Reading Notes: Stories from Nigeria part B

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In my last readings, I focused on how the stories ended. Each one had some sort of phrase to wrap it 
all up such as "and that's why bats come out at night." Now I am gonna look at how these Nigerian 
stories start.
African Hawk Eagle, Source
_____________
“IN the olden days the thunder and lightning lived on the earth amongst all the other people, but the king made them live at the far end of the town, as far as possible from other people's houses.”
  • This story starts out by setting the scene and establishing that thunder and lightning live on earth. Once can assume that by the end of the story we will find out why thunder and lightning no longer live on earth.
“THE bush cow and the elephant were always bad friends, and as they could not settle their disputes between themselves, they agreed to let the head chief decide.”
  • This story gets right into the action and doesn’t give any detail about the setting.
“EKPO and Etim were half-brothers, that is to say they had the same mother, but different fathers.”
  • This is one of the few stories from this section that starts with character names and descriptions right off the bat. It establishes that this story will be about the brothers.
“MANY years ago the hippopotamus, whose name was Isantim, was one of the biggest kings on the land; he was second only to the elephant.”
  • This is another animal story, and alludes to possible drama from the hippo trying to be king.
“IN the beginning of the world when the Creator had made men and women and the animals, they all lived together in the creation land.”
  • This is a really traditional, dramatic, opening. It is all about the start of the world and doesn’t specifically tell you what this particular story will be about.
“THERE was once a very fat woman who was made of oil”
  • Kind of odd, but gets to the point.
“THERE was once an old woman who was very poor,and lived in a small mud hut thatched with mats made from the leaves of the tombo palm in the bush. She was often very hungry as there was no one to look after her.”
  • You can immediately tell this story will be about this old woman and we must take pity on her.

“THE elephant and the hippopotamus always used to feed together and were good friends.”
  • This story starts off kind of cute but the past tense implies that the elephant and hippo are no longer friends. There is already tension in the first sentence.
“WHEN 'Ndarake was King of Idu, being young and rich, he was very fond of fine girls, and had plenty of slaves.”
  • Kind of a creepy way to start a story, and you are unsure of ‘Ndarake’s intentions and motives. The story will probably be about him, but we are unsure if he is good or bad.
“IN the olden days when Effiong was king of Calabar, it was customary at that time for rulers to give big feasts, to which all the subjects and all the birds of the air and animals of the forest, also the fish and other things that lived in the water, were invited.”

  • Same as last story, is Effiong a good or bad guy. You can tell something is about to change here. The next few stories all talk about Calabar and the king and the town.

 Bibliography: Stories from Nigeria, source

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