by Trish Cooke
‘You must get your own back on Anansi!’ King Lion’s wife said. ‘You are much stronger than him, but that spider is full of tricks and mischief. Don’t worry, we will think of a way to get back at him.’
So King Lion and his wife thought all night about how they could get Brer Anansi back. They thought and thought until eventually King Lion’s wife had an idea.
‘We’ll have a party. You know how Brer Anansi likes to dance. We’ll invite everyone to come along, apart from him! You know Brer Anansi, he’ll find a way to be there. And once he is in our home, we will trap him and kill him.’
‘That sounds like a fine plan,’ said King Lion.
Just as King Lion and his wife had planned, Brer Anansi heard about how everybody else had been invited to King Lion’s party and he didn’t want to miss out. He decided he would go to the party in disguise. So he told his wife to wrap him up in a white sheet and asked her to carry him to the dance as if he was a baby. He told her that if anyone should recognize who he was then she should just throw him out of the window in the sheet.
The party was in full swing when they arrived. King Lion and his wife were looking around at the guests, to see if Brer Anansi had arrived, when King Lion’s wife noticed that Brer Anansi’s wife was at the party, and carrying a very large baby! Of course, they knew straight away that it was bound to be Brer Anansi.
King Lion pulled on the sheet and at once Brer Anansi called out to his wife, ‘Quick, use the sheet to throw me out of the window!’
But the party music was so sweet and Brer Anansi’s wife was having such a good time dancing that she didn’t take any notice.
Brer Anansi had to try and escape all by himself. He ran and he ran, with King Lion running right behind him. He ran until he saw a crab hole next to a pepper tree. He grabbed some peppers, put them in his mouth, crushed them, and then jumped into the hole. King Lion came to the hole and dug down until it was big enough for him to see Brer Anansi. But just as he saw him, Brer Anansi spat out the peppers, right into King Lion’s eyes! It hurt the lion’s eyes so much, he couldn’t see.
‘Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!’ cried King Lion. While he was crying in pain, Brer Anansi took the opportunity to bop him on the head and finish him off. King Lion fell down dead and Brer Anansi chopped him up into pieces and carried him home in his bag. When he got home he put Lion in a pot to make lion soup.
And that is how Brer Anansi outsmarted three kings!
The Special Pumpkin
This story is based on a folk tale from Martinique
Maman was old and she knew it. Her hair was thinning and what was left of it was grey. Her body ached and she could hardly walk. Her husband had died many years before, and her sons, their wives and their children had moved away from Martinique to live in far-off countries.
Maman had no visitors, save her greedy neighbour, Madame Jalousie. Madame Jalousie would only pass by Maman’s house to show off about how good her life was and to tell Maman how well her own children were doing and how often they visited her.
Madame Jalousie liked to brag about all sorts of things. Often she would brag to Maman about all the different vegetables she had growing in her garden. She knew well that Maman’s garden no longer bore fruit or vegetables. Watercress was the only thing that grew in Maman’s garden these days.
Maman just listened to Madame Jalousie with an open heart and never asked for anything. Madame Jalousie never offered Maman anything either, even though she knew that all Maman had to eat was wild watercress.
So Maman ate watercress stew, watercress soup, watercress pie and watercress cake, and she dreamed of all the wonderful fruits and vegetables she used to eat when she was younger, when her garden was full. Maman would dream about eating a juicy mango and sucking the pulp right down to the seed, or eating sour sop or breadfruit, or even a hearty chicken stew with dumplings, or fried fish and johnnycakes. But Maman never grumbled. Instead she rejoiced. Maman had had a full and joyous life with her family and she had many fond memories. So when Madame Jalousie visited Maman empty-handed, Maman just smiled and wished her neighbour well.
One day Maman was sitting on her verandah when a tiny, beautiful bird landed at her feet. The bird’s wings had some feathers the colour of the turquoise blue sea, and some feathers the colour of a warm orange sunset.
‘What a beautiful bird!’ she said to herself. ‘And how lovely that you have chosen to spend a moment with me.’
