The man who married a hen

Stories told by a Zambian schoolboy

Johns Maswabi

Editing house: Ter verpoozing ISBN: 978-90-73064-13-3 NUR 300/ 525 Peize 2010 Editors: 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 childs 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.

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Myself Maswabi
I was born in 1959 in an area called Imilangu. I was given the name 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 three to 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. When I reached up to grade four, the Romans at Sihole mission built the upper primary, which was grade five up to grade seven. I was always coming from Imilunga village where I stayed with my parents. During my holidays I was fond of looking after my father's cattle. In the forest I went with dogs to hunt small animals and even big ones. Sometimes I used traps to kill birds and hares. When it was not my turn to look after the cattle, I always was going 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 the school 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 a good way; they usually drink beer more than necessary, and sometimes they drink beer like anyone drinking milk or anyone 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 he does not think so well, and he becomes abnormal. Usually a drunken person fights anybody who offends him. He is never reasonable, he fights anyhow. So it is for us, human beings, to control the way we drink beer, and we should keep in mind that 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 was going to Kaoma. There was a man in Mongu and his name was Agrey. One day Mr. Agrey was invited by his friend to come to his house, because there was a feast there. When he arrived he started dancing with his friend.

They danced the whole night untill the next morning. While they were dancing like that, they were also drinking beer the whole night, and even after the sun had risen they continued drinking. When it was about ten thirty in the morning Mr. Agrey took a cup of beer and went on walking with the cup in his hands, he wanted to find his friend. As he was walking like that, he was drunk, more than necessary, and he could not think anymore, because a drunken person is really abnormal. He was walking like that on Sunday and he came to the New Apostolic Church. Once he reached the church he entered the church. His main aim of doing so was that he thought that it

was the house of his friend, where they were dancing and drinking. He went on straight to the person who was preaching in the church. He thought that the preacher was giving beer to the people. After he had reached the preacher he told him 'Give me beer. I want to drink! This made the one who was preaching feel very shameful. He kept on talking about unnecessary things, and at last the preacher took the drunken man out of the church, and told him that this was not the place where the beer was. 'We dont 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 what he was doing, and could not realize that he was in the church and 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 middle of the plain near the Zambezi river. This was after our final examinations were over, and I planned to stay there during the holidays. As we were there altogether, we enjoyed drinking fresh and sour milk, and eating fish and meat of animals and big birds, found in the plain. One day I went playing with my friends on the bank of the river. When I heard my uncle calling me with a loud 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 be fair that we go fishing. I replied: 'Yes uncle, we can go. We walked to the bank of the river, got in our fishing boat and started paddling. After that we put our nets into the water and started beating the water with our paddling sticks. As we were doing this a very big and cruel hippo heard our beating and came 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 misfortune we paddled as fast as we could, till we reached the river bank, where we started running.

It also came out of the water, and chased us till we reached home. 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 the night, when it came out again and started to graze. From that day I took it for granted that I wasn't going for fishing in the river, 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 friend Ingwe. 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 to tell me about it, he told it because the story happened years ago, in the time when he was a small boy of about eight years of 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 it to 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 used to live. My uncle used to stay in a village called Luko, near very good and fertile soil. The village was in Mukaiponda district found in a province called Wessy. His main work was the work on the land and he was also keeping some cattle. He spent 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 I have told how the man lived I shall explain about the story of Kalulu and Ingwe that he told me. He told me that long long ago Kalulu and Ingwe his friend lived together in a village called Moyu. They both lived a good and more interesting life than 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, such as maize, beans, millet, tomatoes and many others. Nearly everything they produced they ate themselves, only a bit was sold to the people in the village. These animals were very clever, and liked each other. Whenever they had harvested their crops they put the produce in one storeroom. Because

