Folktales Volume 3:: All Other Stories

By Emma Umana Clasberry

The purpose of retelling these folktales is not only to impart cultural information to the young nor to preserve the stories for future generations. It is not only to entertain ourselves with the humor some of the stories provoke nor to learn from the mistakes of characters reflected in the stories so as to avoid similar consequences. It is also to inculcate moral values and discipline and social skills among the young and the adults of all races.

Reading or listening to the stories also promotes good listening and right guessing, enhances logical and critical reasoning, sharpens our common sense, and improves our thinking skills. Let’s maximize every opportunity we have to use these valuable tools for educating the young as well as adults.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796018479

Emma Umana Clasberry

Emma Umana Clasberry has authored many books on African culture purposed to promote cultural awareness among youth and young adults, and to aid them understand how adequate knowledge of their ethnic culture or lack of it can impact their cultural identity, self-esteem and confidence, their education and career choices as well as economic development, welfare and cultural pride of a people. Her interest in Nigerian-Ibibio folklore remains stronger than ever. Emma earned a B.A in Political Science and an M.A. in Urban Planning & Policy from University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Doctor of Education degree from California Coast University.

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Emma Clasberry.

ISBN:                Softcover                        978-1-7960-1848-6

                         eBook                              978-1-7960-1847-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Rev. date: 04/04/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

792310

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

A Father And His Five Sons*

The Boy With Skinny Legs

The Lucky Fisherman

Why The Sun Moved To The Sky

Etim And The Magic Coin

The Wise Who Knew Everything

Insane Man At The Healing Tree*

When Beauty Can Hurt

A Boy Who Was Determined To Succeed

The Four Wise Girls

The Complaining Firewood Man

Because He Is My Son

The Words Of My Mouth

I Need An Heir

Three Witches And Their Children*

A King And The Wonder Tree

Chicken Seller And Buyer*

Little Akpan And Samuel Incident

The Lucky Girl

A Mother And Her Two Boys

The Proud King

A Wife Who Never Called Her Husband By Any Name

The Man Who Became A Soldier Ant

The Wicked Step-Mother

A Jealous Father

The King Who Was Entrapped

The Mighty Hunter

The Prince Who Had Everything

The Man Who Counted Houses*

A Girl And The Chief Of Crabs

A Jealous Tale-Bearer Neighbor

The Woman With Three Suitors*

The Cripple Who Became A King

The Princes And The Orphan

Wisdom More Than The King

A Farmer’s Son Who Became A Hunter

A Mother And Her Daughter

The Boy Who Became A Walking Tree

Three Brothers At A Woman’s Hut

The Wisest King Who Died As A Fool

The Girl Who Mimicked A Ghost

I Want A Son

The Melting Girl

The Four Disobedient Sons

The Two Half-Sisters

A Farmer Who Kept His Goods Safe*

Why God Moved To The Sky

Stubborn Pedestrain And A Motorist

A Girl Who Married A Stranger

Two Millionnaires At Traffic Jam*

A Boy, His Dog And Seven Ghosts

Ekuno-O

The Wise Who Never Lied

Why Thunder And Lightening Moved To The Sky

How Women Came To Wear Two Wrappers At A Time

A Widow Who Designed Mkpin Under-Skirt

A Family Who Refused To Quit

How Women Lost Their Ruling Power

A Girl Who Refused To Be Beautiful

A Man Confronted Foreign Language

The Prince Who Stole From Himself

Conclusion

About The Author

DEDICATION

My loving mother, Nnimmo Okono Ibiok, who became Alice Okon Etok-Umana at marriage, and whose passion for teaching the young through these stories has ever since infected me

and

All the youth who contributed to this volume

Speak softly. But if you carry a stick, you will go further

Just as a king feels hunger, so does a slave

As you dance, watch your back

It is only after you have crossed the river can you say that a crocodile has a lump