But when the old lady looked closer at the bird, she noticed that one of the wings on the bird was broken. Feeling sorry for the bird, Maman picked it up carefully so as not to hurt its fragile body and tenderly put it against her chest to keep it safe and warm.
‘There, there …’ she said. ‘Now don’t you worry, I’ll take care of you.’ And that was what Maman did. Every day she gave the bird clean water to drink and shared with it her watercress. She kept the bird safe, away from harm, and she grew to love it with all her heart. She sang to it every day:
‘Bel oiseau, bel oiseau,
Je vais vous faire forte,’
which means:
‘Beautiful bird, beautiful bird,
I will make you strong.’
Slowly, slowly, the bird began to get stronger and stronger, and gradually the broken wing began to heal. Finally, one day, the bird’s wing was well enough for it to fly again. Maman watched the bird fly around her all day long and finally she decided that it was time to let the bird go. The old lady had enjoyed the company, but she knew that the best thing for the bird was to let it fly out into the sky. So one day she put the bird on the palm of her hand and said,
‘Allez, petit oiseau,’
which means,
‘Go, little bird.’
And the bird flew away, up into the sky, gently flapping its wings.
With the bird gone, Maman was once again alone, except from the occasional visits from her greedy neighbour, Madame Jalousie. Maman would often look up to the sky to see if her friend, the beautiful blue and orange bird, was passing, but it never came back. Maman didn’t grumble. She was thankful that she had shared a lovely time with the bird and she enjoyed the memory.
Then, to Maman’s surprise, one day as she was sitting watching the sun come up, she heard the gently flapping wings above her head. When she looked up, it was none other than the beautiful blue and orange bird that she had nursed. She was so glad that the bird had come back.
But the bird had not come to stay. Instead, it dropped something from its beak and flew away again. The old lady was sad to see it fly away so quickly, but she looked on the ground to see what it had left her and there, at her feet, lay a small pumpkin seed.
‘Oh, a pumpkin seed!’ said Maman. ‘Thank you. I will plant the seed in my garden.’
Maman took the seed to the bottom of her garden and she planted the seed very carefully in the soil. Every day she watered her pumpkin seed and talked and sang to it:
‘Petite graine, petite graine,
Je vais vous faire forte,’
which means:
‘Little seed, little seed,
I will make you strong.’
And, as the sun shone on the seed, after a few days the seed began to sprout. Maman was so excited when she saw the tiny shoot that she began to sing to it even more sweetly than before:
‘Petite graine, petite graine,
Je vais vous faire forte.
Little seed, little seed,
I will make you strong.’
Before long the shoot grew into a vine that began to flower. Maman loved her pumpkin plant and she encouraged it to grow. And, soon enough, a pumpkin did begin to grow. Maman loved her pumpkin and sang even more sweetly than before.
While she waited for the pumpkin to ripen, Maman imagined all the dishes she would be able to make – pumpkin soup, fried pumpkin, roast pumpkin, grilled pumpkin, pumpkin stew, pumpkin pie … She couldn’t wait to taste it.
At last the day finally arrived and the pumpkin was ripe. Maman’s
mouth watered as she brought it inside to carve it up.
But when Maman sliced the pumpkin, a strange thing happened.
Inside, instead of the pumpkin flesh and seeds she expected, it was filled with all of Maman’s favourite dishes from the days when she used to eat with her family. There was a hearty chicken stew with dumplings, and fried fish and johnnycakes. There was breadfruit and sour sop and the flesh of the juiciest mango. Maman could not believe her eyes! She ate and ate and ate until her belly was so full it felt like it was about to burst. There was still plenty of food left in the pumpkin.
‘So much food!’ Maman said. ‘Much too much for me alone, I will take some to my neighbour.’ And that is what Maman did. She wrapped the rest of the special pumpkin in paper and brought it to Madame Jalousie.
‘I have brought you some food from my very special pumpkin,’ said Maman. Madame Jalousie tore open the paper. When she saw all the food inside, she ate greedily without so much as a thank you. But Maman wasn’t expecting any thanks from Madame Jalousie, so it didn’t make any difference to her. Maman was only glad that the food in the pumpkin wasn’t going to go to waste.
