Fable
Why Antelope Lives in The Bush
In an ancient community, Goat and Antelope
once shared a home with an owner. While they were being tamed, they were told
not to tamper with their owner’s food supply. Goat and Antelope were
herbivores, so they were only expected to eat grass.
But
each time their owner or his wife returned from the farm with yams or
vegetables, Goat and Antelope would leave for the farm and eat the food that
had grown there. When their owner and his wife returned to the farm and found
that the food there had been eaten, they would become irate, and warn Antelope
and Goat not to repeat their actions.
One
day, the owner’s wife went to the farm and came home with the only tuber of yam
left in the barn. It was planting season and they had planted their yams. She
had put her pot on the stove in the kitchen, and had carried the tuber of yam
on a tray.
Intending
to peel the yam, she placed the tray on the ground and remembered that she had
left her knife inside the house.
Immediately,
she went back to retrieve it. When she returned, she discovered that Goat had
eaten the yam.
“Oh,
no!” she cried. She took her cane and immediately began to flog Goat.
As
she was flogging Goat, Antelope came in and saw how her friend was being
treated.
She
and Goat pleaded for forgiveness, and their master’s wife heeded after she
struck Goat in the back.
Antelope
sympathized with Goat, retrieved some herbs, and treated her.
Another
evening, Antelope roamed the back of the house and found vegetables sitting on
the tray. Quickly, she began to eat them. When the owner’s wife discovered
Antelope, she flogged him to a state of stupor. Antelope was weeping when Goat
came into the house.
“What’s
the matter?” Goat asked. “We cannot survive on grass and tuber peals alone,
sometimes we also need part of what they eat. If they refuse to share their
food with us, then we shall take what we find.”
“I
cannot do that. How long am I going to receive these insults?” Antelope asked.
“Well,
I am ready to take these insults as long as I live,” Goat replied.
One morning,
their master’s wife boiled a pot of water to cook beans for her family. She had
used a sieve to separate the beans from the stones. Suddenly, it began to rain,
and the wife went to retrieve some bowls in order to collect rainwater. As soon
as she left, Goat and Antelope entered the kitchen and devoured the beans. When
the wife discovered this, she told the owner of the incident, and both began to
beat Goat and Antelope like they had never done before.
The
beatings were so severe that Goat and Antelope had to be taken to the
neighboring village for treatment. After they recovered and returned home,
Antelope decided that she couldn’t bear the beatings anymore. Goat pleaded with
her to bear the pain. She knew she had to bear the pain to survive, but
Antelope refused goat’s plea because she knew she could survive in the bush
without their tamers.
Once
again, Goat and Antelope ate their owners’ yam, and were threatened with
another beating. Before the owners managed to act, Antelope told Goat that she
could not stand another punishment, and ran away. Because Antelope knew that
she could fend for herself, she was able to escape punishment.
However,
Goat did not believe in her own independence, and therefore suffered another
beating. When the beating was finished, Goat stood up and dusted herself down.
In
order to survive, Goat tried to convince herself that, because of the
punishment, she was stronger and more able to live with her owner.
However,
try as she might, Goat could not shake off the idea that Antelope had managed
to escape the beatings because she believed in her ability to act
independently. Due to Goat’s lack of confidence, she would not be able to
escape her owner and was doomed to live with him until today.
Moral
-
Freedom is the best wealth.
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