When you swim, don’t fail to dive as well

If making love is a challenge, the mat will be torn

Change is often chaotic, challenging and anxiety generating, and causes division between keepers of traditions or status quo defenders and supporters favored by the emerging changes

One who thinks deeply can not sleep well

A wise man does not test the depth of a river with two legs at once

No-one usually tells a child who cries a lot how to cry

The chameleon uses prayers to escape traps set to catch him

The person who witnessed an event with his eyes is the only one to tell what happened correctly

I will not run away from mother snake and also run away from the dead skin of mother snake or its baby

One can boast of escaping getting blind only after one is dead

When one is in love, a mountain becomes a plain

Reckless feet can step into a snake’s pit

Only a fool looks for cow dung where cow never grazed

63035.png

PREFACE

H ow did I come to be so interested in African folklore, particularly in Nigerian-Ibibio folktales as well as riddles and proverbs?

This work is a culmination of my educational preparation and practical experience that began in my early childhood when my mother laid the foundation, and continued throughout the 1990’s when I founded African Peoples Institute in Chicago, USA, with the purpose of promoting cultural awareness and pride among youth and up till today.

The stories I heard from my mother many years ago still remain fresh on my mind. And they were the very ones that sparked my interest and served as the beginning point for this journey. About half of them are retold in this work.

My self- directed studies also led me to discover that most of Nigerian-Ibibio folktales, a vital element of a people’s culture, history and identity, and from which I benefited since my childhood up till today, are almost extinct from the culture and do not show up meaningfully anymore at home nor in schools.

Almost all of these stories are drawn from my earlier works recorded in the "Mmama Tells Stories" series which resulted from my field research on Nigerian-Ibibio folklore in general, and on folktales in particular, in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, between September-October 2014, and November 2015 through February 2016.

In the said research periods, I was lucky to meet the caliber of youth (ages 9-14) and a few adults who were excited to share in my vision: to collect Nigerian-Ibibio folktales as many as possible and document them, most of which are about to disappear from the people’s folklore database.

The stories were collected from the youth and adults individually rather than in the usual story-telling sessions. From the few adults who contributed, I went to their shops and had them retell the stories orally to me.

Some youth were able to recall the stories on their own and brought them to me in my house in writing or in oral form. Others went to their friends, siblings or other adult relatives and had them retell the stories to them orally or in writing.

Sometimes, the youth wrote down the stories themselves, and later brought them to me whenever they met me on the street. At other times, I went to their house and had them retell the stories to me. They had fun collecting the stories.

I appreciated the efforts of all the youth and adults who participated in this research. Their interest, hard work, enthusiasm, high level of commitment and willingness to diligently and delightfully search, dig out, recall, collect and retell these stories to me orally or/and in writing for documentation were amazing.

I wish to thank the following youth and adult research participants from three local government areas (LGAs) in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, for their contributions in this work: David Edet Etim and Ekemini Michael Barnaby (ages 11-13) - all from Nnung Udoe in Asutan; Akpan Isaac Akpan, Ofon-Mbuk Isaac Akpan, Eno…X (I apologize for forgetting her last name), Sifon Etim Ufot and Praise Ubong Ekpo (ages 11-14) and Mary Okon Effiong (adult) - all from Ikot Udo in Ibesikpo; and Abasi Ifrike Ekong, Gospel Nsima Ekong, Akon Archibong Archibong and Stephen Johnson Stephen (ages 9-13), and female adults: Ini-Mfon Abasi Ekong (retired high school vice principal) and Lilia Iko - all from Ikot Obong in Ikot Abasi local government area.

I also wish to acknowledge the contributions of Elphinstone Dayrell from whose work, Folk Tales From Southern Nigeria, I got a few stories. I also extend my thanks to Atim Ukpong, Bernadette Imeh and Arit Andrews, all friends of mine residing in Chicago, New York and Houston, all of whose encouragement sustained me throughout this journey.

