Virtues in African Stories

By Kwame Afadzi Insaidoo

These thrilling, whimsically and action packed anthology of adventurous stories bring to life some vital aspects of traditional African culture.
These wonderful African traditional stories offer a rare glimpse into a portion of African traditional culture not often openly discussed outside many remote villages they originate from.
As you peer through these pages be prepared to be thrilled and amazed as some aspects of ancient African culture are brought to life through amazing story telling. Most of the stories are used to reinforce the traditional virtues in these tribal societies. Some of the stories illustrate and exemplify what happens to youngsters when they choose to follow the century old African tradition and culture; and when another youngster deviates from the traditional African values of respecting and honoring their elders.
And yes, some of the stories are told to young girls in rural areas as cautionary tales to keep them from marrying total strangers outside their respective tribes. Most of the stories and folktales here are fictionalized and many characters borrowed from various cultures to entertain the reading audience, while imparting numerous traditional virtues and morals into the youngsters.
The ancient traditional African elders strongly believe in inculcating and ingraining these societal virtues into their youngsters, because like the ancient Greek philosophers, the African elders deeply concurred with Plato’s enunciation that:
“Now since men are by nature acquisitive, jealous, combative and erotic, how shall we persuade them to behave themselves? By the Policeman’s omnipresent club? It is a brutal method, costly and irritating. There is a better way, and this is by lending to the moral requirements of the community.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665521451

Kwame Afadzi Insaidoo

Kwame Afadzi Insaidoo grew up in the rural areas of his native country, Ghana in West Africa. During his formative years Kwame spent most of his time among the elders of his little village of Koodum near Akwasiho in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Here traditional elders narrated oral stories, folktales, chieftaincy rites, proverbs, village lore’s, and other mythologies of local clans and tribes to the youngsters during the numerous moonlight nights. Most of the village traditional elders including many grand mothers and fathers, together with the chiefs and elders narrated or retold most of the ancient African stories and emphasized the virtues and morals implicit in them. Kwame’s maternal grandfather, Nana Akwasi Agyekum, who was a traditional chief of the area spent many years educating young Kwame on various traditional and cultural rites, mythology and chieftaincy customs of their clan and tribe. Kwame travelled to Missouri when he was awarded Missouri State University’s International academic scholarship in 1976. Here as President of Association of International students, and leader of African students on campus, Kwame further pursued his interest and curiosity in virtues and morals in African traditional stories by collecting folktales, proverbs and other mythologies from interested African students from Nigeria, Cameroons, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Liberia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Gambia and others attending the university. In 1978 Kwame co-authored a collection of African folktales: “Anansi and Other African Trickster Tales,” with a renowned Folklorist and English Professor, Dr. Donald Holliday at Missouri State University. In 1978 Kwame became a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, Economic Honor Society in Missouri and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1979. In addition to his interest and passion for African traditions and culture, Kwame later pursued his graduate studies at New York University in International Relations. He worked as a schoolteacher in New York City and later as a community organizer in Harlem, New York. Kwame has written many books about African affairs including: Moral Lessons in African Folktales, Volumes 1, 2 & 3.

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© 2021 Kwame Afadzi Insaidoo. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/30/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-2147-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-2146-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-2145-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021906676

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Preface

Introductory Preview

Book 1 Witches Under The Ocean

Book 2 The Space Aliens Encounter African Nubian Sisters

Book 3 How The Intelligent Turtle Became The King Of The Jungle

Book 4 Mysterious Old Witch Meets The Wretched Village Boy

Book 5 The Evil Demonic Warlock Who Seduced And Married The Beautiful Princess.

Book 6 The Origin Of Evil, Wicked And Satanic Entities In Our World.

Book 7 How Wisdom Came To Our World

DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to my two sons:

Kwame Afadzi Insaidoo Jr.

Robert Afadzi Insaidoo

PREFACE

This work: Virtues in Fictionalized African Stories is a continuation of my earlier book, Moral Lessons in African Folktales, where folktales from various African nations were re-told and narrated.

Many of the stories in this edition were selected from the Moral Lessons in African Folktales, fictionalized and expanded with various mythical and religious characters for entertainments and enjoyable reading; while highlighting and bringing the virtues in the stories that African traditional Elders have ingrained into their youngsters through eons of time demonstrating and impressing upon their youngsters that:

■ He who shuns their positive, good and beneficial culture, for the culture of the world [foreign culture] is blind to his ancestry and is spitting on his mother’s womb. [Kamba Tribe, Kenyan proverb from Ubuntu African Proverbs]

The author strongly believes that it is through entertainment, funny stories with games and actions which combine to attract youngsters and young adults into reading, enjoying and learning the virtues littered throughout this book.

To this end, this book is colored with games; and many action-packed battles, to excite our youngsters and young adults, while imparting into them, the age-old virtues, bestowed unto my generation by our traditional African elders, who were brimming with philosophical wisdom and ideas.

As we read through these virtues in this work we should re-echo the monumental words of the German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on the significance of virtues when he wrote:

And like the star that goeth out, so is every work of your virtue:

Ever is its light on its way and travelling

And when will it cease to be on its way?

Thus is the light of your virtue

Still on its way, even when its work is done

Be it forgotten and dead, still its ray of light liveth and travelleth

That your virtue is yourSelf

And not an outward thing, a skin or a cloak

That is the truth from the basis of your souls

Ye virtuous ones!

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Kwame Afadzi Insaidoo, Bay shore, New York

March 25, 2021

INTRODUCTORY PREVIEW

Over the years many scholars in the Western world have castigated and caricatured Africans as little less civilized humans with sub-cultural and backward traditional customs; while many of their main-stream journalists highlighted the periodic famines, civil violence, the poverty, misery and continue to report only the deplorable conditions on the African continent.

