the man who married a hen, stories of a zambian schoolboy

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The man who married a hen

Stories told by a Zambian schoolboy

Johns Maswabi



Editing house: Ter verpoozing ISBN: 978-90-73064-13-3NUR 300/ 525Peize 2010Editors: Gerard Stout / Petra Hatley

Photo cover: Petra Hatley Illustrations inside: form I students of Gomarus College, Groningen, The Netherlands. Teacher: Petra Hatley.

All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced without written permission of the editor.



Enjoy a child’s wisdom



Gomarus College is a reformed Christian secondary school, located in the north

of the Netherlands. The school operates at various locations in the provinces

Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen. An average of 3000 students attend

Gomarus College.

www.gomaruscollege.nl

www.victoryhope.nl



Myself Maswabi

I was born in 1959 in an area called Imilangu. I was given thename Maswabi, which means sadness, because most of my

brothers and sisters died before me. I am the last born in my family. After my birth no one followed me. When I was threeto five years old I was always sick and stayed at the hospital of Sihole, where I was treated.I started schooling in 1967 at Imilangu Primary School. WhenI reached up to grade four, the Romans at Sihole mission builtthe upper primary, which was grade five up to grade seven. I

was always coming from Imilunga village where I stayed withmy parents.During my holidays I was fond of looking after my father'scattle. In the forest I went with dogs to hunt small animals andeven big ones. Sometimes I used traps to kill birds and hares. When it was not my turn to look after the cattle, I always wasgoing with my father's net to fish in lake Imilangu. Sometimes

I spent my holidays in my mother's village. After I finished my upper course in 1973, I did my exams.



January 1974 I heard that I was accepted at Kalabo Secondary School. I was very happy. My parents gave me half of theschool fees, the rest came from my uncle who is still providing me with money for my education.Now I am going to tell you some stories.



Fear beer

Many people in the whole world are fond of drinking beer. Among them there are some who can drink very little, not

more than necessary. Some of them do not drink beer in agood way; they usually drink beer more than necessary, andsometimes they drink beer like anyone drinking milk oranyone eating some of the non alcoholic things.I think beer is good to drink, but it should not be liked by many people, because when somebody has drunken beer hedoes not think so well, and he becomes abnormal. Usually a

drunken person fights anybody who offends him. He is neverreasonable, he fights anyhow. So it is for us, human beings, tocontrol the way we drink beer, and we should keep in mindthat beer can take somebody to death.Now as far as I am concerned, I am going to tell you a story about a man I saw in Mongu last time in August, when I wasgoing to Kaoma. There was a man in Mongu and his name

was Agrey. One day Mr. Agrey was invited by his friend tocome to his house, because there was a feast there. When hearrived he started dancing with his friend.



They danced the whole night untillthe next morning. While they weredancing like that, they were alsodrinking beer the whole night, andeven after the sun had risen they

continued drinking. When it was about ten thirty in themorning Mr. Agrey took a cup of beer and went on walking with thecup in his hands, he wanted to findhis friend.

As he was walking like that, he wasdrunk, more than necessary, and hecould not think anymore, because adrunken person is really abnormal.He was walking like that on Sunday and he came to the New ApostolicChurch.

Once he reached the church heentered the church. His main aim of doing so was that he thought that it



was the house of his friend, where they were dancing anddrinking. He went on straight to the person who waspreaching in the church. He thought that the preacher wasgiving beer to the people. After he had reached the preacherhe told him 'Give me beer. I want to drink!’

This made the one who was preaching feel very shameful. Hekept on talking about unnecessary things, and at last thepreacher took the drunken man out of the church, and toldhim that this was not the place where the beer was.'We don’t have any beer here'. The preacher did not become angry, because he knew that it

was not the man doing like that, but that it was only the beer.Mr. Agrey was doing all these things, and did not know whathe was doing, and could not realize that he was in the churchand not in the beer hall. All the people, who were gathered in the church were very greatly astonished because of the action the man was doing,untill at last they realized that he was drunk, and saw beer in

the cup he was carrying. At first they thought he was running mad.



Hippos are dangerous

In the year 1973 I went to visit my grandfather in the middleof the plain near the Zambezi river. This was after our final

examinations were over, and I planned to stay there during theholidays. As we were there altogether, we enjoyed drinking fresh andsour milk, and eating fish and meat of animals and big birds,found in the plain. One day I went playing with my friends onthe bank of the river. When I heard my uncle calling me with aloud voice, I replied innocently, because I knew he was older

than I.I came from where I was playing and after I arrived he said:‘My son you can see we have nothing for supper so it may befair that we go fishing.’I replied: 'Yes uncle, we can go.’ We walked to the bank of the river, got in our fishing boat andstarted paddling. After that we put our nets into the water and

started beating the water with our paddling sticks. As we weredoing this a very big and cruel hippo heard our beating andcame straight to us under the water. When it was near us, the



hippo came above the water, and we saw it opening its mouth while it was swimming towards our fishing boat. To its mis-fortune we paddled as fast as we could, till we reached theriver bank, where we started running.

It also came out of the water, and chased us till we reachedhome. After we had reached the village, we started chasing it with our dogs. The hippo ran back into the river, it kicked our



boat and broke it. Then it hid itself under the water till thenight, when it came out again and started to graze. From thatday I took it for granted that I wasn't going for fishing in theriver, because I am still afraid of hippos. What I know and why I say this, is because if I had been all by myself, I might

have been hurt, because I didn't yet know the character of the very animal.