they kept the harvest in one store room they had to love each other very much. Another thing they did was that whenever they got something to share among themselves, they made sure that each got the same amount of what they had. Again this way of sharing made them live better, because no one was ever angry with his friend. One day Kalulu was cleaning the storeroom in which they had put their food. As he was cleaning he found that some of the food was missing, he wondered where that food could be. For a long time he wondered, and thought very deeply untill at last he thought that may be a thief had come at midnight when they were asleep, 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 last night. So he decided not to sleep this night, but only to pretend that he was asleep. As Kalulu was pretending to be asleep, his friend Ingwe got out of bed and took a close look at Kalulu. Ingwe found that Kalulu was asleep and began to steal 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 stopped pretending to be asleep and shouted to his friend: 'You are the thief 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 fast as he could, but Kalulu could not feel tired, and chased him untill 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 where he could hide himself from being caught by Kalulu, who was very near now. As Ingwe was looking for a place like that, he saw a very big and tall man standing with his mouth wide open. 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 to him, and as he reached the man he could not stop and went straight into the stomach of the man, through the wide open mouth. There he was free from his friend Kalulu, because after Ingwe had entered the man's mouth, the man had closed his wide open mouth immediately. Kalulu chased Ingwe as far as the front of the man, but it was too late for him to enter the mans stomach. 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 all your heart, and not think a bad thing of him. If Ingwe had been a honest person, just like Kalulu, their friendship would have lasted longer.

Training for marriage

Among the people of the world marriage is a stage that symbolizes 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 I am not at all a grown up man, I have already known what marriage is. The training for marriage is usually done by young boys and girls 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 boys and 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, chickens and 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 them pots, fire, water, mealie meal, fish and relish, so they can make nshima to eat.

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

Lubinda becomes a hunter

Lubinda lived with his parents, his three elder brothers and his four 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 these crops were grown for the sake of providing the family with enough food to eat. Sometimes Lubindas father and his three elder brothers went to the forest to try to hunt small animals in order to provide the 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 the area, that when a person has got something edible, he gives others a part of what he has got. Whenever Lubindas 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 and go hunting in the bush. But when these things went on, it was not to Lubinda's wishes to be staying at home while his father

and brothers were hunting in the forest. It was true that Lubinda was very small, but he was too strong. I remember that he was about six years old, and among we Lozi people, when a boy is about six to seven years old, he can do things his father does. Specially the building of houses, looking after cattle, collecting firewood, fetching water for the family, and also washing clothes, plates and other things that need to be clean. As Lubinda saw his brothers go for hunting he wanted to go as well. He decided the day when he would go, and as a result of 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 and asked him why he was making such things in the bush, where he 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 too small to go hunting, that's why I am hiding here.

Then he told: I am making my bow and arrow secretly. I am going to kill a hare.' Then he said: 'Dont tell my father, because if he knows what I am planning he will beat me. Honest and being a good boy, I told everything to my grandfather, my grandmother and my parents. I did not tell what I had seen to Lubindas father. After he had made a strong bow and many arrows, he went on practising. 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 small son was left at home as usual. His father had forbidden him to go hunting, but he decided to follow his father and brothers after they had gone a long distance. His plan was successful at last. I have seen this boy called Lubinda with my own eyes, as I have 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 he sometimes makes plans about marrying. Since he wants to marry he has to go in many different places, meanwhile searching for someone to marry. Marriage is not an easy thing that can be done within a day or even two days. So the boy has to have it difficult before he finds a girl to marry him. If he is lucky, 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 girls choice, whether she is also interested in marrying 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 are also interested in their sons wedding, they can give him some cattle or money to pay for his wife. The thing a man pays for his wife is what we call bride price, and in my ethnic group it is known as lobola.

For example in my ethnic group, they may charge a boy about three to five cattle, or when it is money, they may charge somebody two hundred kwacha only. They usually make sure that a boy pays the things they charged him 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 good for us to ask older people many questions, and we always should bear in mind all what they tell us. If I had been foolish enough, and had not asked anything from my grandparents and other older people. I would not have the knowledge to pass these things to other people. Since I grew wise, I am able to tell what I asked my grandfather and what he told me. He did not grow tired of answering all my questions, and I could not feel tired of asking what came to my mind. He told me that this story happened long ago. Hippo and Elephant lived together on a farm in the western part of this country. My grandfather told me that Hippo and his friend Elephant had very hard work to do, but they didn't mind digging the land, weeding the fields or harvesting the crops. What they liked most was sweeping the floor, fetching

waste, and cooking the food. Even the grinding of the maize they did themselves. One day Hippo started complaining about his friend, he said that he was not at all good at doing the cooking, that he cooked bad food, that could not be eaten by an educated person. As they lived like that Elephant thought of a bright and good idea, but it took him a long time before he could even think of telling it to his friend. He thought that if he would marry, his wife could do all the house work for him and his friend. He had only one problem, the trouble was that he had only very little money. If I would have enough money, I could get married, he thought. He told his friend all about his ideas, and Hippo could not help agreeing that his friend should get married. Hippo hated eating 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 the money.