It defies rational understanding that despite the reality of modernity in Africa today with bustling skyscrapers in our capital and commercial cities like Accra, Dakar, Cotonou, Dar es Salaam, Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Abidjan Nairobi, Lome, Kampala, Yaoundé, and many others, many Western journalists persist in depicting Africa as primitive societies with mud, grass-huts buildings peopled with low-IQ barely clad natives.

It is ironic that in this era of rapid globalization, replete with World Wide Web, internet services spanning around the globe, proliferation of Facebook networks world wide, coupled with vast array of Twitter communication services, You Tube programming, Smart phones with their unparalled camera uniqueness; not a single Christian nation has honestly and with some modicum of sincerity show-cased modern African cities with their bustling skylines, modern universities, sprawling Shopping Malls, and various attractions in Africa. To the Westerners the only show in town in any African nation is the SAFARI with wild animals still roaming in the jungle in this modern era of 2021.

A sincere and objective depiction of Africa will take into consideration the modern sector, and of course, the poorer subsistence culture which continues to exist as a result of centuries of European pillage of African wealth and crimes against the humanity of the African people, both slavery and colonialism. And of course, the continuing menace of corrupt African leaders, who continue to misallocate our resources into their private, pockets and foreign banks.

The continuation of the old business as usual depicting Africa as a big jungle with animals roaming around serves to befuddle the developing minds of their youngsters in middle, High Schools and even colleges. And so many of these youngsters continue to amaze all of us by believing, in this 21st century, that wild animals like Tigers, Lions, Hyenas, Elephants are running wildly and uncontrollably in Africa cities today!!!

And so because of this deliberate mis-education most people who have not travelled to Africa continue to show their ignorance of the practical realities of Africa to their counterparts around the globe.

But no matter the level of condescension and ethno-centric bias we direct towards the African, it is significant for us to realize that African societies were established and formed many centuries ago and have survived for better or for worse till this day.

It is also pertinent for us to recognize that the survival of many African societies depended on the resiliency of the traditional values and societal norms which were put in place by the traditional elders who were brimming with wisdom and philosophical understanding of human attitudes, behavior, morality and development of positive character traits in nurturing the growing brains of children in their societies.

We must emphasize that despite the brutal, savage and odious exploitation at the hands of both the Arab and European slave dealers and colonialists’ continuing pillaging of African societies for their wealth, Africans still continue to move along. However, despite these untold alien aggression, destructive and humiliating practices in Africa, our sagacious elders successfully established healthy, morally strong and socially adaptive societies capable of resisting the moral decay and humiliating atmosphere engendered by these alien exploiters and colonialists.

We can state with utter certainty that as a result of the yeomen’s contribution of upright moral education in our societies, nowhere in Africa is it recorded that mentally unbalanced, morally degenerate citizens went berserk, and gunned down masses of innocent citizens, minding their own businesses and sometimes in Church services as we see here in modern United States of America and elsewhere in predominantly European created societies.

Furthermore, we can absolutely say with certainty and assuredness that African culture did not breed elders in responsible positions and authority who cowardly molested innocent, trusting and impressionistic children placed in their care like we are witnessing in today’s Euro-centric societies.

Yes, African societies permitted the marriage of more than one woman, but the men were held responsible for the care of the children they fathered in these polygamous institutions of marriages. They, unlike many in modern Euro-centric societies were not fathering numerous children they refuse to take care of, some of who grow up to terrorize societies by becoming Pimps and drug barons.

Additionally, we can say with certainty that African elders socialized their youngsters to the African cultural milieu that abnormal, absurd, and ridiculous widespread consumption of illicit and dangerous intoxicants which claim the lives of countless thousands in overdose usage or abuse were seldom experienced in any part of African societies.

Nay, we can wholeheartedly point out that our African Elders were brimming with philosophical wisdom and morally upright ideas that they successfully nurtured their youngsters in such a healthy societal atmosphere that:

■ Obscene sexual debasement of their women hood and pervasiveness of unwholesome sexual perversion were frowned upon in our societies and were not a common sight.

■ Lyrics in most of African youngsters’ songs did not contain epithets of vulgarity towards their mothers and sisters who bore and nurtured them.

Over the centuries African elders using their superior and time-honored philosophical wisdom were able to socialize, condition and nurture their youngsters to their society’s beliefs, norms, values, habits and cultural attitudes to develop healthy societies. These ingrained wisdom embodied in their cultural beliefs and values ingrained into their youngsters help create a morally upright society and colored their youngsters perception of reality. Indeed these cultural training constituted the bedrock of their consciousness of life. Did the African Elders make some mistakes in nurturing their societies? Of course, they did not create Heavens on earth, but the elders’ honestly and quickly evolved new systemic mode of existence to remedy their errors and improved upon their past mistakes.

The wisdom, virtues and inculcation of superior moral qualities embodied in these selected African stories are all examples of how African elders made and continue to make to socialize their youngsters to the cultural beliefs of their societies.

However, some African scholars and observers bitterly complain that these superior qualities ingrained in many African people over the centuries have made the African too good, warm, overly generous, embracive of wicked and cold calculating Alien people who have taken advantage of the Africans, humiliated them and made them hewers of wood and drawers of water, while their lands were confiscated by these cold calculating aliens. Indeed many different alien races took advantage of the good-naturedness of the loving African and made a slave of him.

Nevertheless, despite the untold abuse and humiliation Africans have endured, these wise elders continued to inculcate good and upright moral virtues into their youngsters. These virtues permeate through all African folktales, proverbs, oral histories, festivals, durbars, African riddles, traditional marriage ceremonies, talking drums, traditional songs and many other cultural rites.

