African Stories
Excerpt from Verna's HIV/AIDS Awareness Presentation
ZIMBABWE
Once there was a man who had a wonderful dog. He loved this dog so much. Maybe he loved this dog so much because he didn’t have a son. The man took the dog with him wherever he went. He taught the dog so many tricks. He could follow various commands. He even began to walk short distances on his two back legs. Soon he could follow his master around walking only on his two hind legs. The man was so pleased.
He went to the tailor and asked him
to make a special suit for his dog. He
told the tailor, “See, my dog can walk like a man; now I want him to be dressed
as a man.” The tailor made the suit and
the man dressed his dog in the suit.
They were always seen together around the village.
One day the man was invited to eat dinner at a friend’s house. Of course he dressed his dog in the suit and they walked off together, side by side, the dog walking on his hind legs. The man had nearly forgotten this was really a dog. When they arrived at the friend’s house they were invited inside and sat down on the sofa. The dog sat up so nicely in his special suit while the men talked.
The lady of the house was cooking a special dinner for the visitor: fried chicken. They could all smell the delicious aroma coming out of the kitchen. The door wasn’t entirely closed to the kitchen so they could also see the woman cooking. As she was stirring the chicken, one of the pieces fell out of the pot and onto the floor. Suddenly the dog jumped off the sofa, ran into the kitchen, and out the door with the prized piece of stolen chicken.
From the Shona people in
Zimbabwe
Told by the late Rev. Ignatius Chavanduka
So if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians
5:17
INTRODUCTION from Verna's Book.
Once
upon a time there lived a mother antelope and her young son, Mpelembe, on a
high hill. The mother antelope told
Mpelembe to always stay on the hill and never go down to the valley. The valley had very green grass, but the
mother told her son that a lion lived there.
Mpelembe must never go down to the valley.
One
day Mpelembe decided to go down to taste that grass which was so green. It must be very tasty! “I will only go down just once.”
When
his mother wasn’t watching, he went down the hill to eat the green grass. He tasted the grass and it was very sweet
indeed. He thought that his mother must
have just wished to deprive him of this very tasty grass.
Meanwhile,
the hungry lion was watching. As
Mpelembe lingered over his tasty meal, the lion watched and waited. At an opportune time she pounced on
Mpemlembe and killed him.
The
mother antelope realised that her son was missing. She looked and looked for Mpelembe but could not find him anywhere. She hoped that he had not disregarded her
motherly advice and gone down to the green grass in the valley.
Now
you know that after lions make their kill they sit down in the shade to rest a
bit. While the lion rested, Kalulu the
rabbit, came along and saw Mpelembe. He
was hungry and decided to eat just the antelope’s ears. Maybe the lion would not miss them.
When
the lion came back to the antelope she saw Kalulu running away. She said, “Kalulu, you ate the antelope’s
ears.”
“No,
I did not eat the ears,” replied Kalulu.
“This antelope had no ears. Just
ask the mother up there.”
The
lion looked up the hill and saw the mother antelope looking down. She approached the hill and asked the
mother, “Is it true that this antelope had no ears?”
“Yes,
it is true,” declared the mother. If he
had ears he never would have gone down to the valley.[1]
THE LIFE OF A PERSON IS IN THE EARS.[2]
HIV/AIDS is devastating our world here in
Africa. It is like a giant before us
and we feel like grasshoppers in its face.
It dares us to do something to quell it, yet we have been reluctant,
ignorant and seemingly defenseless against its magnitude. People continue to die daily in mass
numbers; new orphans are left without parents each hour. Mass media daily gives out its solutions,
namely one: THE Condom, which the Church considers inadequate at best.
However, in Uganda, Faith Based Organisations have
made a definite impact on the declining rate of HIV/AIDS. This decline is due to the direct influence
of national leadership in the promotion of Biblical, moral virtues. They have promoted these ABC’s in prevention: A – Abstinence, B – Be
faithful to one life-long partner, C – Condom, but only as a last resort. Many studies have been done in Uganda
showing that:
1.
Men,
especially, have reported that they have confined their sexual activity to one
partner, vs. earlier reports of many partners
2.
Men
and women are choosing abstinence (In 2000, 72% unmarried women and 65% of
unmarried men reported no sexual partner the year before!)
3.
Many
youth are at least delaying their first sexual experience by two or more years
4.
Although
condom use has increased in urban areas, the rural Rakai District has had a
significant decline in the rate of HIV/AIDS with condom use only reported at
17%. [3]
In the media at least in Kenya, it seems many
African traditions and cultural ways are being openly condemned; truthfully,
some of these are indeed increasing the spread of this terrible scourge.
However, besides good and upright leadership, there
are also some very good traditions that have been effective for centuries in
teaching and training children and youth which are presently being overlooked
or ignored. One of the very best
African traditions helping to convey proper, moral values is the art of
storytelling. This method has been used
effectively since the beginning of time to teach the next generation the
positive values and beliefs of the fathers.
Africans, especially, have skillfully used
storytelling in an excellent manner to teach their young the beliefs they have
wanted them to learn. Oral literature
can be verbal or dramatized; it has the advantage that it attracts both young
and old, literate and illiterate.[4]
As families are broken and dispersed far and wide,
the storytellers, traditionally the grandmothers or grandfathers, have little
or no contact with urban children. In
addition, some of these stories are beginning to be forgotten. The purpose for this booklet is to bring
together a small collection of stories and proverbs from various African
countries with the hope that it will inspire
others to go find their own positive value-building messages for the next
generation.
The positive thing about storytelling is that it
costs no money, only time. Time is the one resource that God has given
to all of us in equal measure. Passing
on godly values and beliefs can still be done today with what resources we
already have. A proverb from the Luo
tribe in Western Kenya says, The sound of
a word goes further than that of a drum.[5]
The limitation of this booklet is that all stories
and proverbs are given in English. Thus
the beauty of the original language has somehow been compromised. However, since so many languages exist among
us and travel is so easy in our global community, one common language had to be
chosen. Since English is the medium we
use here at Africa Nazarene University, Nairobi, Kenya, it is the language that
was requested of each person who contributed something for this collection.
One English proverb says, You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, meaning that it’s harder to
teach older people new things. But the majority of Africa’s population is under
sixteen years of age! Is there HOPE for
our future generations here in Africa?
YES, INDEED! They can be trained
and taught godly values! May God help us in the Church to make a
difference to help save lives of these beautiful children and young people.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God,
the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These ommandments that I give you today are
to be upon your hearts. Impress them on
your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the
road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Deuteronomy
6:4-7
Where there is no revelation, the
people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Proverbs
29:18[6]
IF YOU WANT TO GO FAST, GO ALONE.
IF YOU WANT TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER.
African
Proverb
There is one body and one Spirit –
just as you were called to one hope
when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6
WITH GOD’S
HELP, TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE A
DIFFERENCE!