After Elephant had gone, his friend was left alone on their farm, and he carried on working hard by himself and cooking his own food. This made Hippo feel not so well, and he was feeling 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 came back 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 all the 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, who died 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 had no wife. During the time of marriage Mr. Hippo had been so careful not to ask for the money he had lent to Mr. Elephant, but now, after more than eight months, he asked his friend to repay him the money. Every time Mr. Hippo kept on reminding his friend about his debt, and usually Mr. Elephant had an excuse ready. Some of the excuses Mr. Elephant gave said his wife needed new shoes, new dresses, and that he had to buy soap for her. As Mr. Elephant was troubled by his friend, 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 beautiful girl 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 face like a mirror and also with a pretty nose. She was loved by so many 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 one ngwee, you will marry Namonde the beautiful. The man replied and said: It is possible to do this, but before I 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 to this 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 a group. 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 the headman suggested a way they could defend themselves against this evil. He called a meeting which was to be attended by 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, and all 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 an agreement, 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 also going to dig the well? Lion answered: Yes.

Kalulu said to this reply: If they are going to dig the well, I wont drink any water from that well, and I cant help anymore to do the job. Lion said: If you dont want, you can stop doing the work, but you will suffer. The job took the animals more than three weeks, nearly a month. After the well had been dug they suffered no more of thirst, but Kalulu suffered a lot because of his proudness. As he suffered like that, he thought of a way to find something to drink. Tonight when these animals will be asleep I will go and drink from that well, Kalulu said to himself. After the night had fallen all the animals went to sleep, and also Kalulu did the same. He did not really sleep. As the animals were asleep, Kalulu peeped out and went straight to the well, and he drank and drank as much as he could. He then returned to the camp and slept. To his misfortune it didnt take a week before his friends found out what he was doing. They thought of a way they could catch Kalulu, and Tortoise said 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 you cannot 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 so nicely, that he could catch Kalulu, the cleverest guy so far.

The lost cat

In a district called Mono there lived many people who spoke different languages. These people had many dogs and other domestic animals. One man had a cat, and usually this cat was troubled 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 their lifes, there came a strike one day. This strike was brought about 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, and he fought with those people having dogs. The fight did not last long, they stopted fighting the same day, although the owner of the cat could still not feel happy. After the cat had gone into the forest, the people lived their lives without some problems. One day a man from that village went to the forest to hunt some animals to feed himself and his family. He went on hunting like that, and came across the lost cat.

After he found the lost cat he did not leave it, but took it, and continued hunting. He found an animal with a broken leg and killed 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 with the cat, because he married it, and produced a baby with the head 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 was a 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 was because even if his teacher was teaching, he could not pay attention to his teacher. One thing that he beared in mind was to become a medicine man.

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

medicine. He became a farmer, who produced more crops than any other in his area, because of his medicine. As the man 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 medicine man, and told him the one who killed his child. The medicine man 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. The crocodile lived a long time, and it was very cruel. When children went to the river to wash themselves, it always tried to catch one of them, but never managed to kill a child anymore. 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 the country 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 three horned fish, its structure, its head and other parts of the body.

Looking at its head you can see that it looks more like a frogs head. Its under mouth is more like it, and it is a shorter mouth than 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 fish by 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 with three horns? This is done, specially by breaking off those horns. Usually only those birds that have teeth can eat this type of fish.

