The Heron, by Anisa (9) 9 January, 2009

The following story is largely true. Anisa wrote it, then gave it her own little fictional twist at the end.

Black-headed heron in our garden, 7th January 2009. We more commonly get African grey herons come to visit

One early morning I spotted a heron! I ran to my mum and dad’s room and told them.

Dad and I looked at it for a while. After that I had breakfast – yummy! Then dad went to a meeting and by the time I finished my breakfast the heron had gone.

Well, that’s what I thought. But then I saw him again (he had moved). Of course, all this time my mum was asleep, though she was now awake, so I told her and showed her the heron.

My sister came in. We sat on the bed watching the heron. It looked as though it was about to eat. We have a moat, but the water is very low now because it hasn’t rained.

The heron bobbed in its head. For a long time its head didn’t come up! I was worried, so I ran outside where the heron was and saw that its head was stuck in the plastic sheeting that stops the water coming out.

I helped it out and then it started talking to me. “Thank you for saving my life,” it said very loudly and breathlessly.

Then it said, “Darling, time for school, wake up . . .”

It was only my dream!

Ethiopian folk stories, #3 30 June, 2008

The concluding episode of our short series of Ethiopian tales, as collected during my week with the family of a man called Ayele, in southern Ethiopia.

It’s worth remembering that Aesop’s fables all (or mostly) came out of Africa, and there is a clear resonance of those stories in these ones – the animal basis, the interaction of the storyteller with those hearing the tale, and the desire to pass on some kind of message that is useful for daily life. But it’s the choice of the message that is intriguing here – fatalistic rather than optimistic, suggesting steadfastness in the face of adversity rather than high morals and clever attempts to get out of difficulties.

I’ll follow this story up with some proverbs that the family passed on to me, too.

The brave goat

The she-goat produced many kids, but was sad when her owners took them all off to market to be sold for food. So she decided to leave the house, and set up home on her own. She stole the householder’s best knife and left. In due time, she had three little kids of whom she was very proud.

Ethiopian folk stories, #2 25 June, 2008

Continuing this short series of stories I picked up in southern Ethiopia, in a village called Molle Kebele, 5km from the town of Boreda. Ayele’s family speak Gamo (related to the larger language group Wollaayita).

Here are two stories, again reflecting the twist that the culture puts on the morals of its tales that sound slightly unusual to a western ear trained to listen out for ‘positive’ morals.  And for those who liked the zebra story last time, the second of these is an animal fable once again.

The story of the four old friends

Four old friends went into the forest to collect fruit from high trees.

The first was asked to get the fruit by climbing up and dropping it down. He refused: “I’m scared of heights,” he said.