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The Greedy Mother A mother once went to a feast organized by one of her friends; a feast in honor of her son’s naming ceremony. This mother had had her own baby a few months earlier. The baby was now learning how to creep. She didn’t want to leave her baby behind , so she strapped him on her back with a colorful wrappa, placed the basket of food she was taking to her friend on her head, and the two were off to the ceremony. When she got there, she warmly greeted friends and relatives, untied the baby from her back, and sat down with a group of women. Food was served in large quantities to all who had come to welcome the newborn. Our visiting mother drank and drank but not a drop of palm wine did she give her child, despite the fact that the child was wide awake watching morsels of food disappear down her throat. Not once did she think of dipping her finger into the soup and putting the finger into her child’s mouth. Not once did she think of dipping her finger into her cup and putting a drop on her child’s tongue. The feasting came to an end and it was time to go home. The woman carried her baby on her back, put her now empty basket on her head, said her good-byes, and left for her home. Not long afterward , they arrived at a big crossroads. The woman thought she heard her child speak. “Please, Mother, put me down,” the voice entreated a second time. 137 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. The woman was terrified and did not know what to do. This child is barely creeping, not to mention walking—how can he talk? She loosened the loincloth and put the child down. She blinked and there, right in front of her, was a grown man. The mother was petrified but she could not run away. “Follow me,” the man told his mother. He took one of the roads and his mother followed fearfully. The road came to an abrupt end in a large compound. The woman saw children run up to her child shouting, “Welcome Father. Welcome Father.” Their mother greeted her child as her husband. The man quietly returned their greetings and went to work, slaughtering goats and pigs. He handed the meats to his wife, asking her to make food for their visitor. The man’s daughter pounded some achu while his wife used the goat meat to make thick spicy achu soup. They invited the visitor to eat with them. The child’s mother ate till she could eat no more. At the end of the meal, he took baskets from the nekaa1 and packed them full of things for his mother. He also gave her some goats and told her it was time for them to leave. The woman was puzzled: “This child I carry on my back has a compound, with a wife who calls him husband and children who call him father?” As if he heard her, the man warned his mother, “Do not tell anyone what you’ve seen here today. However, you are always welcome back here,” he added. When they got to the big crossroads, the man became a baby again and asked his mother to carry him. She carried the child on her back for the rest of the journey. Her arrival brought out curious relatives and friends. They wanted to know what or who was the source of all the things she brought back with her. 138 / Makuchi 1 The ceiling; specifically, the space between the ceiling and the roof, where things are kept out of sight and food such as dried groundnuts , corn, beans, and so on are stored. You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. She smiled and said, “An elder does not break wind in public .” But they weren’t appeased. They knew she couldn’t have brought those things from the naming ceremony. The most she could have brought back from such a ceremony would be a bottle of...

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