Belief in a Supreme Being

By far the most significant virtue imparted by African elders into their youngsters and their people in general is the respect, belief and faith in the fact that there is a higher being who fashioned the entire universe and all creations within. Most traditional Africans subscribe to the belief that the universe did not create itself, nor did it happen accidentally or haphazardly, but was crafted by an omnipotent being for a divine purpose.

Most Africans invariably believe that there is a purpose in this life and whatever a human being does is being watched and recorded by this Almighty and Omnipotent Being. Since the higher force sees all our undertakings, we must learn to do right by him and to our fellow human beings, so this omnipotent force in the universe may reward us.

Additionally, because this unseen omnipotent being is observing the life of all humans, Africans are taught to treat their fellow humans with respect, love, kindness, fairness, obedience, and treat others the way they want to be treated, so this Supreme Deity will in time reward those who obey his commandments. Simply put, the belief, love, respect and obedience of a supreme being is at the heart of almost all African literature and culture.

In the narration of African folktales, proverbs, dirges, riddles and the celebration of various ceremonies, the traditional African elders craftily impressed on their people, especially the youngsters about the existence of an omnipotent, all seeing deity who sternly watches the goings and comings of all humanity. The impression most of us learned was, because this Almighty God was omnipresent in our existence, it behooved us to treat one another with respect and obey the golden rule of do unto others as you would done unto you, under the watchful eyes of the creator of heaven and earth.

As you read through these stories you can see that the authority, power, grandeur and benevolent influences of the Almighty God permeates throughout the events in these stories and shape the outcome of the events in the stories.

In the story of How Wisdom came to the World, the Nubian Angel sent by the Almighty God comforts Anansi by reminding him, fear not Noble Anansi for the Gods have already smiled upon you, and your son. Please do not lose faith in their infinite wisdom, for as long as the Gods’ have blessed you, there is no obstacle you cannot overcome.

In the end Anansi and his son prevailed because of the intervention of the omnipotent and omniscient God and his unfailing blessings and protection he bestowed unto them through the Nubian Angel.

In another section of the same story of How Wisdom Came into the World, the beneficent and omnipotent God so loved the villagers that he actually sent Patrolling Angels to attempt to listen to the problems of the oppressed villagers so he can rescue them from their miserable plight. Eventually, the powers of the omnipotent God successfully rescued the downtrodden villagers from the throes of Evil Satanic grip.

In another story of How wicked and Evil people came to the world the Elders made it abundantly clear that the Almighty God created the Earth and since God loves mankind he created, he made the earth so peaceful so much that even ferocious Lions laid down and frolicked with Zebras, deers, antelopes and rabbits with no intent of killing and eating them.

The story further made it clear that God’s created earth was a blissful place because peace, understanding, loyalty and happiness were widespread throughout this earthly paradise.

Indeed the African Elders truly and blissfully envisaged the earth as a friendly paradise, and so attempted to inculcate and ingrain attitudes, and characteristics of this omniscient and benevolent God who fashioned this earthly paradise into their youth. Their belief in the blissfulness, harmony, brotherhood and the existence of paradise on earth permeates most of their narratives. In the story of how evil came to the world, the elders reiterated:

■ Human Beings are incredibly happy, and overjoyed because they are living in a perfect earthly paradise called earth that sometimes they break into loud, spontaneous and continuous melodious songs and dancing, which vibrates and can be felt throughout the universe created so far.

Through their cultural and traditional lore, African Philosophers preached that the Omnipotent and Omniscient God always saw to the upkeep, the safety and protection of his created beings on earth, which also made the Africans, relied unconditionally on the mercifulness of their God.

In another story, where the evil SasaBonsam had captured, enslaved and feasting on his innocent earthly captives, Kanata Junior hatches a brilliant escape plan in the absence of the evil beast. He ordered the captives to slaughter SasaBonsam’s fattened pet as a feast to energize the emaciated captives. Here again, the African unwavering belief in the omnipotence of the omniscient Almighty being, who hears and listens to the travails of his children on earth prompts Kamata Junior to instinctively commands his fellow captives:

■ We should take some of the sumptuous meat, and walk outside the cage into the open air, and offer it as a token of a sacrifice to appease the Gods so they can guide and bless our escape.

Indeed after the sacrifice the Gods help the captives of SasaBonsam to escape into the heavens.

Individual Responsibilities

We have to emphasize once again that African Elders who were brimming with wisdom and philosophical understanding of the universe strongly subscribed to the age-old notion of the significance of the virtue of individual responsibility.

The dictionary reminds us that to be responsible is to be obliged to do or answer for something usually involving duties. In addition, responsibility is something that needs to be set right.

Responsibility usually involves putting the blame, fault, accountability to your actions or things you do. Indeed to be responsible, is to be liable to your actions and not looking to provide excuses or putting the blame on somebody or something else, but to take responsibility for your actions. The African elders subscribed to the belief that the qualities of a responsible person include reliability, trustworthiness, God fearing and a law-abiding individual. They were also keen believers that a responsible person takes his or her work very seriously, and does not cut corners when entrusted with authority or with an obligation. Yes, a responsible person knows he or she has a moral, legal and mental obligation to do the right thing.

Like the teachings of other virtues, African elders relied on their story-telling abilities of their folktales, oral traditions, proverbs, dirges, festivals, riddles, and various traditional and customs to teach their youngsters to be responsible enough to distinguish right from wrong, and be answerable for their conduct and actions.

The elders therefore spent inordinate amount of time narrating stories, which included lessons on the importance of acting and behaving responsibly.

The story of Witches Under the Ocean clearly illustrates the significance of acting responsibly and the disastrous consequences, which befall those individuals and even entire societies, which refuse to act responsibly.

