Gather now; come closer
Warm your hands, sit near the fire
It is a cold evening.
And I have a folk tale for you,
I hope it prepares everyone for a good sleep.
Ifochakpi!
Waa!!
Once upon a time
In a land far away
Across seven rivers
And seven hills
Lived a clan of animals
Then there was no strife
No envy, no rivalry
Between the clan of animals
For then the strife held not
Cause there was no king
No ruler, no master of any sort
But animals who lived freely
They tilled their land as they wished
When they wanted to and so on
Then some stronger animals
Felt they could bully others
So many animals started trespassing
Some took others’ lands
Some marched on others’ crops
And some hijacked others’ wives
So, Anarchy decided to spread
Her blanket of no good
Upon the animal clan
Until the Cricket suggested
That all head homes should meet
To resolve this…
So during the meeting
Everybody sat down quietly
And waited for someone to talk
Mumblings filled the arena
The guilt of crimes won’t let anyone speak
The mosquitoes, carefree, buzzed aloud
‘Wait!’ the Cricket yelled
‘I greet you all,’ he began politely
‘The way to solve this menace
Is to appoint a King who will rule us
Someone who will bring justice
And fairness to both big and small.’
‘Nice idea,’ his relatives called after him
‘Now I am the brain of the meeting
I should be allowed to nominate
My humble self as the King of the clan!’
‘What? Why?’ an angry Elephant trumpeted
‘You little thing, so minute, so irrelevant!
How dare you even think of that
When is someone like me here?
I should be the King undisputed!’
‘You all must be joking!’ laughed the Giraffe
‘How can you become the King
When you are just round like a football
And can’t even move a leg higher?
No, no, no, it just doesn’t fit you
Well, take a look at me and my length
I interact with the moon
And when angry I ate her half!
I should be the King instead!’
The whole clan went dead in silence
They thought the Elephant would retaliate
So they waited for the worst to happen
But nothing happened…
‘Let me be the King,’ the ape called out
‘None of you is so capable of tree climbing
And I can swing and dance up the skies
You don’t know this feeling of tree-dwelling
The skies are my playground… Can’t you see?’
‘Talking about the playground, you are out of it!’
The Eagle whined…
‘I live in mountain peaks
Where none of you can reach
Or dare reach and I am the master
Master of the blue clouds and wind
Make me your king!’
‘Talking about flying, you are not alone in it.’
A mosquito stood to talk
‘How many of you can sing in a human ear
And make him slap himself madly?’
‘No way, who speaks now?’ the Lion growled
‘The kingship belongs to the pride and me
The pride is tremendous and courageous
And can defend and take care of the clan
My roars frighten our enemies
My claws are fine killing machines!’
‘No sir, was it not one of your pride members
That slaughtered an innocent sheep the other day?
We can’t let you be our King’
Someone yelled from the crowd
‘So what do we do right now?’
Let us then nominate from those
Who showed interest in the position.’
An elderly Parrot suggested
‘Please, everyone should point at their candidate.’
To the crowds’ surprise
Everyone pointed to their kith
The Giraffes to the Giraffes
The Apes to their kind
The Pride to the Lions
And so on…
And when no headway was made
Everyone nominated himself for Kingship
Since everyone was to be the King
They all left fighting and arguing
And so is the animal clan
In much confusion till this very day!
Image from Www.123RF.com
Oke Iroegbu's Musings 