Obaba Museum

Last week, we took a ride down memory lane; we discussed African folktales and how these tales occupy a greater part of our childhood memories. The fact that each story was usually replete with a lesson to learn, or that it usually contained an explanation to a particular phenomenon that can truly be related with or that the main characters are animals with specific traits makes these stories all the more interesting. Hence, we continue from where we stopped last week. Remember we promised to tell the story that explains why the tortoise’s shell is rough and uneven .Try to look back to the time you saw a tortoise either in a picture or live. You might have vivid or vague memories of the unevenness and rough nature of the shell. Why’s that? Well, here’s the story that explains it all.

Long long ago, in the animal kingdom, there was a great famine. Children were hungry, families were starving and there was no hope of getting food anytime soon. What made the matter even worse was that the birds of the air did not have to suffer the famine with the other animals because there was a regular feast in heaven that only they could attend because they could fly. Each time they came back from the feast, they reported joyously what happened and how well they feasted. The likes of the eagle, vultures, pigeons, among others looked robust and healthy, making other animals jealous and envious. Among the animals that observed the birds was Tortoise. Each time he saw them, it was torture to him and he wished he could fly. “I have to think of a way to make myself fly so I can attend the next feast,”, Tortoise thought to himself as he sat outside his house one day. Then an idea struck him! “I’ll plead with the birds to lend me a feather each , then I’ll glue the feathers to my body, so I can fly! ” He did a little dance of joy because he had finally found a solution.The next day, he got prepared and set out to each bird’s house. Each time a bird asked him, “why should I lend you a feather?” , he replied in the most innocent way possible that he had been starving and so that he won’t die of hunger, the birds should be merciful and allow him attend the feast by giving him the feathers. Fortunately, tortoise succeeded in convincing the birds. So, he collected as many feathers as possible and went back home happy.

On the day of the feast, he glued all the feathers to his body, making him look all colourful and radiant, then he set out with the birds. Typical of tortoise, he had a very cunning plan and before they took off the ground, he stated to the birds that he’ll bear the name “All of you” for the special occasion. The birds agreed unknowingly and they took off in the air. After a while, they got to the location of the feast. There was a large table containing different sumptuous meals that made Tortoise’s mouth water. They took their seat at the table and just as they were about to start eating, tortoise stood up and asked their host, “who has this food? ” The host replied, “it’s for all of you.”Tortoise looked at the birds and deviously stated that since his name was All of you and they had agreed to it before the journey, the feast was meant for him alone. Greedily, he ate and ate and ate all the food till he was full and his stomach bulged, leaving only scraps for the birds. This angered the birds so much that they snatched their feathers from him leaving him bare and unable to fly back.They proceeded to fly to the earth and refused to carry Tortoise with them, leaving him stranded. Before the birds left , he managed to convince Parrot to tell his wife, Yannibo when they got to earth to arrange soft things on the ground so that when he jumped from heaven, he would have a soft landing. Tortoise was oblivious of the fact that Parrot had a plan of his own too. When Parrot got to earth, he told Tortoise’s wife the complete opposite of what Tortoise said so that instead of arranging soft things on the ground, she arranged hard objects like rocks, iron, and so on. Finally Tortoise jumped from heaven and instead of landing on soft ground, he landed painfully on hard surface making his shell shatter all over. He realised Parrot had beat him in his game His wife ran frantically over to him and helped glue the broken pieces of his shell together but even after he healed, the shell never went back to the smooth nature It once had. So maybe next time you see a Tortoise, take a long hard look at its shell and be reminded how it came about the roughness. You might even see some of the scars that the rocks and iron gave him! Having said all, were you able to learn any lessons from this story? Kindly share them in the comment section. Thank you!