In this story, the mighty under ocean King Frenuto, who grants great and immense powers to those deemed worthy is about to grant such power to Queen Dezi-Baba from the distant land of Zimbala. But before granting the powers, the African philosophers and wise elders made sure they spoke through this powerful mythical underwater King Frenuto to warn Queen Dezi-Baba that:

■ But be forewarned that with great power comes great responsibility. Once I bestow this power upon you, how you use this power will be wholly dependent on you. This great power can either be a blessing or a curse; whichever outcome comes to pass will be wholly dependent upon your intentions, responsibility and your character.

In the story the powerful Queen Dezi-Baba irresponsibly abuses her power by becoming so corrupt, evil, abusive, tyrannical, dictatorial, uncompromising that she ordered her Hunter-Warriors Generals to wipe out and scorch all opposition to her despotic rule.

Instead of seeking cooperation, working along with her subjects and opponents, by seeking consensus, inviting suggestions, evaluating the usefulness of her opponents’ ideas and building her societies with the help of all the diversity of her people, Queen Dezi-Baba in her power drunkenness irresponsibly attempted to wipe out all her opponents.

But as the armies of the Queen celebrate their victories they are totally unaware the Queen’s abuse or irresponsible use of powers bestowed on her has reverberated beyond the earthly realm and have angered the spirits of the deceased causing them to seek unholy retribution. The spirits of the slain have possessed the very bodies of every animal, plant and all other creatures in the forest to continue the war in a most unimaginable way.

Queen Dezi-Baba has unwittingly and irresponsibly brought a calamity, pain, suffering, unnecessary bloodshed, hunger, starvation, unimaginable anguish and death to her kingdom because of her irresponsible use of the powers bestowed upon her by King Frenuto.

When Queen Dezi-Baba went back for help to overcome the new forces fighting against her, King Frenuto reminded her:

■ Remember when you first came before me and I bestowed this great power upon you, I warned you that, great power comes with awesome responsibilities; and so I decreed that you’ll be granted this great power at your own peril! Look at what you have wrought with this power? Today, your lands are burnt to the ground, reduced to nothing, but embers. You have done nothing good but used the powers bestowed upon you in the worst, unimaginable way. Henceforth, I decree that your powers bestowed upon you will be stripped away from you to avoid any further destruction, bloodshed and death. Furthermore, I hereby also decree that you are now banished from this magical kingdom.

The mighty King Frenuto further admonished and punished Queen Dezi-Baba and his people because of their irresponsibly abusing the great powers bestowed upon them by commanding that:

■ Furthermore, because of your abuse of these incredible powers I bestowed upon you; you and your people will have no choice but to go back groveling to the lands of other race of witches. There you and your people will live amongst them, serve them, and hopefully learn how to responsibly bring order and the Rule of Law to your own lands.

Persistence and Perseverance

African elders also systematically inculcated the virtues of perseverance and persistence to their youngsters through their various stories and other cultural mechanisms.

Perseverance is a steadfast adherence to a course of action, beliefs or purpose despite the challenges involved in doing so. When we preserve in attaining our goal we persist or remain constant to our goal or task in the face of discouragement and opposition. We are encouraged not to give up, despite our fears, and we must not let the problems and challenges we face overwhelm us or become stumbling blocks to prevent us from achieving our goals, but to follow through with our stated objectives.

Similarly, to persist is to be tenacious and steadfastly, hold firmly to our purpose or undertakings despite obstacles and setbacks. Indeed to be persistent is to refuse to give up or let go, but keep working at the problem and learn all one can, without giving up or quitting, until one eventually succeeds.

Persistence implies finishing off what one started, keeping on despite obstacles and setbacks but with determined fortitude to finish and achieve one’s goals.

In the final analysis persistence involves mustering the will power to perform tasks in the face of contrary impulses. Of course, we have to remind readers that when we talk about persistence, we have to be mindful of the problems of boredom, tedious, frustration and difficulties, which undermine or threaten the completion of the said objective or make people discourage themselves and give up the objective in mind.

These admirable virtues of persistence and perseverance were dutifully inculcated and ingrained into the African youngsters through variety of stories, folktales and other traditions ceremonies.

In the story of the Mysterious Old Witch Meets the Wretched Village Boy, turned warrior Kofi, persists and preserves in the face of tremendous dangers to save his village from the ferocious and hideous beasts that have besieged his village killing his fellow villagers and pillaging their crops.

Despite the fact that Warrior Kofi sustained life-threatening battlefield injuries and was even admitted to the infirmly; he steadfastly and persistently adhered to the battle plans to fight those hideous monsters and drove them away from his village.

Furthermore, despite the condescending, belittling, and the village warrior- General’s demeaning attitude towards warrior Kofi, he persisted.

Again when warrior Kofi’s military bosses kept calling his battlefield tactics foolhardy, naivety, immaturity and suicidal to fighting the ferocious beasts and advising him to retreat from the battlefield; warrior Kofi tenaciously and steadfastly clung firmly, and persistently summoned courage to face the hideous monsters.

We may recall that Warrior Kofi’s perseverance and persistence led him to muster his will-power in the face of the implacable hideous and ferocious monsters, to go ahead and select battle-hardened village warriors to face off the monsters in the village square.

Despite sustaining several life-threatening battlefield injuries, warrior Kofi never gave up; and never quitted; but continued in the battle against those ferocious and hideous beasts until he eventually defeated the monsters, and threw them out of the village.

In the end, because of warrior Kofi’s courage, by tenaciously and steadfastly engaging in life-threatening combat against the beasts, he saved his villagers from the ravages of the beasts. The Council of the Village Elders rewarded his valiant perseverance by crowning him the new King of the entire Kingdom.