Friends, better you fear hippos, they easily can kill somebody.



Kalulu and Ingwe

I am going to tell you a story about Kalulu and his friendIngwe. This story, I did not see it, was told to me by my uncle

when I was a boy of about four years old. I did not ask him totell me about it, he told it because the story happened yearsago, in the time when he was a small boy of about eight yearsof age.Because he was a boy like me, growing with intelligency, he was able to put it in his mind, and that is why he could tell itto me in such a good way, that was very sweet. Everyone who

will read this story will have to enjoy it very well indeed.Before I tell the story I have to tell you where my uncle usedto live. My uncle used to stay in a village called Luko, near very good and fertile soil. The village was in Mukaiponda districtfound in a province called Wessy. His main work was the work on the land and he was also keeping some cattle. Hespent most of his time on keeping the soil fertile and he had a

good harvest every year. He said that his biggest number of bags of maize was 1200 bags in one year. I think he was really a hard working man, and he must have earned a lot of money



from his own farm. Now since Ihave told how the man lived I shallexplain about the story of Kaluluand Ingwe that he told me. He toldme that long long ago Kalulu and

Ingwe his friend lived together in a village called Moyu. They both liveda good and more interesting lifethan my uncle had ever seen. As they were living like that, they had a big farm on which they grew

many different types of crops, suchas maize, beans, millet, tomatoesand many others. Nearly everything they produced they ate themselves,only a bit was sold to the people inthe village. These animals were very clever, and

liked each other. Whenever they hadharvested their crops they put theproduce in one storeroom. Because



they kept the harvest in one storeroom they had to love each other very much. Another thing they did was that whenever they got some-thing to share among themselves,

they made sure that each got thesame amount of what they had. Again this way of sharing madethem live better, because no one was ever angry with his friend.One day Kalulu was cleaning the

storeroom in which they had puttheir food. As he was cleaning he found thatsome of the food was missing, he wondered where that food couldbe. For a long time he wondered,and thought very deeply untill at last

he thought that may be a thief hadcome at midnight when they wereasleep, and stolen the food.



That night when Kalulu and his friend lngwe went to bed,Kalulu was thinking of the way their food had been stolen lastnight. So he decided not to sleep this night, but only topretend that he was asleep. As Kalulu was pretending to beasleep, his friend Ingwe got out of bed and took a close look

at Kalulu. Ingwe found that Kalulu was asleep and began tosteal the food that was in the storeroom. At first Kalulu could not feel angry with what he saw, but he was just quiet for only a short time, then he stoppedpretending to be asleep and shouted to his friend: 'You are thethief who stole the food from the storeroom last night.’

Ingwe took all the food he had stolen this time and ran away.Kalulu ran after his friend and chased him. Ingwe ran as fastas he could, but Kalulu could not feel tired, and chased himuntill they reached the village. When they reached the village that belonged to an old man,Ingwe began to feel very tired, and looked for a place wherehe could hide himself from being caught by Kalulu, who was

very near now. As Ingwe was looking for a place like that, hesaw a very big and tall man standing with his mouth wideopen. The man was having his mouth wide open because he



was very surprised to see Kalulu chasing Ingwe towards him. While the man was standing like that, Ingwe ran straight tohim, and as he reached the man he could not stop and wentstraight into the stomach of the man, through the wide openmouth.

There he was free from his friend Kalulu, because after Ingwehad entered the man's mouth, the man had closed his wideopen mouth immediately. Kalulu chased Ingwe as far as thefront of the man, but it was too late for him to enter the man’sstomach.From that time, my uncle said, Kalulu and Ingwe became great

enemies. Since this story is a bit complicated, I think we may learn many things of it. It is from this story that we can know not to love somebody by eyes, or by showing teeth in a smile.But when you love somebody; you should love him with allyour heart, and not think a bad thing of him. If Ingwe hadbeen a honest person, just like Kalulu, their friendship wouldhave lasted longer.



Training for marriage

Among the people of the world marriage is a stage thatsymbolizes the development of a man or girl in his or her life.

The training for marriage starts at a very early stage, may be when somebody is about two years old, and even now when Iam not at all a grown up man, I have already known whatmarriage is. The training for marriage is usually done by young boys andgirls in the form of initiation. For example young girls may play the game of having babies, may play with pounding sticks,

and other things required for the girls. In my tribe, when boysand girls go and play outside the village in the bush or plain, we call this mandwani , and there young boys and girls play many various games which sometimes make them happy.During such mandwani games the very young children play the role of babies, and the older children play the role of parents. Others do not at all do the same games of being only

husbands and wives, they also play the role of dogs, chickensand hyenas. Even myself, I played mandwani during my childhood, and now I cannot do such games, because I am



nearly a grown up boy of about 18 years of age. Sometimes when boys and girls go to play mandwani they carry with thempots, fire, water, mealie meal, fish and relish, so they can makenshima to eat.

After those games mentionned still boys and girls are given aformal training for their own marriage. These are the initiationceremonies, where they are taught everything in detail, like me.



