Laughter then and now

Keeping children from being bored these days is not easy.

For there is stiff competition in the air.

There’s the tablet, for one, which, at the press of a button, takes them to the Internet.

The Internet where there are a whole gamut of games tailored to suit the tastes of every age group of children.

Try telling the stories. Ha – even the very funny ones often don’t impress them. What I remember from my mother’s list (that never failed to make me and my siblings laugh) don’t receive much of a welcome, I am afraid.

One story I recently recited, which was intended to open the door to my storehouse of stories inherited from my mother and her age group, is this:

There was once a nice little village surrounded by a forest. The forest was ‘virgin forest’ and it was fertile land which the people could use for farming.

They grew plantain, cocoyam, yam, cassava and vegetables on their farms. The land was so good that it also yielded vegetation that was edible but which, unlike those I have already mentioned, did not need to be deliberately planted. These natural foods included banana; a variety of ‘wild yams’ [whose Twi names are ahabayer?, as?bayer? and nkamfo?].

The soil was also very good for mushrooms, such as mpempena, nsibire and nkaak?m.

Of these mushrooms, nsibire: is the most delicious: it has a sweet crown and a long ‘tail’. It is good for making both soup and stew. Nkaak?m is also good for soup but it tastes better if fried with specially-prepared palm oil in a stew.

Mpempena is a strange mushroom – it is tiny in size but extremely luxuriant when it sprouts up. It can be gathered all along the length and breadth of a farm! It comes after rainfall, usually, as soon as a farm has been ‘burnt’ and ash has been left on the ground from the burning process. Mpempena is immensely popular, for it can be eaten by itself when boiled in salted water.

Unfortunately for the people of the village, I am telling you about, their fertile land was shared with many wild animals, some of which (like grasscutters [akrante?] were very good for food. But there were also dangerous predators like lions [gyata] and leopards [?keteb?]. Some of these dangerous animals moved deeper into the forest whenever they encountered human beings, for they knew that humans could kill them by snaring them with traps or shooting them with guns.

But there was one lion which felt so strong that it refused to retreat into the deep bush like the other animals. Its brute strength enabled it to break down traps set for it by the inhabitants of the village. And whenever hunters went after it with their guns, it was able to smell them from afar before they got to it. When it smelt hunters, it would hide and stalk them, take them by surprise and kill them – before they could fire a single shot at it.

The lion’s exploits frightened the people. And some moved away from the village. Many of those who remained refused to make farms near the lion’s ‘territory’.

Now, because the land which the lion had ‘annexed’ to itself was very fertile indeed, some people kept trying to get rid of the lion.

They hunted it in packs – to no avail.

They hid in the bush at night to see whether it would dare come near them – but again to no avail.

They thought hard and discussed the issue many times. But they could not come up with any plan that would enable them to get rid of the lion.

Then, out of the blue, a stranger came to live in the village. He came from a part of Ghana where there were many lions, and so when he heard of the story of the lion, he saw a way of making himself so useful to the people so as to make them accept him as if one of their own.

He told the villagers that if they allowed him to go and make a farm in the area monopolised by the lion, he would be able to deal with the animal. The villagers readily agreed, for, of course (as I said before) they were afraid to use the land themselves.

What the wise stranger did was to go and make a farm in the lion’s territory. The lion was surprised that anyone could come so boldly into its territory and was certain the man had a trick up his sleeves. So the lion hid nearby and watched the man carefully every day, without attacking him. It wanted to detect any plan the man might harbour to harm the lion.

But the man didn’t do anything unusual – until he had finished making the farm.

Then he brought a goat into the farm, tied it to a tree and went home!

The lion was attracted by the loud crying of the goat.

The lion could not believe its eyes.

It waited for nightfall. Then, it began creeping towards the goat.

Nothing happened.

The lion crept forward a little more.

Still, nothing happened.

Now, because it was watching the goat all the time, the lion had not eaten all day. As it saw the goat chewing the cud and moaning loudly, the lion’s appetite for goat meat rose very high.

After watching the goat for a while, the lion charged!

Within minutes, the goat was dead.

The lion was happy! It was still alive and the goat was dead!

The lion began to gore itself on goat meat.

It ate and ate and ate and ate.

Now, as happens to anyone who overfeeds, the lion – fell asleep!

Meanwhile, from a hiding place, the man had been watching the lion. What happened next?