VALUES

The dictionary defines Value as a principle, standard or quality regarded as worthwhile or desirable like traditional moral values. Values can also be defined as thinking highly of something like your self-worth. Essentially, though, values are beliefs that guide the way a person lives. If we want to have good moral values we must cultivate good and positive character traits.

Good moral virtues encompass a variety of virtues among which are:

■ LOVE: Love is an intense affection for a person based on faithful ties or concern for a person you adore, cherish and like very much.

■ Gratitude: Here gratitude means to be thankful and appreciative of what one gets by expressing appreciation.

■ Fairness: To be fair to people you have to treat people in a proper and legal manner, usually regardless of ethnicity, tribal origin or sexuality of the person. Fairness involves giving every human being equal opportunity and fairness and to be free from bias in judgment.

■ Bravery: Bravery is a display of courage like a warrior. Also bravery connotes an audacious, fearless, heroic, gusty and gallant behavior.

■ Kindness: Kindness indicates a friendly, warm-heartedness, displaying sympathy and understanding. Kindness also denotes generosity, liberal, humane, considerable tolerance and a helping nature.

It is important for us to observe that African Elders and their wise philosophers did their utmost best to inculcate and ingrain most of these positive traits enumerated above into their youngsters. Most of these positive trails like love; kindness, bravery, courage, fairness, gratitude and love are heavily sprinkled throughout most of their proverbs, folktales, short stories and oral traditions.

The daughter of the mighty King Sika, Princess Ngozi in the story of, the Evil Demonic Warlock who seduced and Married the Beautiful Princess, who disobeyed and foolishly disregarded the wise advise of her father, and unwisely married Bonsam, the evil one who she barely knew.

After Princess Ngozi erroneously married Bonsam, the evil one, she was thrown into a fiery cage, where she witnessed souls of damnation being tortured by Satan and his fiendish minions. The princess very life at this time hanged in grave danger, and at the mercy of being taken by the Devil, the Master Satan-Lucifer himself.

Despite her daughter’s disrespect and insolence to the King, he nevertheless had concern, and deeply adores her daughter despite the poor choices she made especially in marrying Bonsam against her father’s wishes. Because of the abiding and deep love the King continued to have for his daughter, he organized a search party at once, replete with the best generals and large armaments to save her daughter’s life.

The King goes through unimaginable battles and deplorable conditions to eventually save her daughter’s life.

Here the elders were portraying the level of love that exists between fathers and their children regardless of the mistakes the children make as they mature in life and to the ways of this world. This demonstration of love is sprinkled throughout many such stories narrated by the elders.

Bravery is one of the most significant qualities and virtues every society in the world must display in abundance for the very survival of the society. Needless to say, societies without brave souls are doomed to destruction.

We need to emphasize the fact that in the various African societies, where there was much ethnic warfare, brave souls were desperately required to ensure the survival, dominance, ultimate growth, and expansion of various chiefdoms and nation-states.

Because of the utmost significance of the art and science of bravery, it was critical for the African elders to nurture and cultivate the art of bravery among young men and women who had responsibilities of defending and protecting their villages and towns during the numerous tribal wars prevalent in many African societies.

It is therefore not an understatement to critically assert that numerous stories abound in various African stories and oral traditions demonstrate the societal rewards, the high accolades and the enviable esteemed status accorded to bravery.

In the story of the Evil Demonic Warlock who seduced and Married the beautiful Princess, and was in danger of being killed, the young brave warrior, Ojoko sent to rescue her, valiantly fought numerous horrific battles with the hideous demonic and wretched entities. He sustained many battlefield injuries some of which almost claimed his life.

Because of his persistence, courage and bravery, he fought gallantly with fearlessness and prevailed over the hideous and evil entities that had imprisoned the princess.

Even though Ojoko is greatly assisted by the Nubian Angel, nevertheless he displays bravery with severe show of brute force at the various battlefield scenes to eventually triumph over those wretched savages and fiendish demonic creatures.

Ojoko’s ultimate reward for his bravery on the battlefields, and for returning the Princess to the great King was his ascension and installation as the new King of the land to the tumultuous approval of all the elders and the people of the kingdom. Finally, to his joy and delight, the young brave warrior Ojoko was blessed with the King’s daughter’s hand in marriage, as Princess Ngozi, the new queen, became the most beautiful bride of the warrior forever.

Love, kindness, fairness and understanding are significant virtues in our lands, and so our elders never lost time in explaining the significance of these virtues to their youngsters. In the story of, Witches under the Ocean, young Bimbata constantly reminded his mother Queen Dezi-Baba, But Queen mother, have I not already implored you not to use bloodshed but rather use love, compassion and kindness to solve the problems that plague our land?

But young Bimbata’s mother, Queen Dezi-Baba’s stubbornness led her to use scorching earth tactics to destroy her enemies and incurred the wrath of the afterworld.

The spirits of the deceased were filled with malice against their enemies. They possessed the bodies of every living creature in the land. These animal hordes marched to the village gates of Zimbala with the intent of seeking vengeance against Queen Dezi-Baba and her people. But young Bimbata’s compassionate words, coupled with his love, compassion, kindness, and understanding expressed to the animal hordes were enough to dissipate the venom of these animal hordes.

In the end, young Bimbata reminded his stubborn mother Queen Dezi-Baba: You see, I knew love, peace, and understanding will save us and win the day. Mother will you listen to me now?

Similarly, the rewards of bravely are brought to light in the story of the Mysterious old witch and the wretched Village Boy. In the story, in addition to Warrior Kofi’s courage and perseverance discussed above he displayed valor, fearlessness, gusty courage and audacious behavior in the battlefield. As indicated above, though Warrior Kofi sustained battlefield wounds, nevertheless he fought bravely and triumphed by defeating the hideous implacable monsters to save his village from the hideous monsters. Of course, to reward Warrior Kofi the Council of Elders crowned him king.