Lubinda becomes a hunter

Lubinda lived with his parents, his three elder brothers and hisfour sisters in a village called Lutunda, in my own area near

Senanga BOMA. They had some cattle and a small piece of land where they grew maize, vegetables and other crops. All thesecrops were grown for the sake of providing the family withenough food to eat.Sometimes Lubinda’s father and his three elder brothers wentto the forest to try to hunt small animals in order to providethe family with enough meat for the relish, so that they could

become not thin but fat. Whenever they came from hunting they gave us a fair share of what they had killed, this is our custom, found throughout thearea, that when a person has got something edible, he givesothers a part of what he has got. Whenever Lubinda’s father and brothers went for hunting they always left Lubinda at home, he had to look after the

cattle because he was not old enough to leave the village andgo hunting in the bush. But when these things went on, it wasnot to Lubinda's wishes to be staying at home while his father



and brothers were hunting in the forest. It was true thatLubinda was very small, but he was too strong.I remember that he was about six years old, and among weLozi people, when a boy is about six to seven years old, he cando things his father does. Specially the building of houses,

looking after cattle, collecting firewood, fetching water for thefamily, and also washing clothes, plates and other things thatneed to be clean. As Lubinda saw his brothers go for hunting he wanted to goas well. He decided the day when he would go, and as a resultof this he went where he could not be seen by some people,

and he made himself a good bow and arrow. As he was doing this, I was also in the forest wandering about.I saw Lubinda and went to him. I began questioning him andasked him why he was making such things in the bush, wherehe could not be seen by anyone.He answered me that he wanted to become a hunter.‘But Lubinda,’ I said, ‘how can you become a hunter while you

are still too young to go hunting?’He answered: ‘That is what my father also says, that I am toosmall to go hunting, that's why I am hiding here.’



Then he told: ‘I am making my bow and arrow secretly. I amgoing to kill a hare.' Then he said: 'Don’t tell my father, because if he knows what Iam planning he will beat me.’Honest and being a good boy, I told everything to my grand-

father, my grandmother and my parents. I did not tell what Ihad seen to Lubinda’s father. After he had made a strong bow and many arrows, he went onpractising. Practice makes perfect, he thought and in a very short time he became skillful in it.One day Lubinda's mother said: 'We need meat, because we

have no relish today.’ As the father of Lubinda heard this he took his weapons and went hunting with his three big sons, while Lubinda the smallson was left at home as usual. His father had forbidden him togo hunting, but he decided to follow his father and brothersafter they had gone a long distance. His plan was successful atlast.

I have seen this boy called Lubinda with my own eyes, as Ihave already said.



Bride price

Among all the boys when they grow up and become men, they have something that makes a boy a man. A boy can be seen

with hairs around his mouth. When a boy has grown up hesometimes makes plans about marrying. Since he wants tomarry he has to go in many different places, meanwhilesearching for someone to marry. Marriage is not an easy thing that can be done within a day or even two days. So the boy hasto have it difficult before he finds a girl to marry him. If he islucky, he can find a girl, and after he has found her he tells the

girl: ‘I love you so, let us marry each other.’It is then to the girl’s choice, whether she is also interested inmarrying the boy or not. If she also wants to be married to the very boy, she usually tells him: ’We can arrange our wedding.’ After the girl has agreed to be married, the boy will go back home and tell his parents what he has done. If the parents arealso interested in their son’s wedding, they can give him some

cattle or money to pay for his wife. The thing a man pays forhis wife is what we call bride price, and in my ethnic group it isknown as lobola .



For example in my ethnic group, they may charge a boy aboutthree to five cattle, or when it is money, they may chargesomebody two hundred kwacha only. They usually make sure that a boy pays the things they chargedhim before he marries the girl. This is what they do in my

ethnic group when a boy wants to marry.



Hippo and Elephant

This is a story about Hippo and Elephant, about how they

lived together long ago. It is not a story which I have seen with my own eyes, but it was told to me in 1962, before my grandfather had passed away. Anyway I may say that it is goodfor us to ask older people many questions, and we alwaysshould bear in mind all what they tell us. If I had been foolishenough, and had not asked anything from my grandparentsand other older people. I would not have the knowledge to

pass these things to other people. Since I grew wise, I am ableto tell what I asked my grandfather and what he told me.He did not grow tired of answering all my questions, and Icould not feel tired of asking what came to my mind. He toldme that this story happened long ago.Hippo and Elephant lived together on a farm in the westernpart of this country. My grandfather told me that Hippo and

his friend Elephant had very hard work to do, but they didn'tmind digging the land, weeding the fields or harvesting thecrops. What they liked most was sweeping the floor, fetching



waste, and cooking the food. Even the grinding of the maizethey did themselves.One day Hippo started complaining about his friend, he saidthat he was not at all good at doing the cooking, that hecooked bad food, that could not be eaten by an educated

person. As they lived like that Elephant thought of a brightand good idea, but it took him a long time before he couldeven think of telling it to his friend. He thought that if he would marry, his wife could do all the house work for him andhis friend. He had only one problem, the trouble was that hehad only very little money.

‘If I would have enough money, I could get married,’ hethought.He told his friend all about his ideas, and Hippo could nothelp agreeing that his friend should get married. Hippo hatedeating badly cooked food and staying in an unnecessary way.He told his friend that, if he was sure about getting married,he would lend him enough money for his journey, for buying

good and fine beads, and also for buying new clothes.Elephant thanked his friend for his offer, and accepted themoney.



After Elephant had gone, his friend was left alone on theirfarm, and he carried on working hard by himself and cooking his own food. This made Hippo feel not so well, and he wasfeeling very unhappy because of loneliness, and having a lot of work to do. But his loneliness did not last a long time, for only

two weeks after Elephant had set off for his journey he cameback with his new wife, called Ma-Joni.

