The three short stories selected are two Hausa Tales and from
Samuel Asare Konadu. The two stories were from a large collection of tales,
proverbs and other African traditional material. It is the largest repository
of African folklore in any language. The collection was a compilation of two
British administrators in Africa, Frank Edgar and John Alder Burdon. The name
Hausa was taken from a large ethnic group in Northern Nigeria who are called
Hausa people. They are trading and farming people whose language is used as the
lingua franca in Nigeria and in many neighboring countries.
The story of
Konadu was a fragment of the novel A Woman in Her Prime in which the heroine
was Pokuwaa. It dealt with the African belief in the supernatural and based
with the traditional life of African people.
The two tales
‘The Man with an Ugly Wife’ and ‘The Severed Head’ talk on ambitions from less
fortunate people , enchantments and test on truths.
The story
‘Fetish Child’ by Konadu talks of a woman, Pokuwaa, who wanted to bear a child
and was worried that in her mature age not a single child was blessed to her.
She sent rituals to the god Tano and asked him to give her a fetish child.
Although her rituals, a black hen and eggs, got lost, it was regained when she
found it in the woods.
A short
paragraph would give a summary of the three short stories:
The Fetish Child. It was Friday and the
day of sacrifice for the great god Tano. Pokuwaa prepared herself for it was
her turn in consultation and sacrifice which will be held at the house of Tano.
She asked for her heed of a child. Having black hen and eggs as offering, she
rubbed her limbs with shea cream and sprayed herself with smooth white clay
powder. This was for purification which was essential for this day of
sacrifice. When Pokuwaa reached to the spot where the hen had been tied , she
found out that the hen was gone. She searched for it in the village Brenhoma
then she come across with children playing and one of them saw the hen and who
had been throwing stones at the hen. The boy led her to the woods and in the
bushes Pokuwaa found the hen.
The Man with the ugly Wife. There was
once a man who married to an ugly wife. They were so poor and one day the man
built a hut for him to make the life of a hermit for forty days and nights. He
shut himself up in the hut and spent all his days and nights in prayer and
fasting. On the last night of his vigil, he had a dream and he learnt that he could
pray for three things and that whatever he prayed for would be granted to him.
The next morning, he let himself out and told everything to his wife. Upon
hearing, the wife decided to change herself into a beautiful woman. At
nightfall, the husband did what his wife requested, in the morning the wife
become the most beautiful and no other woman in town could match her. When the
chief heard the news, he ordered to bring in the palace the beautiful woman.
The husband, discovering that his wife had been captured, prayed that his wife
will turn into a monkey. As the chief prepared for his bride, he discovered
that she turned into a monkey. The chief returned her to the husband’s house.
The husband prayed that his wife shall return into her normal appearance for
her recovery. His prayer was answered and she turned into the same ugly woman.
The man learnt his lesson with that incident.
The Severed Head. There was once a
traveler who was making his way through the bush when he came upon a severed
head standing on a tree stump beside the path. He was about to come to it when
the head said: ‘Whatever you do, learn to keep your mouth shut’. The traveler
stopped in surprise and the head repeated what he said. The traveler ran away
in terror and when he reached the next town he went to the palace and was
admitted to the audience chamber where the Chief was sitting on his throne
wherein he reported what he saw. The chief wanted to know if the report was not
false and decided to test the truth of his story in which he gave a statement
that if the story proves to be true he will be rewarded but if it proves to be
false he shall pay for the falsehood of his own head. Executioner and some of
the chief’s henchmen were sent to go out with the traveler and found the head.
When they reached the tree stump they found that the severed head was still
there and they waited for it to speak. Until the last wait there was nothing to
hear , the executioner drew his sword and cut off the head of the traveler. As
the head of the traveler rolled out, the head on the stump spoke: ‘I told him
before to keep his mouth shut.’
Cultural Practices that can be found in
the short stories The Man with an ugly
Wife and The Severed Head: less in clothes and no food on people who are
poor, building a hut and clay as entrance or lock, doing a solitude life or
practicing hermit, using of tool as mattock, praying and fasting, putting of
chief as ruler of the village, seizing by force on women to be presented to the
chief and made her a bride (as practiced by the chief), living in palace by the
chief, audience chamber as court of the chief, belief in God as giver of life,
executioner, henchmen and courtiers as members of the court, giving of test on
truth as proof whether the reported news was true, and practicing of execution
on the evidence that the reported news was false.
In the story, Fetish Child, practices such as:
offering sacrifice for the great god Tano on Friday, water and other provision
were placed in the kitchen, bamboo enclosure as bathroom, a house set for the
god wherein people would ask consultation and offer sacrifice, use of drums and
offering of yams, sheep, goats, eggs, and cowries for the sacrificial
gathering, black hen and eggs as offering for those women who ask for a fetish
child , purifications-such as- rubbing of shea cream in the limbs and spraying
of smooth white clay powder in the entire body as an essence for the
sacrificial day, festive of Fofie on Friday and which come every six weeks,
having bushy hair and wearing cowries and shells tied in it by the children in
Brenhoma village, pampering of Fetish children for they believed that if they
were beaten , the gods would take them away, a shrine and oracles for Tano
(god) , belief that the black hen and eggs to be offered to the spirits would
bring back madwowa, belief that if
Pokuwaa cannot do the sacrifice her fate as a braven woman would be made
certain, Pokuwaa’s belief that her red fine blood that run in her due from the
prickling of the tiny thorn stems gave a sign that she was young enough to have
a child, and Pokuwaa’s making a sense of triumph made her believe that the
black snake which was a predator to the black hen was a bad spirit, or a man
turned into a snake.
The cultural
strains enumerated concluded that Africans are pagans, that they have strong
faith to their gods, and that they believe that their gods were giving them
guidance and good life from every sacrifice they offered. The stories showed
that every citizen in an African Village were helping each other that they were
bonded which resulted to a harmonious living.
The Political
aspect in the two tales presented that the head of the Village was the Chief.
He was domineering and gave orders that even personal matters were from his
command. Eventually, the chief was responsible for peace and order in the
village like his order of execution to the traveler if the report he gave was a
deceit.
The three short
stories reflected a situation wherein Africa was not yet colonized by the
Caucasians and was free from the bondage of slavery. Africa is rich in culture
and her paganism gave her a foundation for the course of living for the
Africans.
Rebecca Rodriguez
Web Rank Solution
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