There are times of abundance and times of scarcity.
Fables of of the Animal World.
Yasi nanu: Ewese was a thief. In broad daylight he would steal a calabash of palm wine from friends who were in the course of drinking the wine. Again, in broad daylight, Ewese would steal fish in the market when a trader was engaged in a discussion with a customer. Ewese's notoriety was a serious force to be reckoned with in the Animal World.
During the years of a long civil war when salt (ikpwa) was scarce Ewese visited the home of Kaava Nyame in the afternoon and managed to steal from that home salt in a clay pot (livanya) that the wife of Kaava Nyame had hidden behind the shelf over the fire place (o-mbusa wokao)
It was not until after nightfall when the wife of Kaava Nyame was in the course of preparing soup that she realised that the clay pot (livanya) and the salt (ikpwa) had disappeared.
There was heavy rainfall that eveningso it was difficult for the wife of Kaava Nyame to go out and ask for some salt from a neighbour. She therefore prepared her soup without salt. The children refused to eat the food because there was no taste of salt in it.
Their mother tried to appease them to no avail. Kaava Nyame then rebuked the children to stop embarrassing their mother. He said Ewese had stolen all the salt. They in the home had no alternative but to manage without salt”
He then reminded the children that every time that someone eats food that tastes well because of the presence of salt in the food, he should bear in mind that there may be a day when Ewese may again steal all th salt. There will therefore be no salt at home at that time. Nanu ndi ese eveli”. (This is how/what the World is)
“Wheni o-laana te ikpwa,
o-viye oma Ewese a-mbelele anga”.
Literally:
Scarcity is a force to be reckoned with.
There are times of plenty and times of scarcity.
There are seasons of good harvest and seasons of poor harvest.
There are times of good fortune and times of bad fortune.
There are good seasons for good business, and there are bad seasons for business.
There are times one sails with the tide and wind and there are times when he has to sail against the tide.and wind
Oma nanu.
Lexicon:
ikpwa = salt.
Ewese is the name of a bird.
a-mbe-lele = he is waiting; standing by.
mimba = palm wine.
koova = a calabash.
koova mii-mba = a calabash of palm wine.
liva-nya = a clay pot.
wokao = shelf built above a fire for cooking food.
o-mbusa wokao = at the rear side of a wokao.
Oma Nanu
Imba
Mola Mbua Ndoko
P.o Box 38 Buea, South West Province
Cameroon, West/Africa
Mola,
This is another great one from the wealth of your folk knowledge. It is a brain teaser at this time when across the world, there are revolts over absence of food or sky-rocketting prices of basic commodities. In our country, there have been times of plenty (although not everyone ate of the cake). Now it is seems it is the time of scarcity. Hoping that we manage to survive these hard times, let's also think out strategies to keep away our human (political) Eweses from stealing the little salt we have. Oma Nanu Mola?
Posted by: George Esunge Fominyen | May 08, 2008 at 06:09 AM