The new King also displayed vital virtues of forgiveness, and compassion by pardoning the old witch goddess Ojo, and returning her to the Kingdom, eventually marrying her and crowning her as the Queen of the land.

By this and other numerous stories, our Elders sought to preach and ingrain into youngsters the benefits, rewards, the glory and inevitable benefits of bravery in laying down one’s life to defend and secure peace and to help expand their societies.

Furthermore, our elders demonstrated the significance of showing gratitude and appreciation for good deeds performed by benefactors and caring people throughout their traditional stories, and ingrained these essential virtues into the behavior and attitudes of growing children in various societies in Africa. Numerous African traditional stories demonstrate the essential significance of the virtue of gratitude in our societies. In the short story of the Evil Demonic Warlock who seduced and married the beautiful Princess, King Sika showed great appreciation and gratitude to the young warrior Ojoko who successfully brought back his daughter so much that he abdicated his throne for the young warrior and encouraged her beautiful princess to marry the warrior.

Additionally, the Council of Elders in the Village of Gumbo expressed their thankfulness and appreciation by appointing the indomitable warrior Kofi who endured punishable battle wounds to save their village from the hideous horrific monsters as King of the kingdom.

The African elders taught their offspring’s, through their traditional stories, about the significance of treating their fellow human beings with fairness, kindness, love, and other good natured virtues.

Indeed, the virtues of fairness, and kindness are so deeply ingrained into the consciousness of our people that Africans are generally among the most personable, fair-minded people, welcoming, embracive, the most giving and trusting people in the world. Most of their stories reveal these basic admirable virtues of fairness, decency, and kindness to their fellow human beings. The story of the mysterious old witch meets the wretched village boy serves to illustrate and demonstrate the virtues of kindness, love, decency and respect for the elderly into their youngsters.

Numerous short stories, and folktales are re-told many times to demonstrate and teach youngsters the significance of ingraining the virtues of showing sympathy, understanding, generosity, humaneness, tolerance and other positive virtues to our fellow human beings. In the story of the Mysterious old witch and the wretched village boy; though Kofi and mother had meager harvest and barely enough to feed their family; nevertheless, when Kofi’s mother harvested a tuber of Yam, she offered to share with the entire extended family.

Kofi’s kindness, sharing attitude and generosity was on full display when the old witch bestowed Kofi with the hideous –looking box filled with all kinds of gold chains, gold dust, diamonds, all kinds of Jewels and pearls.

The generosity of Kofi propelled him to share his wealth with the entire village, and as Kofi said, so we can all live in happiness together for ever.

It is instructive to realize that though Kofi was born into poverty, nevertheless he was not selfish to hoard his enormous wealth, but his kind and generous nature led him to share some of his enormous wealth with his fellow villagers.

Later when the wretched Villager became warrior Kofi and ascended into the throne of his Kingdom his sense of fairness, thankfulness, decency and gratitude to the banished old, ugly witch was at full display when he pardoned the banished witch and brought her back to her former village.

The Bible extols us to Honor thy mother and father, so that thy days will be longer on the earth. Similarly, African philosophers and elders sought to impute and ingrain respect for the elderly into their children in their respective villages. Through their various traditional stories, the elders told and retold many stories, which demonstrated various facets of evil, calamity, and destruction that befell rude children who disrespected their elderly. They explained that these rude, disrespectful children always met horrible fates that cut their lives short made them endure terrible and untimely catastrophic deaths.

The story of the old witch and the mysterious villager shows the terrible and untimely death that befell the saucy, insolent and disrespectful Yaw. In the story Yaw, an ungrateful, rude and deceptive friend of the village boy Kofi lies to his friend Kofi to find the location of the old witch in the cave to discover the source of Kofi’s wealth.

The young man Yaw eventually meets the old witch, but he was disrespectful and began making fun and laughing at the looks of the old witch, asking rudely, what happened to your ugly ears and fat nose, old woman’? Yaw continued his taunting of the old lady by asking, Tell me, was your father a rabbit who gave you those ugly long ears?"

After subjecting the old witch to a barrage of insults, Yaw physically demanded the location of the boxes filled with gold and the rest of her jewels. Despite Yaw’s insults and almost sticking the old lady up for her wealth, the old witch was still sympathetic towards the immature young lad and gave him a choice between taking the ugly or the glittering box, and warned Yaw not to take the glittering box, because she added; all that glitters is not gold. You are warned.

But because Yaw was disrespectful, rude, saucy and abusive to this elderly old woman, he disregarded the old witch’s advise, chose the forbidden glittering box and laughed all the way home. When he opened the glittering box he unleashed those ancient horrific monsters, which promptly killed him.

The wise old elders used such stories to frighten the youngsters and guide them way from such nasty and rude behavior towards the elderly, because of the consequences of what can befall them. They however dwelt on stories that encouraged the youngsters to respect their elders.

Contributions from the Youth?

Almost every society has the rare youngster who is born with that unique germ of insight, maturity, understanding and wisdom to understand the complexities of human nature and societal problems. These rare unique and gifted youngsters are truly assets to their societies, and accordingly many traditional societies sought to listen and think though their advice, information and insight of such gifted youngsters. The traditional elders narrated stories about such youngsters to demonstrate the significance of the insight of such gifted youngsters, the benefits and contributions of such youngsters to their communities.

In the story of Witches Under the Ocean young Bimbata warned his mother, Queen Dezi-Baba to employ peaceful means, love, understanding, cooperation, tolerance and patience in dealing with her enemies so as to maintain peaceful coexistence. Again in the story young Bimbata with the rare wisdom of a youngster, who has not been clouded with prejudice and negative intentions felt compelled to speak up and give his mother a heartfelt warning. Young Bimbata knew his mother clamored for power to annihilate all her enemies by using these immense powers bestowed upon her by the mythical under water King Frenuto. Young Bimbata with such keen insight to her mother’s character advised her:

But mother wait, remember the King told us that with great power comes responsibility. Rather than using this great power to bring about order to our lands through violence; would it not be wiser to use the power of Love, cooperation, peace and kindness to solve all our problems to bring order to our lands.