After Elephant had come home, his friend Hippo was happy again, happier than ever before. The new wife began to do allthe work found on the farm, and she also did all the work in



the house. Mr. Hippo was also very happy, because Mrs.Elephant cooked very good, not even his own mother, whodied years ago, could prepare food in a more tasteful way.Even more he enjoyed the beer that Mrs. Elephant made very regularly. As a result of this Mr. Hippo, as he was called by

then, was very polite to Mrs. Elephant. They lived a long time, enjoying their lifes, the three of them,Mr. Elephant, Mrs. Elephant, and Mr. Hippo, a man who hadno wife.During the time of marriage Mr. Hippo had been so carefulnot to ask for the money he had lent to Mr. Elephant, but

now, after more than eight months, he asked his friend torepay him the money. Every time Mr. Hippo kept onreminding his friend about his debt, and usually Mr. Elephanthad an excuse ready. Some of the excuses Mr. Elephant gavesaid his wife needed new shoes, new dresses, and that he hadto buy soap for her. As Mr. Elephant was troubled by hisfriend, he even sometimes pretended not to hear what he was

asked.I think this is the best thing for us to do, if we are intelligent, we should always keep on asking older people about things.



A story of Namonda Joyce

Once there was a girl named Joyce. She was the most beautifulgirl of all the girls I have ever seen. She was brown with her

neck like a bottle, and her teeth just like fresh milk, her facelike a mirror and also with a pretty nose. She was loved by somany man, but her father said: ‘Anyone who wants to marry my daughter should bring one thousand cattle, and should buy these for only one ngwee.’Most men failed to marry Namonda, the beautiful girl so far. Another intelligent man said: ‘I want to marry Namonda.’

The father said: ‘Unless you bring one thousand cattle at onengwee, you will marry Namonde the beautiful.’ The man replied and said: ’It is possible to do this, but beforeI set of my journey, you must give me just one grain of maize, which I will be eating on my way of 43,689 km.’ When the father heard this reply he offered his daughter tothis man, because this man was intelligent enough to find the

solution for this problem.



A pleasant work

About 55 million years ago, there lived many animals in agroup. Among these animals were Lion the headman, Ingwe

the leopard, Njoko the monkey, Kalulu the hare and many others, including Tortoise and Fox. As they lived in a group like that, there came a drought, they suffered because there was nothing to drink. Lion, being theheadman suggested a way they could defend themselvesagainst this evil. He called a meeting which was to be attendedby all his followers. When all the animals were together the

lion stood and rose to speak.‘In our group,’ he said, ‘we suffer a lot because of thirst, andall this thing may not occur anymore, if only we dig a very big and deep well.’He continued: ‘For us to do this we must all come to anagreement, and choose the day when it will be dug.’ All the animals accepted Lion's decision, but there were some

questions. Kalulu the hare asked: ‘Are Tortoise and Jackal alsogoing to dig the well?’Lion answered: ‘Yes.’



Kalulu said to this reply: ‘If they are going to dig the well, I won’t drink any water from that well, and I can’t help anymoreto do the job.’Lion said: ‘If you don’t want, you can stop doing the work, butyou will suffer.’

The job took the animals more than three weeks, nearly amonth. After the well had been dug they suffered no more of thirst, but Kalulu suffered a lot because of his proudness. Ashe suffered like that, he thought of a way to find something todrink. ‘Tonight when these animals will be asleep I will go anddrink from that well,’ Kalulu said to himself.

After the night had fallen all the animals went to sleep, andalso Kalulu did the same. He did not really sleep. As theanimals were asleep, Kalulu peeped out and went straight tothe well, and he drank and drank as much as he could. Hethen returned to the camp and slept. To his misfortune it didn’t take a week before his friendsfound out what he was doing.

They thought of a way they could catch Kalulu, and Tortoisesaid to the other animals: ‘It may be fair if you send me to watch that well day and night.’ As the animals heard this they



laughed and said: ‘How are you going to catch him, wile youcannot run so quickly?’He said: 'I will do it and if I fail to keep my promise you may kill me on this spot.’

They let Tortoise go, and being very lucky he did his work sonicely, that he could catch Kalulu, the cleverest guy so far.



The lost cat

In a district called Mono there lived many people who spokedifferent languages. These people had many dogs and other

domestic animals. One man had a cat, and usually this cat wastroubled by dogs. As they lived like that, they did a lot of work, more specially farming on the land. The soil was very fertile, and very good for growing maize and other crops. They lived in villages, and as the people of Mono lived theirlifes, there came a strike one day. This strike was broughtabout by the cat, because it was troubled by the dogs too

much. It went away from the village to live in the forest. The owner of the cat did not feel happy about his lost cat, andhe fought with those people having dogs. The fight did notlast long, they stopted fighting the same day, although theowner of the cat could still not feel happy. After the cat hadgone into the forest, the people lived their lives without someproblems.

One day a man from that village went to the forest to huntsome animals to feed himself and his family. He went onhunting like that, and came across the lost cat.



After he found the lost cat’ he did not leave it, but took it, andcontinued hunting. He found an animal with a broken leg andkilled it, and after he had killed the animal he went home,carrying the lost cat and the dead animal. After he reached his home, he put the cat in his house and

gave it some food. But this man did a wonderful thing withthe cat, because he married it, and produced a baby with thehead of a person and the body like a cat.