Maman went home and, before she went to bed, she thought about how the little bird had been so kind to bring her the pumpkin seed, and she was thankful for her blessings.
The next day, when Maman woke up and looked out into her garden, she found a wondrous surprise. There in the garden was another ripe pumpkin! Maman was so excited, and once again when she cut the pumpkin open she saw it was full of even more of her favourite food. There was saltfish, oxtail stew and souse. There was sweet potato and christophine and the sweetest passion fruit. Maman was so happy. Once again she had been provided with a feast of a meal. Maman ate and ate and ate until her belly was so full it felt like it was about to burst. Still there was plenty of food left in the pumpkin.
‘I’ll bring the rest for Madame Jalousie,’ Maman said and, just as before, she wrapped the remainder in some paper and brought it to her neighbour. When Madame Jalousie saw Maman approaching, she ran out to her and snatched the food from her hands.
‘The pumpkin you brought yesterday was so nice!’ she said greedily, and ate up all the food without a word of thanks to Maman. Maman left Madame Jalousie stuffing the food in her mouth and smiled. She was just glad that the food was not going to be wasted.
The next day when Maman woke up there was yet another pumpkin in her garden, filled with more of her favourite foods. After eating enough to fill her belly, Maman brought Madame Jalousie the rest. But this time, as Madame Jalousie ate greedily from the pumpkin, she stopped Maman from leaving and said, ‘You must tell me how it is that you get to grow such special pumpkins!’
And Maman told her how the beautiful blue and orange bird had appeared in her garden with the broken wing. She told her how she had nursed the bird and how, when the wing was better, she had let the bird fly away. She told Madame Jalousie that the bird had come back and left her the pumpkin seed, and how she had planted the seed and cared for it, and how the pumpkin had grown ripe and she had cut it open to find all the food she loved.
‘Then I will get a pumpkin, just like yours!’ said Madame Jalousie.
The next day Madame Jalousie sat on her verandah, looking up at the sky to see if a blue and orange bird would fly to her too. The sky remained clear. When Maman came with the special pumpkin food to give her, as she had done before, Madame Jalousie said, ‘Go away! I don’t want your leftovers! I am going to have my own pumpkin!’
Every day Madame Jalousie looked in the sky for the blue and orange bird, but it was nowhere to be seen.
And then, finally, to Madame Jalousie’s delight, one day a beautiful blue and orange bird landed on the fence of her verandah. As the bird was about to fly away again, Madame Jalousie grabbed it. Without a moment’s thought she twisted the bird’s wing until it snapped. The poor bird shrieked with pain. Then Madame Jalousie threw it into a dark corner of her room. She threw some scraps of food after it.
‘Hurry up and get better!’ she said. ‘I want my pumpkin!’
With no love in her heart Madame Jalousie checked on the bird every day to see if the wing was better, but it would not heal.
‘Hurry up and get better!’ she said. ‘I want my pumpkin!’
Madame Jalousie became tired of waiting and after three days she took the bird outside and said,
‘Allez-vous en! Allez-vous en!’
which means,
‘Go away! Go away!’
The poor bird tried to leave but it could hardly fly on its broken wing.
‘Volez, oiseau!’ Madame Jalousie said. ‘Fly away, bird!’
And she picked up the bird and threw it out. The bird tried with all its might to fly and eventually flapped the good wing so hard that it could fly away from the evil woman. As the bird flew away Madame Jalousie shouted after it, ‘Hurry up! I want my pumpkin!’
Well, weeks and weeks went by and there was no sign of the bird with the pumpkin seed. Madame Jalousie grew more and more impatient.
‘Where is that stupid bird!’ she moaned. ‘I want a pumpkin seed just like Maman’s. I want a pumpkin with food in it, just like Maman’s!’
But there was still no sign of the bird with the seed and Madame Jalousie grew more and more vexed.
‘That stupid bird is never coming back!’ she said angrily. ‘I hope it is dead!’