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

A thief
Once there was a woman who could not grow anything, so she began to learn the very bad thing of stealing from other women's fields. She continued her practice of stealing, and could 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 village called Kandiana. This time the woman had bad luck, as the owner of the field, Mr. Likumucha and Mrs. Likumucha found her 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 her husband and the people of the village. The thief was not set free till Mr. Likumucha was given something to replace his stolen food. After the husband and the woman thief had given Mr. And Mrs. Likumucha something 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 called Mwananyanda who used to cut off the hands of the people who were found stealing other peoples 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, I learned a good thing. From that time up to now I didnt attempt to steal other people's properties, because I fear stealing. According to how my heart leads me, I will die proudly 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, near Livingstone. One day he decided to have himself a wife to cook and to do the housework for him. He found it difficult to do everything on his own, and the world stood on two legs by his side. He left the house and went on walking along the road, where he came across a very beautiful and polite girl. The girl was called Sinu. He said: Good morning to the girl, but the girl didnt give a reply to the man, and this made the man not feel well. He said: Good morning again, and this time she replied his greeting. He asked her what her name was, her fathers name, and even the name of the village. The polite girl answered every question the man asked her. In his heart the man thought: I havent seen such a beautiful and 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 love you, 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: I think 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 she continued: What are we going to eat in the coming months, when we dont grow anything? Her husband answered: Oh my dear wife, I think that is a good 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 to the 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 cocks 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 into a person. The following day she did the same thing again, but this time her husband had followed her to see how she was digging. He found 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, I realize that playing football is somehow dangerous. It was in 1968 when I started schooling, and I liked playing football more than any other game. I liked it, because I knew how to tackle and when I played nobody could take a ball from my legs by the time I found it. My teammates also liked me, and often they stopped playing against other schools when I was sick, 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 whole field, and when I was on number six position, I played well and the ball couldn't reach our defenders. Also I was a good defender, and it is that position I played last year. I also was good 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 a nearby 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, but unfortunately 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 scored by other players and it was seven to two. That means that we won.

Dances
Among the people living in the world, there are many dances to 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, the male and the female sex, but some of the dances are only done by men, and other dances only by women. Some of these dances include both men and women, boys and girls as well. The dances, that are only danced by men are Ngomalume and Lishoma, while Siyemboka is done by both sexes. All the other types are for women only. Another type of dance I nearly forgot is called Sipalu, this one is 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, because some people specially long ago lost their lives by doing so. This was because there were lots and lots of hyenas in the past. It is from this dance where we got the proverb which says the moon fools children. Also these dances had and still

have a great importance; for example Siyemboka is done or celebrated when a girl comes of puberty stage. Men and women, boys and girls go to the Siyemboka, and men 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 Litunga leaves 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 make her husband happy when he comes from work. This puberty is a system among different languages and ethnic groups, but it is interesting to know how it is done in my ethnic group. Among my ethnic group, when a girl reaches about fifteen years of age she goes into the above mentionned stage. When a 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 girl stays in this stage for at least six months, more especially those girls, who are not educated. An educated girl stays less than that, but at least two or three months. After the girl has completed more than four or six months, the parents arrange everything 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 prepare many enjoyable foods and beer for drinking. Then the day has come, 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 next morning. Many people fight when they are too drunk, some sleep, some go on walking around the village. The next morning the parents of the girl tell the people to bring her from 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. This is 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 to read 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 his death. It is not only that, when somebody desires another one's property he could go and take it when the very person is still 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 some people said that the possessions of a dead person were usually taken by only the relatives. Nowadays when somebody is dead his children are given their father's property. The first thing they do is to take the person to the grave yard and 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 properties among all his children. When he dies no person can say: Hey you, bring some things because these things didn't belong to your father. The way inheritance is done this time is better than in the past, because if the orphans share their father's properties, it may help them for those days when they have lost their father, specially because there are some people who reason that even if his own brother has died he wont 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 and fishing 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 returned to their camp very angry, and after they had reached the camp they began questioning themselves what they should eat for supper. A small piece of meat was the only food they had, and it 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 there they 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 those girls of long ago. One reason why I am saying this is because since Zambia gained her Independence on October 24th 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 some are trying to change their skins like chameleons. They buy a lot of creams like Ambi, Ponds, Cleartone and many other creams, 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. The lake was surrounded by bush. We left home at five in the morning 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 we had 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. The Landrover was at the other side of the lake, the owners left it behind, 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 we reached 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't even fear because I was in the water. From that time I troubled my parents to take me to school, because I liked English very much. The end of the story.