The cat that was born also married its mother and then they produced a good cat again.



A man becomes a crocodile

There once lived a man in this part of the world, this man wasa Bunda by his ethnic group, and was not educated. At first he

went to school, and began his grade one when he was a boy of about ten years old. He did not even complete his grade one,because he learned nothing from his school lessons. This wasbecause even if his teacher was teaching, he could not pay attention to his teacher. One thing that he beared in mind wasto become a medicine man.

As soon as he was out of primary school he went to a famousmedicine man to be given the medicine, and he was given the



medicine. He became a farmer, who produced more cropsthan any other in his area, because of his medicine. As theman was practising in medicines like that, he became a witch

doctor, and started bewitching the people he lived with,especially small children. One day he had bewitched the son of another man in the same village, and the boy died. After the boy had died his father went to another medicineman, and told him the one who killed his child. The medicineman spoke to the father and said him that he should also kill

the man who bewitched his son. He killed him, and after the witch doctor had died he changed into a crocodile. Thecrocodile lived a long time, and it was very cruel. When children went to the river to wash themselves, it alwaystried to catch one of them, but never managed to kill a childanymore. This story tells you not to buy so many medicines.



The three horned fish

I think everbody living in this province, or other parts of thecountry knows what a three horned fish is. This type of fish is

one of the most important and interesting things to watch. If ever a person would have been to the plain, doing the fishing some years ago, he would have able to observe the threehorned fish, its structure, its head and other parts of the body.

Looking at its head you can see that it looks more like a frogshead. Its under mouth is more like it, and it is a shorter mouththan the top mouth.It is found in rivers, and often it is liked by many birds of different kinds of shapes and sizes. Birds often catch the fishby floating on the water. After the bird has seen a fish, it



deepens its beak into the water, and takes the fish out of the water. But how does a bird eat and swallow such a fish withthree horns? This is done, specially by breaking off thosehorns. Usually only those birds that have teeth can eat thistype of fish.

How is it caught by human beings? This is by putting gillnetting in the water, and when a fish goes hunting, it can becaught in the net. Even the smallest fish of this type can becaught with a net with holes of about two centimeters wide,because of its hornes. This is one of the most difficult fish tobe taken out of the net, first the horns are broken, and it isthen when a person can pull it out. So this is a bad type of fishsince it can hurt somebody.



A thief

Once there was a woman who could not grow anything, soshe began to learn the very bad thing of stealing from other

women's fields. She continued her practice of stealing, andcould not stop it, as she became an expert in doing this.One day she went to a field of a man who lived in a villagecalled Kandiana. This time the woman had bad luck, as theowner of the field, Mr. Likumucha and Mrs. Likumucha foundher stealing in their field.Mr. Likumucha and Mrs. Likumucha could not feel mercy for

her. What they did was to take the woman thief to herhusband and the people of the village. The thief was not set free till Mr. Likumucha was givensomething to replace his stolen food. After the husband andthe woman thief had given Mr. And Mrs. Likumucha some-thing they went home, and the thief learned a lesson that time.Her husband had to pay even more than the value of the

stolen food. At this time there was a bad ruler calledMwananyanda who used to cut off the hands of the people who were found stealing other people’s properties.



Because of this the woman was very afraid, she thought she was going to loose her hands, but to her good luck the case was not handed to the cruel chief Mr. Mwananyanda.

As I was told this story in 1965, when I was six years old, Ilearned a good thing. From that time up to now I didn’tattempt to steal other people's properties, because I fearstealing. According to how my heart leads me, I will dieproudly without having taken someone's things, without being given it. To those wo will read this story, I think they will also teach

others a lesson from my story, that was told to me by my grandfather in 1965.



The man who married a hen

Once there lived a man in a village called Kaunga, nearLivingstone. One day he decided to have himself a wife to

cook and to do the housework for him. He found it difficultto do everything on his own, and the world stood on two legsby his side.He left the house and went on walking along the road, wherehe came across a very beautiful and polite girl. The girl wascalled Sinu.He said: ‘Good morning’ to the girl, but the girl didn’t give a

reply to the man, and this made the man not feel well.He said: ‘Good morning’ again, and this time she replied hisgreeting. He asked her what her name was, her father’s name,and even the name of the village. The polite girl answeredevery question the man asked her.In his heart the man thought: ‘I haven’t seen such a beautifuland polite girl before, and I think she is going to agree with

what I will tell her.''I want you to be my wife,’ the man said.‘To be your wife,’ replied the woman.



'Yes,’ the man said.‘Okay,’ Mr. Man.‘I think that is a good idea, and if you really love me as I loveyou, then our love will last longer than our lifes.‘I love you more than you love me,’ the man said.

After that they made an agreement for their wedding ceremony. The man and his wife went home, and the people of the village liked the thing that was done. They lived together for one whole week then his wife said: ‘Ithink it is a long time since I came into your house but you

never gave me the land where I can make a garden.’ And shecontinued: ‘What are we going to eat in the coming months, when we don’t grow anything?’Her husband answered: ‘Oh my dear wife, I think that is agood idea, you are a very good wife because if you had been weak, you couldn't have asked me for land.’‘By the end of this week, I will go with you and show you the

place where your garden is to be.’ The week came to an end, and the husband and wife went tothe area where the man wanted to make their own field. After



their arrival the wife laughed, and said: ‘Is this the area where we are going to make our garden?’‘Yes,’ said her husband, and they both went home. The next morning the wife woke up before cock’s crow, and went straight to the field. After she had arrived, she changed

herself from a person into a hen and began to dig. When she went back home in the evening, she changed herself back intoa person. The following day she did the same thing again, but this timeher husband had followed her to see how she was digging. Hefound only a hen digging, and when the wife came back home

that night, he divorced her.