I particularly thank my grandchildren, Emmanuel Mfon Udoffia and his sister, Valerie Mfon Udoffia (9 and 7 year olds at the time) for reading the drafts of the manuscripts of earlier versions of these stories countless times with incredible patience, joy and enthusiasm. Their youthful exuberance and their unique input were not only positively infectious, but also beyond measure.

I dedicated earlier volumes on folktales to all the youth for their contributions in the Mmama Tells Stories series and Folktales Volumes 1 and 2 series. This third volume is also dedicated to them. Without their efforts, the births of the earlier volumes would not have come alive, let alone this expanded version that includes new stories, a few of which are products of my imagination.

Although youth and a few adults contributed meaningfully to the birth of this and earlier volumes, I can not thank my mother enough for all the folktales she usually retold to me, my siblings and some of our neighbors’ children who enjoyed coming to our house to attend the story-telling sessions. Just as I dedicated some earlier works to her, I dedicate this one to her as well.

To my mother, Ndipmo Okono Ibiok, who became Alice Okon Etok-Umana at marriage, and who enjoyed spending quality time with her children, retelling folk tales, most of which are retold here, I particularly and lovingly dedicate this work, for her excellent educational contributions that laid a solid foundation not only for this exploration, but also for moral education that instilled in me moral discipline that has sustained me since then till now.

Sacramento, California

February 2019

63048.png

INTRODUCTION

M ajority of these folktales are situated in Nigerian-Ibibio culture. They are familiar stories and reflect agrarian epoch. [Folktales or folk tales mean one and the same things and are used interchangeably in this work]

The word folks refers to ordinary people in general. In particular, it refers to ordinary people from a specific group in relation to their customs, mores or traditions.

A tale is a story that narrates an actual or imaginary event or incident about humans or non-humans. Generally, the tale may not be founded on facts. At best, it may be partly true and partly false. And its author is generally unknown.

Folktales are therefore narratives that are retold by ordinary people to describe an incident, imaginary or real, that took place in their society at a given time in history. They are generally passed down from earlier times from generation to generation by and among ordinary people by words of mouth. The narratives may be true in whole or in part, may not be true at all nor ever happened. And their authors are generally unknown.

In fact, it does not really matter whether a given story is true or not, or ever happened at all. What is important is what a given narrative is intended to teach. Is it for moral or cultural education? Is it for information on natural or super-natural phenomena in our immediate or distant environment, or is it just for entertainment purposes?

Folktale is a general term that refers to each of all the sub-groups: myths, legends, tall tales, fables, fairy tales, and even riddles and proverbs. All of them come under one caption, ‘folktales’, and almost all of them show up in this work. But they do differ in some ways, depending on the actors or actresses in a given story and what a given narrative attempts to achieve.

Some people may be mixed up as to which story is in which category. Actually, there is a fine line between them. It depends on where and by whom a given story is retold, and for what purpose it is used. Do we learn through these stories during story-telling session or just by listening to adults use them in their conversation or formal speeches, at childhood or adulthood? Note that a story can easily change platforms, depending on the context.

Some folktales are passed down in long detailed narratives. Some originally emerged as phrases and clauses. Others seem to have been summarized in the course of time, and reduced to and passed down as idioms, as one-sentence proverbs, two- or a few-sentence narratives. And some of the stories may and may not be elaborated versions of given incidents.

Where details of events are lacking in a given story, I create or manufacture details. I add some flesh or meat to the skeletons of the stories. After all, the varying versions of folk tales we enjoy today may have been created this way.

Stories with half-hazard details give present and future generations of folklorists the opportunity to not only manufacture unique details, but also to create stories that achieve desirable goals, especially in stories where the purpose is to teach morals, social skills and values.

I do appreciate the privilege to be part of this creation process. Receiving folktales with no details from past generation is actually a blessing in a way. It is a pleasure to be part of this creation where I imaginatively manufacture a few tales in the process of preparing this volume. I am happy to participate in this creative venture.

