AFRICAN FOLKTALE: THE SNAKE, THE FARMER, AND THE HERON

This is an African folktale of the Hausa, a diverse but culturally homogeneous people predominantly concentrated in the Northern Nigeria and South-Eastern Nigeria. Significant numbers of Hausa can also be found in parts of Chad, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Sudan, Togo, Gabon, and Ghana.

A snake chased by hunters asked a farmer to save its life. To hide it from its pursuers, "Farmer, please hide me," said the snake. "Where shall I hide you?" The farmer replied. "All I ask is that you save

my life," the snake continued. Out of sympathy, the farmer squatted and let the snake crawl into his belly.

But when the danger had passed and the farmer asked the snake to come out, "No, No!" The snake said, "I feel safe and warm in here." Feeling weak and helpless, the farmer struggled homeward. On his way home, the farmer saw a Heron and went up to him to whisper what had happened. The Heron told him to squat and strain to eject the snake. When the snake stuck its head out, the heron caught it, pulled it out and killed it.

The farmer was worried that the snake's poison might still be inside him, and the heron told him that the cure for snake poison was to cook and eat six white fowls. "You're a white fowl," said the farmer. "You'll do for a start." He grabbed the heron, put it in a bag and carried it home where he hung it up while he told his wife what had happened. "I'm surprised at you," said the wife. "The bird does you a kindness, rids you of the evil in your belly, saves your life in fact, yet you catch it and talk of killing it." She immediately released the heron, and it flew away. But on its way, it gouged out her eyes.

MORAL: When you see water flowing uphill, it means that someone is repaying a kindness ( Culled from African Folk Tales)

INTERPRETATION: BETRAYAL IS FACELESS.

Your chances of seeing water flowing uphill are as good as teaching a goldfish to play the clarinet. When you offer kindness, do it without any expectation OF receiving kindness in return. The earlier you accept that there will be people who will repay your kindness with cruelty the better.

Other recurring themes throughout the story are the themes of trust and betrayal. Putting trust in strangers while betraying an in-group is a common characteristic of all the victims.

•  The farmer betrayed other farmers to save the snake.
•  The Heron betrayed another animal to save the farmer
•  The wife betrayed her husband to save the Heron

Never betray your friends and family to help a stranger.