A broken leg

Since I saw a boy who broke his leg in a football match, Irealize that playing football is somehow dangerous. It was in

1968 when I started schooling, and I liked playing footballmore than any other game. I liked it, because I knew how totackle and when I played nobody could take a ball from my legs by the time I found it. My teammates also liked me, andoften they stopped playing against other schools when I wassick, because they knew they might loose the match if they did. The position I liked playing was number nine and number six,

because when I played on number nine I could run the wholefield, and when I was on number six position, I played welland the ball couldn't reach our defenders. Also I was a gooddefender, and it is that position I played last year. I also wasgood at scoring balls, when I was at position nine. When they sometimes gave me a direct ball to play, placed on eleven kick,no goal keeper could afford to catch the ball.

As I used to play like that, we sometimes wrote a letter to anearby school, saying: ‘We want to play with you.’ Often they agreed and a date was allocated. When that very day came, we



went to them on Friday, and the match started on Saturday.On Saturday we played from 9.00 hours up to 10.30 hours, butunfortunately one of my teammates had his leg broken and was replaced by a reserve.I played that they even watched me more than any other

player, and I myself scored four balls plus three goals scoredby other players and it was seven to two. That means that we won.



Dances

Among the people living in the world, there are many dancesto which the tribes are accustomed. Among the Lozi, my tribe,

there are many dances that we sometimes dance, and others we always dance. The main dances are Siyemboka, Lishoma,and Ngomalume. These dances are dances by both sexes, themale and the female sex, but some of the dances are only doneby men, and other dances only by women.Some of these dances include both men and women, boys andgirls as well. The dances, that are only danced by men are

Ngomalume and Lishoma, while Siyemboka is done by bothsexes. All the other types are for women only. Another type of dance I nearly forgot is called Sipalu, this oneis danced by men and women, also children take part. This was and is done at night and outside the village, not in the village. Dancing outside the village is sometimes bad, becausesome people specially long ago lost their lives by doing so.

This was because there were lots and lots of hyenas in thepast. It is from this dance where we got the proverb whichsays the moon fools children. Also these dances had and still



have a great importance; for example Siyemboka is done orcelebrated when a girl comes of puberty stage.Men and women, boys and girls go to the Siyemboka, andmen usually go to see women fitting for marriage and to see whether the girl that has matured is beautiful enough to be

married or not.Dances like Ngomalume are celebrated when the Litungaleaves Lealui to Limilunga. Here ends the story.



Puberty girl

Puberty is the stage where a girl has to be taught many things;how she must live when she is married, or even before she is

married. Also to be polite to her husband and how to makeher husband happy when he comes from work. This puberty isa system among different languages and ethnic groups, but it isinteresting to know how it is done in my ethnic group. Among my ethnic group, when a girl reaches about fifteenyears of age she goes into the above mentionned stage. Whena girl is in this stage she has somebody to assist her, she is

guided and taught by an old woman of the same clan. A girlstays in this stage for at least six months, more especially thosegirls, who are not educated. An educated girl stays less thanthat, but at least two or three months. After the girl hascompleted more than four or six months, the parents arrangeeverything for their pupil to be out of puberty.In the tribe of we Lozi people this is done by dancing, thus

they choose a good day when the girl will be out. They preparemany enjoyable foods and beer for drinking. Then the day hascome, all village people go and feast, and they eat and drink as



greedy as a person can. The feast is done during the night,starting from the evening time till the sun rises in the nextmorning. Many people fight when they are too drunk, somesleep, some go on walking around the village. The nextmorning the parents of the girl tell the people to bring herfrom where she was hidden. Then, after she has been brought before the people, her father

gives two kwachas, so that they take the blanket off her. Thisis how we do the ceremony. The end.



Inheritance

I will tell all you, friends of mine about inheritance in my ethnic group. First I would like to tell all of you what

inheritance is. This will help all those friends who will like toread this story, after I have finished writing, so that they may know that the word means what.Inheritance means the taking of someone's properties after hisdeath. It is not only that, when somebody desires anotherone's property he could go and take it when the very person isstill alive. Inheritance is usually done after one is dead. When a

person is dead, the relatives of the person who has died may come together and share his possessions. Long ago somepeople said that the possessions of a dead person were usually taken by only the relatives. Nowadays when somebody is deadhis children are given their father's property. The first thing they do is to take the person to the grave yardand bury him. On the death of the dead person, usually if the

people of the clan are wealthy, they kill a cow for the people who will visit them, so that they have some meat to eat.



This time before a person dies he starts sharing his propertiesamong all his children. When he dies no person can say: ‘Hey you, bring some things because these things didn't belong toyour father.’ The way inheritance is done this time is betterthan in the past, because if the orphans share their father's

properties, it may help them for those days when they havelost their father, specially because there are some people whoreason that even if his own brother has died he won’t look after his brother's children well.End.