Such wise and time-honored advise from the youngster Bimbata at such particular hostile period in the village was foolishly ignored by the powerful Queen Dezi-Baba. Instead the Queen pursued extreme violence and scorch-Earth military tactics against her enemies, and eventually incurred the wrath of the gods leading to the destruction of her kingdom.

In the end, after the youngster Bimbata demonstrated his wisdom and insight to his mother the queen; it compelled the Queen to observe the truism of Bimbata’s advise:

As a result of Bimbata’s compassionate words, the huge level of love, compassion, understanding that were being expressed by the young boy was enough to resonate all the way directly to the heavens. As a result all assembled hordes and armies of Zimbala beheld a wondrous Miracle; which eventually resolved the crisis Queen Dezi-Baba was embroiled in.

The Queen was eventually forced to admit, Indeed son you are correct, I was shown visions of grandeur by the great under-water King Frenuto of those far away lands.

Yes, those far way lands heeded the advice of young Bimbata as the European Queen Lutcha had a flash back to a time when young Bimbata gave his mother advise that: Mother we should use love, kindness, compassion and peace to solve problems rather than resorting to blood-shed." She wisely followed the youngster Bimbata’s insight and wisdom, cultivated and maintained peaceful relationships with all her enemies.

Other Queens such as Queen Menlou of China; Queen Mechi from Japan and Queen Maria Salva from Spain followed the wise and sagacious insight of young Bimbata and employed the mighty powers bestowed on them by King Frenutu to create harmonious and cooperative environment which gave them impetus to build and develop their nations. In the end they built prosperous societies to the envy of Queen Dezi-Baba, who refused to follow the insight, wisdom and advise of her own youngster, Bimbata.

Summation of significant virtues in the stories.

Some of the most significant virtues demonstrated in the stories are briefly highlighted below:

1. Witches Under the Ocean: The most significant virtue in this story is: With great power comes enormous responsibility; because great power can either be a blessing or a curse on the person wielding such power.

2. The Space Aliens encounter African Nubian Sisters: The main virtue here is that Human Beings should reduce hatred, abuses, racism, sexism, envy, tribalism, xenophobia and be more tolerant towards one another; and above all work together to advance the species longevity on planet earth instead of killing one another.

3. How the Intelligent Turtle became the King of the Jungle: The most interesting virtue, which caught our attention here, is ability to think critically to avoid being manipulated by devious and trickster characters. We should always know and believe there are tricksters in this world that can dupe unsuspecting people, so it is important to open our eyes and ears to the antics of cunning and deceptive people.

4. Mysterious old Witch Meets the Wretched Village Boy: The pivotal virtue in this story is the African Elders believe that youngsters should be nurtured to respect and obey their elders, at least those who deserve to be respected. The youngsters are also extolled to eschew all forms of rude and disrespectful behavior towards the elderly of their societies.

5. The Evil Demonic Warlock who seduced and Married the Beautiful princess: The overriding virtue implicit in this story is for youngsters to listen, respect, evaluate and or think through parental advise, and understand the nature and purpose of a given advise before unreasonably tossing it aside. It is significant for youngsters to find out or seek the purpose and benefits of parental and or elderly advise.

6. The Origin of Evil, Wicked and Satanic Entities in our World: The abiding and enduring virtue in this story is for evil to grow and spread in our societies only when good people remain silent while evilness thrive; because goodness is like a light-switch that extinguishes the darkness of negativity and wickedness.

7. How Wisdom Came to the World: The significant virtue in this story is the demonstration of providential will that; Evil will never lay claim to this Earth; because as Civil Rights leader, and Nobel Laureate, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed, the Arch of the Moral universe is long but it bends towards universal justice.

BOOK ONE

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WITCHES UNDER THE OCEAN

Kwame A. Insaidoo

In a village far, far away, Queen Dezi Baba, the queen of the witches and wizards of the village of Zimbala called an emergency meeting of all the witches and wizards to convene at her castle.

Wizards, Warlocks, and witches from the entire world attended this important meeting. They came from far away places like Europe, China, Japan, India, Spain and the Americas.

During this tumultuous meeting the assembled witches and wizards lamented on the chaotic state of the world. They especially worried on the lawlessness among the youth, rape of young girls, pervasive nudity of young girls and even of grown women, uncontrolled drunkenness of men and the decline in the quality of life in the world. The witches and wizards wanted a world of order with law-abiding citizens.

During their august meeting the witches and wizards from around the world debated and discussed various solutions to maintain peace stability and order in the world by any means necessary.

Needless to say, the collective wisdom of the witches and wizards from the entire world was not sufficient enough to find the necessary solution to the problems facing the world.

Wenlou: [the soft spoken wizard from China tabled a motion to elect a leader of the group] My fellow witches and wizards, join me to thank Queen Dezi-Baba for having the foresight and wisdom to call us at her castle.

All Witches & Wizards: [In one loud chorus] Yes; thank you Queen Dezi-Baba, thank you for calling this important meeting which is long overdue. We are most grateful to you.

Witch Salem: Your gracious Queen, thank you again, and greetings from my brethren and sisters all the way from the Americas.

Raju: Namaste from India, and greetings to your Highness. You see any moment from now a test may happen from our subjects, and we cannot help them. Hence we need a solution to the problems plaguing our lands.