And as she said that, the sky grew dark and thunder began to rumble in the sky. That night there was a terrible storm. The next day, when Madame Jalousie went out on to her verandah, she heard the sound of gently flapping wings above her head. Lo and behold, when she looked up she saw the blue and orange bird had returned.
‘Looks like your wing has got better then!’ Madame Jalousie said, without any care. ‘Now where’s my pumpkin seed? Give it to me!’
The bird dropped something from its beak and flew away again. Madame Jalousie was glad to see the back of the bird and called and jeered as it flew away.
‘About time! And good riddance!’ she shouted, and then she bent down to pick up her pumpkin seed.
‘Hooray! Now I can plant my seed and get my pumpkin!’ she said ungratefully. She put the seed in her garden, paying no mind to where she planted it. She did not care for it at all. All she was bothered about was getting a pumpkin.
‘Seed! Hurry up and grow!’ she shouted. ‘I want my pumpkin!’
Eventually the seed began to sprout. Madame Jalousie grew more restless.
‘What’s taking so long?’ she shouted. ‘Hurry up, I want my pumpkin now!’
After some time the shoot grew into a vine, which began to flower, but still Madame Jalousie grew more and more restless.
‘I want my pumpkin!’ she shouted. ‘I want my pumpkin!’
Slowly, slowly, the pumpkin grew, but Madame Jalousie knew that she could not have it until it was ripe.
‘Hurry up and ripen, you stupid pumpkin!’ she shouted. ‘You’re taking too long!’
At last the day finally arrived when Madame Jalousie’s pumpkin was ripe. Madame Jalousie took up a machete and she cut into the pumpkin.
But to her horror when she looked inside, instead of all the lovely food that Maman had found, Madame Jalousie’s pumpkin was filled with spiders and cockroaches and mosquitos and scorpions!
‘Euuuuuuugggghhhh!’ cried Madame Jalousie. ‘Where’s my food? I want food in my pumpkin, like Maman!’ But there was no food to be found, only creepy-crawlies.
Madame Jalousie was so disgusted at what she saw that she ran away from all the nasty creatures coming out of her pumpkin and she was never seen again.
As for Maman, she lived the rest of her days enjoying the delicious food from all of the special pumpkins that grew in her garden.
The Singing Turtle
This story is based on a folk tale from Haiti
There was once a turtle who loved to sing. It was not something that she did in public as this would have drawn attention to her gift – an
d Turtle was a very private creature. She enjoyed plodding along steadily without a fuss and she was happy to watch others take the limelight.
The truth was, Turtle knew that if anyone were to learn about her secret it would be very dangerous for her. She feared that she might be captured and put in a cage or a museum or science laboratory. Singing out loud wasn’t worth the risk. Turtle much preferred the quiet life and so she only sang in secret. Most days she would sing quietly to herself as she took her long slow walks. On other days when Turtle knew that no one was around, she would sing loudly at the top of her voice. She loved those days best, because on those days Turtle could let go and be herself. Yes, on those days Turtle could allow her songs to flow and she would sing whatever came to her mind.
‘I love to sing,
I love to sing,
More than anything,
I love to sing.’
One day, as Turtle was plodding along, she thought she was alone and was singing at the top of her voice. Suddenly she heard someone cheering and clapping. When she turned to see who had been listening she saw a flock of birds. There were nightingales, pigeons, chickens, ducks, seagulls – all kinds of birds. They were all clapping their wings together in appreciation of Turtle’s fine song.
‘Fabulous!’ cried the nightingales.
‘Encore!’ cried the ducks.
‘What a beautiful voice!’ cried the pigeons.
Then the birds went back to eating the peas and millet that a nearby farmer had planted in his field.
‘Come and join us,’ the pigeons called to Turtle.
‘There’s plenty here for all of us to enjoy,’ the chickens clucked.
‘Come and eat with us!’ cried the nightingales.
But Turtle wasn’t interested in trespassing on the farmer’s land or in attracting any more attention to herself. She knew that should the farmer come out and catch the birds they would soon fly away, but she would not be able to move so quickly and she would be caught.