I have injected into some stories here new and meaningful details as well as created a couple of stories. For example, the story about a prince who stole from himself is my own imagination and creation.

Folktales are generally make-belief stories, and are products of our fore-parents’ imagination, manufactured to entertain themselves and the children, and to use them as teaching tools to inculcate moral discipline and desirable life skills into the young.

The people’s choice of folktales as education tools for the young was based on their philosophy of education: Joy in learning and relevance of what is learned to learners’ real life experiences. The people’s intentions were to make teaching and learning easy and full of fun, and to help the learners squarely confront relevant daily encounters.

In fact, the stories were meant for children and adults to learn life skills, develop and nurture the moral aspect of their lives, beginning from childhood and throughout adulthood. They were for all to learn from the mistakes of some of the actors in these stories so as to avoid or know how to deal with related or similar character flaws in real life.

Some of the stories have desirable moral lessons. Some don’t. Almost all of them reflect some of the situations that humans encounter daily in real life. Some are entertaining as well, given the humor they provoke. Some are to preserve and pass on information about a people’s cultural practices, traditions or history from generation to generation.

The purpose of this work is partly to document and preserve this aspect of our oral tradition which is near extinction, and for children to have fun and enjoy learning as they use the tales as education tools. Listening to or retelling the stories also promotes interest in learning, enhance listening and thinking skills.

No-one knows which of the stories came first. So, they are not presented in any particular order. The stories should therefore be used with discretion.

It is hoped that parents, grandparents and teachers, who use these stories to teach children moral discipline will maximize every opportunity they have to use these valuable education tools. As parents and their children read and listen to these stories together as a family, they simultaneously have fun together as well as strengthen their parent-child bonding.

A few proverbs are littered all over the pages. Some arise directly from the preceding stories. Some have no relevance to the stories in question. They are meant for both adults and children to use as teaching tools, and in particular, for adult learners to help themselves spice up their speeches and convey their thoughts with sound clarity, precision and dignity.

Some of the stories are also riddles, some of which are very difficult to solve, and may be beyond the reasoning level of children. A few of them are proverbs as well, and are generally beyond the understanding level of children. A few riddle-tales and proverbs are injected into this work as brain teasers for adults to exercise their brain, improve or enhance their thinking skills, to challenge their mental capability, and to aid them reason logically, rationally and critically.

This collection of sixty-one old-time bedtime stories can be a family treasure. It becomes even more valuable to the whole family than many other similar works when children have internalized and acted out in their daily lives all the good moral virtues they have learned from the stories.

Monkey copies what everyone else does. It will one day cut its throat

Open your ears so that you hear what the community is saying about you (or doing to you)

[Tungho utong kop se idung unam]

63059.png

A FATHER AND HIS FIVE SONS*

A father had five sons. He loved and enjoyed going out for a walk everyday. One day, he went out and did not return home as he usually did. His children were worried. And they suspected something bad had happened to him.

The man’s first son had a gift of telling what was currently going on in one’s life or what was about to happen to him/her soon in the near future. He was a fortune teller. He told his brothers that he had a feeling that their father had got lost on his way back home.

The second son had a gift of being able to trace a person’s footsteps, just as the police officers use dogs to search for something. So, he led his brothers to the exact spot where their father missed his way or lost his bearing. The five brothers finally found their father in the swampy part of a river where he was stuck deep in the mud.

When the brothers got there, the third son, who had the gift of swallowing up all the water in the river, helped the father out. He sucked out all the water from the river and the father was now able to step out of the mud.

But as soon as the father stepped out of the mud, a huge hungry eagle swooped down, grabbed the father by the hand with its claws and flew away with him.

Luckily, the fourth son was a good shooter. He threw a cudgel at the eagle and hit it. When the cudgel hit the eagle, the eagle let go the father off its claws.