Your best friend is your best enemy

Once upon a time there were two boys living in the same area. They were friends, and their friendship started when they were

still young boys. As they lived, they usually went hunting andfishing together. Many things in life they shared, their names were Simangulungwa and Mucabatu.One day they went hunting, but this time their journey was very unsuccessful, because they found nothing. They returnedto their camp very angry, and after they had reached the campthey began questioning themselves what they should eat for

supper. A small piece of meat was the only food they had, andit was not enough for two.Simangulungwa began to think of an evil thing, this was of killing his friend, so he alone could eat the very piece of meat.Unfortunately his plan was not so successful, and from therethey became great enemies till their deaths. Told to me by my uncle during the night of 14-6-1970.

Ends there.



Girls of today

Girls of today seem to be changing in many ways from thosegirls of long ago. One reason why I am saying this is because

since Zambia gained her Independence on October 24

th

1964,girls seemed to have changed a lot.Girls of long ago were good girls because they didn't alter their ways of life, but these girls of today are more proud, and someare trying to change their skins like chameleons. They buy a lotof creams like Ambi, Ponds, Cleartone and many othercreams, which usually change their skins in different colours.

This thing seems to work very hard on this continent Africa,because they seem to think their skins will change from black to brown just like the Europeans. Another thing, which they are doing is to buy artificial hairs,that were not made so long ago by God. Also this is done by imitating European hair.



The badness of being uneducated

In the year 1964 when I was about seven years of age, I went with my elder brother, my young brother and other children of

the village to go fishing in a big lake called Makapaela. Thelake was surrounded by bush. We left home at five in themorning and arrived at six. At our arrival we put our fishing hooks down and made a fire to warm ourselves, for it was winter time. We warmed ourselves for about twenty minutes,and in the meantime we prepared our fishing hooks. After wehad warmed ourselves and had finished the preparations for

the fishing, we went down to the water. We did our fishing by standing in the water near the edge of the lake, where the water was not deep at all. As we were doing the fishing with our hooks, a Landrover with Europeans from a secondary school came along. TheLandrover was at the other side of the lake, the owners left itbehind, and started walking around the lake. As they were

walking like that, they reached the part of the lake where we were doing our work. They began to speak to us, but nobody could answer them because we didn't know what they were



saying, and we couldn't get the meaning of their words as they spoke to us. Again another one asked us a question and my brother who was in grade one answered only ‘yes’.

After the fishing we went back to our homes, and after wereached the village we told our parents that we had seen‘makuwa’ which means Europeans. At that time I was very afraid whenever I saw a European, but that very day I couldn'teven fear because I was in the water. From that time I

troubled my parents to take me to school, because I likedEnglish very much. The end of the story.



Dogs crossing the river

When dogs are crossing the river there is a most importantthing they do before they start crossing. This is when a dog

wants to cross the river, it sits on the bank of one side of theriver and it starts barking. As it is barking like that the harmfuland dangerous crocodiles come to where the dog barks, waiting to catch the dog immediately it steps into the water.But what do dogs do after they have been barking on thebank, they don't enter into into the water on the very particular place, they only move from that place to the other

while running and immediately it has run a distance it goesinto the water and cross so well without being hurt by thecrocodiles. After the dog has gone beyond, it also barks and again thecrocodiles may move to that place where the dog barks. Afterthat the dog goes and leaves the crocodiles in a sad condition.I think some of you friends may think that only the dogs do

this wonderful thing when crossing. In fact there are animalsthat do the same thing as dogs when crossing. Another animaldoing this wonderful and important thing is a lion.



Also when a lion is on a journey and while he walks and findsthe river, he won't cross like that without doing just like a dog.He goes on a place where he will be sitting by his legs andstarts doing his plan. A lion never barks, but as it is sitting on the bank of the river

and wishes to go beyond it starts roaring on that place. It may be roaring an hour and after that it runs as fast as it can toanother place.Immediately he reaches that place he goes into the water andstarts crossing as fast and as cleverly as he can. After he hascrossed he will again start roaring telling the crocodiles that he

has already crossed. But these animals sometimes havemisfortunes when they are crossing. Sometimes after it has leftthe place where it started roaring and goes to another place, itmay sometimes be hurt by another animal.Because I saw another lion that was hurt during its crossing.It did like that. After roaring on a place it went to anotherplace and there it began to cross, but unfortunately there lived

a hippo that had a young one and the hippo having realisedthe lion, it cut it into pieces and the lion died. There ends the story.



Medicine Men

Among the countries all over the world, people know thatthere are medicine men. Of these medicine men there are two

commonly known and they are:- Medicine men who kill.- Medicine men where people go when they are in trouble.Gents and ladies I am going to explain about these two kindsof medicine men in detail. My first step is about a medicineman who kills. This type of medicine man is very dangerousand often cruel. Many people of the world fear him a lot

because he is always jealous. When you are a worker and doearn more money than he does, he might think of a way hecan kill you, so that you may die and leave all your possessionsbehind. Sometimes, if you are a drinker, he can make you goto his house. When you arrive there he gives you beer, thenyou drink. He also drinks. When he sees, that you have drunk more than necessary, he

then takes a cup of beer and puts medicine there. After doing this he gives it to you, and you drink because you don't know



what is going on. After that you start not feeling normal, andyou go to your house and sleep, then you die. Again a medicine man who kills can be a poor person, whodoesn't get anything he can use. As a result of his poorness hedoes not want to see people who live their lifes comfortably,

and often becomes jealous. A poor medicine man doesn't depend on putting medicine inbeer or other sorts of food. He usually does his bewitching by waking up at night when all people are asleep.He comes to your house, then he enters into your house,seeing you are asleep, and then he starts bewitching you. After

that he goes back to his house and sleeps. When you wake up in the morning you will feel very weak andoften you become ill and die. So this man is very dangerous toother human beings. The other type of medicine man is liked by all people. Thismedicine man is a very good and important one because whenpeople are in trouble they usually go to him. For example

when a member of the family is ill, people go to see him andoften tell him what is troubling the person. He tries by allmeans to find what troubles the person.