Maria: We need to meet more often to deliberate and find solutions to problems in our world. I propose we unanimously elect Queen Dezi-Baba to be the head of our council.

Witches in Chorus: Let’s hear it for Queen Dezi-Baba as our leader of the witches and Wizards’ Council. Yeeees, we concur, yes she is our leader of our council. [All the witches clapped and clapped for their elected head of the council, Queen Dezi-Baba].

Queen Dezi-Baba: [bedecked in her majestic, splendid black robe trimmed with a black belt; and her long braided hair hanging unto her waist and her red face lit with excitement, began to speak with a deep voice to the assemblage of witches, warlocks and wizards].

Hail, Hail to you all my beloved witches, warlocks and wizards. I greet you all in the name of love and sincerely thank you for honoring me. Today, we would not find lasting solutions to the problems plaguing our world, but tomorrow we may.

I make a solemn promise to you that I am going to commune with my ancestral spirits to seek their guidance on our quest for order in our world.

Here is my little young son Bimbata who is under my care, training and control. He will assist me and be of services to all of us in performing small tasks to facilitate our work.

Witches in Chorus: Okay little boy Bimbata help your mum and take good care of her as she performs her awesome task to heal our broken world.

Bimbata: [Shy as a little boy can be, only stands besides her mother, and bows to the witches and wizards. He nods his head while beaming a broad smile, but says nothing.

Queen Dezi-Baba: [looking slightly disappointed] Let’s all take our leave and go to our respective homes because we must never forget that Rome was not built in a day. Our ancestors also say that it takes going back and forth, or to and fro, for a bird to build her nest. Today, we could not resolve our problems, but tomorrow is another day, and in our own sweet way, we will prevail.

SCENE

The Queen adjourns the meeting as all the witches from across the world retreats to go back to their respective homes.

The disappointed Queen Dezi Baba retreats into her chamber to commune with her ancestral spirits.

Queen Dezi-Baba: [alone in her chamber and kneeling in front of her big cauldron of bubbling water and begins to summon her ancestral spirits for help by reciting some words that are inaudible, and all but sounds gibberish to outsiders.]

Oh mighty cauldron, consume this rat, cockroaches, dozen eggs and this mashed plantains with palm oil.

[As the Queen breaks the eggs one by one, she makes a small circle with red roses and conjured up her ancestral spirits.]

The Queen continues her mystical and witchy incantations.

Hail, Hail, I command the fire of my guiding spirit snake of my ancestors, the wise one, the magnificent one, the generous one, the only mighty power who knows all. Appear, Appear, the only one, the mighty one, who guides his people from the North to the South and from the East to the West, Appear, Appear. [In a loud noise]

NARRATOR/SCENE:

As the Queen continues her incantations a giant snake about 2 feet tall weighing 250 pounds jumps out of the bubbling cauldron, breathing fire with smoke from his nostrils.

Ironically, the sight of the enormous snake temporary frightens Queen Dezi-Baba and she temporarily passes out; but shortly thereafter she slowly opens her eyes, and wakes up, when the snake hisses in her ear.

Ancestral Snake: My dear beloved daughter what do you seek from your ancestors? Speak now, speak now, and know it will be done unto you as you request.

Queen Dezi-Baba: Our mighty ancestor, hear me, hear me well, for there is darkness all over our lands. There is strife, and more strife, chaos, confusion, political unrest, brother against brother, children against their parents, and sisters against each other. Oh great one, ye powerful spirit, we mortals desperately need your help and guidance; to create peace, love, stability and order in our lands. [Queen weeps and begs the spirit to do something to help.]

Ancestral Snake: O my beloved daughter, weep no more, worry no more, cry no more, for you have come to the right place. We will show you what you need to do to maintain law and order in your lands.

Queen Dezi-Baba: I knew we could count on you for all the help and assistance we desire from our ancestral spirits.

Ancestral Snake: Be free to know that help comes from a great and powerful under water magical kingdom, where a powerful underwater king dwells in his mighty kingdom. Here mighty powers, incredible powers, unimaginable, almost magical powers exist that can bring all the blessings you seek in your lands.

But be aware that you cannot open this portal by yourself. You need the collective wisdom, and strength of all your witches, warlocks and wizards to perform rituals and sacrifices to open the magnetic portal to this magnificent underwater kingdom,

Once your council of witches is assembled, begin the ritual at once, and I will make my grand entrance to the council to guide them.

The mystical ancestral snake then vanishes into thin air.

Narrator/Scene:

For a moment Queen Dezi-Baba thought she was either dreaming or hallucinating or had an epiphany about the Magical Kingdom. The queen was stubborn, and so tries to open the magical portal alone. She could not, because the magnetic strength of the portal to the underwater magical kingdom was stronger than her rituals. The queen even collapses unto the floor as she tried to open the portal alone, the second time around.

Queen Dezi-Baba had finally learned her lesson and so decided to use the collective strength of all her witches and wizards to open the portal to the underwater kingdom, as instructed by the ancestral magical snake.

Queen Dezi-Baba reconvenes the meeting of all the witches, warlocks and wizards from all lands and beyond. Witches from the entire world attended.

Queen Dezi-Baba: Greetings my fellow witches; I welcome all of you back to my castle. I hope you enjoyed your trips to your homelands. My young boy, Bimbata, will assist us in our today’s special ritual.

Bimbata: [stands in the middle of the circle of the witches and wizards holding a black magical diamond jewel and says nothing to the powerful witches and wizards].

Queen Dezi-Baba: [boldly addresses the assemblage as the head of their council]. My fellow witches, warlocks and wizards; yesterday was a great day for I had an epiphany, and during this magical moment in my life, my ancestral spirit appeared to me.

The spirit revealed the portal to an underwater Magical Kingdom, where a great and powerful king will bestow on