If you find a farm in which most crops and fruits are ripe and mature for harvesting and some of the fruits and crops are lying on the ground rotten, it should immediately occur to you that no one harvests from that farm.
Source: Tales from the Animal World.
faaya = big a farm.
Yasi nanu: Kema Nyame was pleased to discover a farm in which most of the fruits and crops were ripe and mature for harvesting. Plantains, bananas, apples, oranges, palm nuts - all ripe; sugar canes, very tall
“liko, litaana;
egbwi-ye, litaana;
vefuma, litaana;
vii-ja, litaana;
mekoko, kolo-lolo, o-mwanyu”.
Keme immediately started to weave a container (motete) in which he hoped he would carry some of the products of the farm to his home. Kaki Inoni who was resting on a tree in the farm warned Keme:
“Please, don't venture to harvest any crops/fruits from this farm”
(“osi-keka li-wo-wa moleli o-tena mono moonda") !
Keme responding angrily asked: ma-nde-nga ?
"Why” ?
Kaki Inoni then said:
"si, u-mwa faaya yondi e-tani yase nye-ngele,
nanu oma enge faaya, esa laa-va".
(“If you find a farm in which most of the crops and fruits are ripe and mature for harvesting, and some of the fruits and crops are lying on the ground rotten, it should immediately occur to you that no one harvests from the farm").
"You will observe that ripe bananas, plantains, oranges, palm nuts are lying on the ground, decaying, and that there are no pills of fruits, and no tracks in the farm. It is strange that a fruit farm close to the village is not visited even by children".
Keme responded:
"If products here are not to be harvested, why then was the farm created" ?
(“Yaa mame soo, vamo neya mene melili, yetena,
mesa veni te li-lava” ?
nasa tane li-li-ya mene meleli mwase-mwase anu,
si, na-timba maa mato o-ndavo").
(“I cannot leave all this food here and return home with empty hands”).
Keme then climbed on an orange tree with his motete and started to drop oranges in the motete.
“ma-nya-ka me eya” ! = Wonders shall never end.
A swarm of bees suddenly attacked Keme, and followed him as he ran away. Keme abandoned his motete and all the oranges in it in the farm. He returned to the farm next morning to attempt again to harvest some fruits. This time Keme was chased out of the farm by a big and serious looking snake. Keme realizing that the farm had mystery guards, never ventured again to attempt to harvest from the farm.
"If you find a farm in which most of the fruits and crops are ripe and mature for harvesting and some of the fruits and crops are lying on the ground rotten, it should immediately occur to you that no one harvests from the farm".
“Si, u-mwa faaya yondi e-tani yase nye-ngele,
nanu oma enge faaya esa-laa-va".
Literally:
Not all that glitters is gold. Good quality articles sell fast. Hence whenever good looking and attractive articles for sale continue to be ignored by regular, active and anxious consumers, it immediately occurs to new potential consumers that the regular consumers must have observed faults in the goods concerned or in the trader concerned or in the family of the trader concerned.
Oma nanu.
Lexicon:
Kema/Kema Nyame = a monkey.
Kaaka/Kaaki Inoni = a vulture.
(i) liko = a plantain plant; plural, maako.
egbwi-ye = fruits of a banana plant; plural, ve-gbwi-ye.
vii-ja = cones of palm nuts; singular, ii-ja.
mekoko = sugar canes; singular, mokoko;
kolo-lo = tall; long.
motete; plural, metete = a container woven from leaves of a branch of a palm tree.
vefuma = oranges; singular, e-fuma.
Oma nanu.
Imba
Mola Mbua Ndoko
P.o Box 38 Buea, South West Province
Cameroon, West/Africa.
Email:[email protected]
Website: http://www.mbuandoko.com
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