If it is a witch docter who bewitches him, he also tells. They may tell him to cure the very person. After he has cured the very particular person he is then givenmoney by the relatives of the one who was ill. Sometimes he isgiven a cow because he has done a very good thing.



If a member of that family dies a medicine man can ask thepeople of the very particular family whether he can be allowedto kill a person, who has bewitched their father, son, brother,mother, sister or may be any member of the family. Then themembers of the family may choose, whether to kill the witch

docter or let him live. Again this medicine man is importantbecause there are some people who can pass their schools, likeuniversities and after that they get no job.He can also help these people by giving them special medicine,by smoking, by spraying on their faces or by washing theirfaces only.

After that a person goes to any Department and tries as he didin the past to prove whether the medicine is really working ornot. If the medicine is working he finds a job and starts working. We call this the medicine of good luck. Most of thistype of medicine men are kind, they don't kill and often arenot jealous. And I also do like them because one medicineman cured me in 1967, when I nearly died.



How my mother cared for me

My mother and father told me what happened to me when I was still a very young boy of nearly two years old. The parents

of mine told me that I was very sick when I was very young and that I nearly died. Why I didn't die is because they caredfor me and since the kindness of parents is concerned, they went to a village nearby. There they found a man who was more skilled in medicinesand they told him what was on their side. After they told him,he then again told them what was troubling me. He told my

parents that I was bewitched by somebody in the village, andthat the person was a man. Again he told them that if they would not call someone, who could cure me, I might die andthey might loose me. After he had told my parents all about what was going tohappen to me they were very sorry about my sickness, andagain they told him, that if he could cure me, he should do so.

They promised him money for the work he would do. Thenthe kind medicine man said he could do the curing and really



he said he would charge them more than they expected,because I was only waiting for the death.He came to my village with my parents, while myself I was atthe back of my mother. After they arrived the people of my village welcomed him in a good way and they arranged drums.

When it was in the evening all the people of the villagegathered in my father's yard and began to beat the drums justlike as the medicine man ordered them to do. The medicineman was dancing while the people of the village where beating drums. All these things happened when I was still young and in fact

they were only told to me by my parents. As they were beating drums and while the diviner was doing his work, the sun rose. After the sun rose the man gave my parents some medicine,and showed them how they should use the medicine and off he went to his home. My parents did as the medicine man hadordered them to do and sometimes when he had time he usedthe time coming to see me.

It was only a week and after that I became normal and he toldmy parents that he had done a lot of work, so he was in needof being paid by my parents. At first he told them that they



were supposed to pay him about 2 cattle with twenty kwacha,but according to his kindness he said that they should only give him twenty kwacha. When they told me about this story I was very surprised tohear how my parents had suffered for my sake. When this was

told to me I was also crying and they said: ‘Do not worry about that son.’Really I observed how our parents do suffer for us.



Myself, Maswabi 7Fear beer 9Hippos are dangerous 12Kalulu and Ingwe 15 Training for marriage 20Lubinda becomes a hunter 22Bride price 26Hippo and Elephant 29 A story of Namonda Joyce 34 A pleasant work 36 The lost cat 39 A man becomes a crocodile 42 The three horned fish 45

A thief The man who married a hen 49 A broken leg 53Dances 55Puberty girl 57Inheritance 59 Your best friend is your best enemy 61Girls of today 62

The badness of being uneducated 64Dogs crossing the river 66Medicine Men 69How my mother cared for me 73



Participating students

Didy de Boer, Michiel Bouman, Maarten Bruijn,Martijn Dijkema, Gertrude Groen, Bert Gort,

Robbert van der Heide, Annemijn Heins, Anne Heijink,

Emma Hoogendoorn, Claudia Hovius, Jadine Huizing,Iris Janssen, Aron Jansen, Wim Kamerman,

Christan van der Laan, Maaike Los, Rama Mourad,Daniel Noort, Frank Oostenbrug, Antrude Oudman,

Heleen Poel, Marije Pool, Mirte Poortinga,Sietske Riemersma, Jessica Rodenboog,

Wessel Wierenga, Mark Wisselink.

Teacher liberal arts: Petra Hatley.



Victory Hope

This book was made to raise money for Victory Hope. Three hundred

children in Kiberia (Kenya) are able to attend primary school: Victory Hope Children Centre. Victory Hope provides education, food, schooluniforms and health care for these children.



The motto of Gomarus College is “Learning for Life”. With ourinvolvement in this book we hope to contribute to the well-being of thechildren who attend Victory Hope Children Centre. The stories of Africahave come to life through the illustrations made by Gomarus students.



Myself Maswabi

Johns Maswabi was a student at Kalabo Secondary School in

Kalabo, Western Province, Zambia. He wrote these stories toearn pocket money for traveling home. The time Maswabi wasb l i di d h h i h i

the man who married a hen, stories of a zambian schoolboy

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