Dogs crossing the river

When dogs are crossing the river there is a most important thing 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 the river and it starts barking. As it is barking like that the harmful and 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 the bank, 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 goes into the water and cross so well without being hurt by the crocodiles. After the dog has gone beyond, it also barks and again the crocodiles may move to that place where the dog barks. After that 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 animals that do the same thing as dogs when crossing. Another animal doing this wonderful and important thing is a lion.

Also when a lion is on a journey and while he walks and finds the 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 and starts 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 to another place. Immediately he reaches that place he goes into the water and starts crossing as fast and as cleverly as he can. After he has crossed he will again start roaring telling the crocodiles that he has already crossed. But these animals sometimes have misfortunes when they are crossing. Sometimes after it has left the place where it started roaring and goes to another place, it may 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 another place and there it began to cross, but unfortunately there lived a hippo that had a young one and the hippo having realised the 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 that there 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 kinds of medicine men in detail. My first step is about a medicine man who kills. This type of medicine man is very dangerous and often cruel. Many people of the world fear him a lot because he is always jealous. When you are a worker and do earn more money than he does, he might think of a way he can kill you, so that you may die and leave all your possessions behind. Sometimes, if you are a drinker, he can make you go to his house. When you arrive there he gives you beer, then you 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, and you go to your house and sleep, then you die. Again a medicine man who kills can be a poor person, who doesn't get anything he can use. As a result of his poorness he does not want to see people who live their lifes comfortably, and often becomes jealous. A poor medicine man doesn't depend on putting medicine in beer 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 and often you become ill and die. So this man is very dangerous to other human beings. The other type of medicine man is liked by all people. This medicine man is a very good and important one because when people are in trouble they usually go to him. For example when a member of the family is ill, people go to see him and often tell him what is troubling the person. He tries by all means 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 given money by the relatives of the one who was ill. Sometimes he is given a cow because he has done a very good thing.

If a member of that family dies a medicine man can ask the people of the very particular family whether he can be allowed to kill a person, who has bewitched their father, son, brother, mother, sister or may be any member of the family. Then the members of the family may choose, whether to kill the witch docter or let him live. Again this medicine man is important because there are some people who can pass their schools, like universities 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 their faces only. After that a person goes to any Department and tries as he did in the past to prove whether the medicine is really working or not. If the medicine is working he finds a job and starts working. We call this the medicine of good luck. Most of this type of medicine men are kind, they don't kill and often are not jealous. And I also do like them because one medicine man 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 cared for 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 medicines and 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, and that the person was a man. Again he told them that if they would not call someone, who could cure me, I might die and they might loose me. After he had told my parents all about what was going to happen to me they were very sorry about my sickness, and again they told him, that if he could cure me, he should do so. They promised him money for the work he would do. Then the 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 at the 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 village gathered in my father's yard and began to beat the drums just like as the medicine man ordered them to do. The medicine man 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 had ordered them to do and sometimes when he had time he used the time coming to see me. It was only a week and after that I became normal and he told my parents that he had done a lot of work, so he was in need of 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 to hear 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 Fear beer Hippos are dangerous Kalulu and Ingwe Training for marriage Lubinda becomes a hunter Bride price Hippo and Elephant A story of Namonda Joyce A pleasant work The lost cat A man becomes a crocodile The three horned fish A thief The man who married a hen A broken leg Dances Puberty girl Inheritance Your best friend is your best enemy Girls of today The badness of being uneducated Dogs crossing the river Medicine Men How my mother cared for me

7 9 12 15 20 22 26 29 34 36 39 42 45 47 49 53 55 57 59 61 62 64 66 69 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, school uniforms and health care for these children.

The motto of Gomarus College is Learning for Life. With our involvement in this book we hope to contribute to the well-being of the children who attend Victory Hope Children Centre. The stories of Africa have 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 to earn pocket money for traveling home. The time Maswabi was born a relative died, so there was no happiness at that time.