Angolan folk tales bear wisdom and relevance to our contemporary lack of collective wisdom.
Earlier postings:
The Leopard in the Tree, about the value of hospitality - and not extending it to the point of self-endangerment.
The Parable of Quick Man and Careful Man, a comment on how meticulous habits can be deadly when haste is called for.
The Marriage of the Daughter of Sun and Moon, a story of love and wits.
How Dog came to live with Man, about the perils of being a slave to one's appetites.
Today's story is a straight-delivery on a well-known snark: Don't trust your lying eyes.
The ngana Kimona-ngombe, a great lord, places himself in grave peril when he does this. More below the break.
One year, famine came into the world. Food was nowhere to be found.
The lions speak: "How shall we survive in the bush? Hunger is great. But Man always has his cattle. It is only one day's walk away." They start for the places of Man and stop on the outskirts, for Man has fire and iron spears and these are weapons that all lions fear exceedingly.
A young lioness turns into a human being. Her sisters dress her finely and trim her hair nicely, in the fashion of the women they see.
Satisfied with her appearance, the other lionesses instruct their young sister on the details of their plan: "Thou shalt pass through the village of ngana Kimona-ngombe kia na Mbua. Kimona-ngombe has many cattle. He will notice you."
"He will notice me?" the lioness asks.
"Oh, yes. Men do this," her sisters assure her. "The moment he sees you as you are, he will want to talk to you. If he asks where you are going, tell him you go to visit your brother, who lives yonder."
"He won't ask for details?"
"He will have nothing but making you his bride on his mind. He will ask you to marry him and come into a new house that he will build for you. When he lies down to sleep, change to your true form and kill him, so that we may be free to catch his cattle to eat."
The young lioness assented, and took to the road. Soon she came to village described by her sisters and came before the compound of ngana Kimona-ngombe. She finds him seated there, inspecting his weapons. She is afraid and gasps, then remembers she is human and lovely to the eyes of Man.
Kimona-ngombe looks up at the gasp and, just as the lioness was told, is struck with desire for what he sees.
"Thou, young woman, art going where?" He asks.
The woman replies "I go to visit my brother, who lives yonder." She notices servants carrying water in jugs from the river. "Please let them give me water and a place to sit, for I am tired from my long walk and have long to go yet." Water is given and a place is made.
The woman and the ngana talk. Their talk continues for a while.
Kimone-ngombe asks "Art thou married already?"
She replies "No, I am not yet taken wife." Kimona-ngombe proposes marriage and the woman accepts. "But first let me go home to tell my parents. I shall return in two days."
The woman returns the way she came to her sister lionesses in the bush and tells her news. "This is good. Rest, then return to your new husband." The woman sleeps for two days, then returns to Kimona-ngombe.
The household kills a goat in her honor; they eat. As new wife, they build her a new house. As the wedding feast ends, the bridge enters her new home.
Kimone-ngombe says to his head wife, "I will go to sleep in the house of the bride." The head-wife of Kimone-ngombe nods her assent.
But their young son and Kimona-ngombe's heir, Ndala, has other plans. He hangs on to his father's neck and refuses to let go. "I will sleep with papa," Ndala says.
The head wife says "Your father goes tonight to sleep with the bride. You can sleep with me." And she makes to take the child, but Ndala cries loudly and refuses to let go of his father's neck.
"The child hangs on to me," Kimona-ngombe sighs. "I will go with him." They arrive at the house of the bride; they sit on the bed.
The bride says "The chief has come with a child."
Kimona-ngombe replies "The child would not stay with his mother." They lie down. The man lies down with his son, on the ground. The bride sleeps apart.
In the middle of the night, the bride turns into a lioness; she wants to kill the man but the son, on the far side of his father is awake complaining "On the ground! It is biting!" The lioness turns right back to a woman, lest she be seen. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Kimona-ngombe returns to sleep.
The day comes. Kimona-ngombe and his new bride spend the day together. Evening comes again to the bride-house. So does the husband. So does Ngala.
The bride complains "Oh, husband! The child has aroused thee already in the night! Why dost thou come with him again?"
The husband answers "My son was hanging on to me." They lie down to sleep as before, but not the child Ndala.
The woman dreams and hears her sisters calling her, saying "Thou who went to kill Kimona-ngombe, why art thou not coming?"
She replies in her dream
The goat sleeps
The slave sleeps
The hen sleeps
The pig sleeps
The sheep sleeps
Lord Kimona-ngombe
He himself also sleeps
But the child Ndala-ngombe
He never ever sleeps!
Pooh!
The woman wakes up angry, and turns into a lioness to kill the man and his child.
The child is awake again, complaining "Father! Arise! The ground is biting!"
Kimona-ngombe says "The house is new! What can bite on the ground!"
Ndala replies "On the ground are roaches and maggots."
The father is angry. "Thou lies, child. I am not listening." They sleep again for a while.
The woman hears her sisters again. They are very hungry. It must be done now. She turns back into a line.
Now the boy Ndala sees her true form and screams "Father! There is a wild beast in the house!"
Anger possesses Kimona-ngombe and he takes the boy from the bride-house. "Thou disturbs my sleep; I am taking you to your mother's house."
They go out into the middle of the night. Ndala tells his father outside "Thy bride has been turning into a wild beast!"
His father replies "Thou hast more lies."
"Truth itself, father! Let us return to the house. Thou shalt sleep falsely, to see her change the moment she thinks you are asleep. You can take me anyway to my mother if this is not so."
Kimona-ngombe assents. "Very well."
"And when you wake up she will change right back, so you do not see her true form."
And they return to the house. Kimona-ngombe draws the cloth over his face to hide his open eyes.
The woman turns into a lioness. Kimone-ngome is amazed. He tells himself silently "What Ndala says is true!" He rises up slowly as if to make water outside, taking the child with him.
The moment he is outside, he grabs a fire brand and raises a shout. "All to me!" he cries, and servants and cousins and wives and children rush to him, also with fire.
"What is it husband?" the head wife asks.
"The woman who I have married keeps turning into a lioness! Come! We set this house on fire! Let her not escape!"
And the house is set aflame and the woman, now a lioness in her final moments, is roasted alive. Her sisters roar and moan in the distance, for they will not feast on Kimona-ngombe's cattle nor that of any other ngana, for the entire country will know of them.
Ngana hangs on to his child, "It is like this: 'Begetting is truth.' The woman I married was going to kill me; but my son, Ndala, he has saved my life."
Good or bad, this is how my story ends.
__
We live in an age obsessed with image. But the danger of seeing what you want to see - and only thus - has ever been part of the human condition.
That is why we are so easily bewitched by great beauty and fine promises, as a hero from a much colder part of the world (Beowulf) once lamented.
That's why the best-laid schemes are transparent to children and fools - too often, the clever ones bewitch themselves. And that is a truth for any age.