THE ONE-HANDED GIRL - A Swahili Children's Story: Baba Indaba’s Children's Stories - Issue 404

By Anon E. Mouse and Narrated by Baba Indaba

ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 404
In this 404th issue of the Baba Indaba’s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the Swahili Fairy Tale "THE ONE-HANDED GIRL”.

A dying man asked his children which they would have: his property or his blessing. His son wanted his property, and his daughter his blessing. He died. Soon after, his wife died as well, and again, the son wanted her property and the daughter her blessing. She died. The brother left his sister only a pot and a vessel, but people borrowed her pot and gave her corn for it, so the sister survived. One day, she had a pumpkin seed and planted it, and grew pumpkins as well.

Her brother, envious, stole her pot and mortar, but she was able to replace them by selling her pumpkins. Her brother's wife sent a slave to buy one, and the sister gave her one for free, though there were few left, so the wife sent another slave, and this one the sister had to send away, because there were none left. The wife wept and told the brother that his sister would sell pumpkins to other people but not to her. Enraged, the brother went to cut the sister's pumpkin patch down. His sister told him that if he did, he would cut off her hand with it, but putting her hand on it did her no good: he cut it off while chopping down the vines. Then he sold the house she lived in and cast her out.

Well, what happened next you ask…? Well many things happened. There were some strange, some silly and some serious occurrences. But exactly what were they? To find the answers to these questions, and others you may have, you will have to download and read this story to find out!

Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".

Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps.

INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES

See the 400+ Baba Indaba Children's stories on Google Play. Search for "Baba Indaba Children’s Stories" or using the ISSN "2397-9607" to get the full list.

10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.

TAGS: Baba Indaba, Father of Stories, Children’s, Folklore, Fairy, Folk, Tales, bedtime story, legends, storyteller, man, daughter, son, wife, hard times, poor, make do, meanness, mean, pumpkin, corn, maize, grow, sell, sister, brother, snake, one hand, cut off, prince, marry, child, restoration, kindness, hand, sister, brother, water, pool

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abela Publishing
• Release date: Jan 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9788827546222

Book preview

THE ONE-HANDED GIRL

A Swahili Fairy Tale

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

Published By

Abela Publishing, London

2017

THE ONE-HANDED GIRL

Typographical arrangement of this edition

©Abela Publishing 2017

This book may not be reproduced in its current format

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without the prior written permission

of the publisher.

Abela Publishing,

London, United Kingdom

2017

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

ISSN 2397-9607

Issue 404

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Website:

www.AbelaPublishing.com

An Introduction to Baba Indaba

Baba Indaba, pronounced Baaba Indaaba, lived in Africa a long-long time ago. Indeed, this story was first told by Baba Indaba to the British settlers over 250 years ago in a place on the South East Coast of Africa called Zululand, which is now in a country now called South Africa.

In turn the British settlers wrote these stories down and they were brought back to England on sailing ships. From England they were in turn spread to all corners of the old British Empire, and then to the world.

In olden times the Zulu’s did not have computers, or iPhones, or paper, or even pens and pencils. So, someone was assigned to be the Wenxoxi Indaba (Wensosi Indaaba) – the Storyteller. It was his, or her, job to memorise all the tribe’s history, stories and folklore, which had been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. So, from the time he was a young boy, Baba Indaba had been apprenticed to