were close friends. One day the monkey was starving. He could not resist his hunger. He decided to walk around the neighborhood to find food. While he was strolling, he found his friend Rabbit cooking eight eggs.

  The monkey didn’t know how to go to his friend and ask for some eggs. So he hid himself. He was looking for a chance to steal some eggs. Then the rabbit left his pot with the eggs in it. He had gone somewhere, but not far from his meal.

  “This is th
e chance I need,” says the monkey.

  So that very minute the monkey took four eggs from the pot. Shortly after that, the rabbit came back. He realized that four eggs were missing. He went crazy! But he could do nothing at all about it, because he didn’t know who stole them. He was suspicious of the monkey, though.

  One day the rabbit was also hungry. He decided to walk around. Suddenly he saw his friend Monkey busy cooking beans. He didn’t think twice, but took the pot of beans off the fire and ate it all. When the monkey found out he got angry and said,

  “Hooo…my friend, look what you have done! I was cooking the beans so I could plant them. Now I have no choice. I have to report this to the mayor of the community.” And so he did.

  The mayor of the community immediately set up a meeting. The monkey and the rabbit had to be there. Once they were all there, the mayor said,

  “Mr. Rabbit, can you explain this matter.”

  The rabbit said, “Yes. In fact, I did eat the beans. Because last time my friend ate the eggs I cooked. Those eggs were meant for my hen to hatch.”

  The mayor was surprised and said,

  “How can a hen hatch cooked eggs?

  Very calmly and slowly the rabbit said,

  “If is not possible for a hen to hatch cooked eggs, how can you plant cooked beans?”

  The mayor just laughed, “Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!”

  In the end he realized the Monkey had just been trying to be clever. So the mayor dismissed them both.

  The Cooking Game

  Once upon a time, the rabbit and the monkey were friends. One day, in a time of famine, the rabbit decided to invite his friend over to play.

  The rabbit said, “Let’s play cooking each other!”

  The monkey asked, “How can we do that?”

  And the rabbit answered, “We have to make a fire, fill a pot