The father was now coming down several hundreds of miles from the sky in a terrible speed. He could have crashed landed on the ground and shattered to pieces and died, if not for the help of his fifth son. This son had a special gift of catching things or people who fell from the sky. Quickly, he caught the father in mid air and saved his father’s life.

The sons were happy to save their father’s life from such danger. The father was happy too to be alive. He thanked his sons. And everyone went home happily.

Lesson 1: Knowledge is a contribution of ideas or skills by more than one person.

Lesson 2: Working co-operatively as a group can move mountains in many cases.

Question: Which of the sons saved the father’s life?

Answer: None of the five sons could have singly saved the father’s life. So, all of them contributed equally to save their father’s life.

If you think you know everything, you end up knowing nothing

When spiders’ webs unite, they can bind up a lion

*This story is also a riddle.

63067.png

THE BOY WITH SKINNY LEGS

L ong ago, there lived a boy who had skinny legs. His peers usually laughed at him for having the skinniest legs in the world. He was always embarrassed whenever they did that to him. And because of that, his self-esteem and confidence went down to zero, the extent of his social interaction was considerably limited, and his overall quality of life went down as well.

None of the boy’s peers wanted to hang out with him in the park or at the beach to do fun things together as his peers enjoyed. He had almost no friends who accepted him or his physical structure as it was. So, he usually played alone outside in front of his parents’ yard.

As the boy and his peers grew up into adolescence, his peers began to make some money by doing some jobs for their neighbors. Mixing water and red sand dug from pits to form mud bricks for building houses was one of the small jobs. And they were very good at doing that.

The people’s perception at the time was that only males with big heavy legs could do the job well. So, to qualify to mix the mud, one had to have big heavy legs.

The boy’s peers had what it took to do that kind of job. They had big, heavy legs. But the boy did not. His legs were real skinny and light-weight.

While the boy’s peers were hired neck-n-neck to do the mud mixing jobs, the boy was not. No-one was willing to hire him for such job because his legs were skinny.

The boy’s peers made a lot of money mixing mud on week-ends for house builders. With the money they made, they were able to help their parents out financially or to pay some bills like rent and utilities. They also used some of the money to buy whatever they needed for themselves. They and their families were able to live happily on the money.

But the boy with skinny legs had no opportunity to make any money as his peers did because no-one hired him for such job. He desperately wanted to work so as to help his parents financially and to buy some of his needs. But his skinny legs were the hindering factor. As a result, his family remained poor and wretched.

The boy and his parents were sad. And the boy wished he were never born into such a poor family. He also began to question why his family was so poor and wretched. There were a few occasions when the boy thought of killing himself.

The boy’s parents understood how their son felt about his physical structure and the repeated rejection by his peers and those who could have employed him. So, they continued to encourage him to be positive and not to hurt himself.

The worst came when the parents became old and could no longer work to earn a living. They were now depending on their son to help them meet their needs. All what they could do was resort to praying for something good to come the boy’s way so that their circumstance could change for good. They encouraged the son to pray too. And the whole family prayed without ceasing for good luck or miracle.

One day, the boy was hanging out alone on the street near to their house, not really sure of which direction he should go. While in the middle of that thought, a man from a nearby village was passing by. He saw the boy. He took notice of the boy’s skinny legs. That attracted his attention.

Because of the pre-conceived assumption held then that males with skinny light-weight legs were good or fast runners, the man stopped when he saw the boy. He asked the boy, A running match between our village and the nearby village is coming up soon. Will you like to be one of the runners?

Yes, the boy answered hesitantly. And he added, But I am not a good runner. I am beginning next week to train the boys who would run in that match. Will you like to take part in the training or practice? the man asked the boy. Yes, the boy answered, also reluctantly. Why was the boy so reluctant to answer the questions the man asked him? The boy had at least two reasons:

Until then, the boy did not know that with a little practice, boys with skinny legs usually did well in any running competition, and that such boys were usually sought for. Also, because he was rejected everywhere he went to apply for mud mixing job, he concluded that he was good for nothing and