"WHEN PIGS FLY"; (A nigerian folktales). My entry for the sankofa contest.
How it all started
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A long time ago, there was a great demarcation between the human world and the animal kingdom because the animals considered the humans as gods because of the great wisdom they bring to them,
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and whenever they went to them for advice in times of trouble, most of the words they say always come to pass.
In the human world, there was this particular human that the animals respected the most. He was a blind old man who always speak in parables. The king of the animals alway come to him to seek for knowledge on how to be a good ruler to his people, and to seek solution to the problems his kingdom is facing. These made his kingdom flourish and everyone happy except the pig.
They are always distant from everyone and never satisfied because they felt incomplete and different,
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but they refused telling anyone the reason why. A lot of people tried cheering them up but it didn't work, even their neighbour, Mr tortise who has on several cases given them lots of gifts just to make them free with him, but it still didn't change anything. He decided to table the matter to the king, telling him everything that has been going on with his neighbour, the pig. After everything the tortise said,
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the king decided to invite mr pig over to his place so as to hear directly from him what their problem was.
The next day, the king sent his guards to mr pigs house to tell them about his invitation. When they got there, they knocked on the door and mr pig came to answer them, they exchanged pleasantries and after that, they told him about the kings invitation and took their leave after that.
Mr pig was dumbfounded, he didn't know why the king wanted to see him but he knew that he can't turn down the kings invitation. He told his wife about it and they both decided to go to the kings place together. The next day,very early in the morning they woke up, got dress and went to the king's palace. The King was happy to see them and they exchanged pleasantries before settling down. He ordered his servant to get them some colanut. They brought it to them and they thanked the king for the treat.
After they have all settled down, the king told them the reason why he sent for them and also inquired to know what their problem was, so that he can know how to handle it.
They were shocked that the king has found out about their troubles but didn't know what to tell him was the problem.
After thinking for sometime, mr pig decided to answer. He thanked the king for his concern towards them and also told him that nothing was wrong with them. The king was not satisfied with the answer he got from mr pig and he made it known to him through his expression. He tried persuading mrs pig, but she too also told him the same thing that nothing was wrong with them and that the rumours he heard was false. The king couldn't force them to tell him so he decided to dismiss them, so that he can go to the human world and seek for answers from the old wise man.
After they left, he immediately went with his guards to the human world to meet the old man not knowing that mr pig was secretly following them. When he got there, he greeted the old man and immediately tabled his matter to him. After hearing what the king had to say, the old man answered him in parables, which the king does not understand. He told the king that a long time ago, when he was having a talk with one of his grandson, the father of mr pig who happened to passingby that minute, thought he was giving out wisdom and decided to partake so as to enable him acquire more wisdom and add it to the ones he already has by eavesdropping on them.
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He saw him but pretended as if he didn't. The moment mr pig placed his ears on the window was when he was rounding up what he was saying to his grandson and the only thing he ended up hearing was "When pigs fly . he didn't wait to hear the rest and immediately dashed out to tell his people of the prophecy( so he thought) he heard from the old wise man cause he thought it was a prophecy and he knew the old man's prophecies alway come to pass.
And since then all the pigs has been waiting for it to come to pass but didn't see anything, and this made them feel like the universe wasn't fair to them and that was what brought about their sadness. But they couldn't tell anyone because they were asked not to.
After hearing this story, the king was surprise same with mr pig who has been eavesdropping since the begining of the conversation. Mr pig immediately rushed home to tell his people about what he heard from the old wise man. They were all surprised that their father's mis-interpretation was what has caged them with sadness for years.
Immediately the king got home, he sent for them, and they were immediately brought to his palace. He told them about what the old man told him and also told them that he was aware that mr pig followed them secretly to the old man's place. Mr pig apologised to the king for such act and also for what his father did.
The king felt pity for them and forgave them and also asked them to go home with a change of mindset and also warned them to stop eavesdropping on people.
They thanked him and went home happily with indeed a changed mindset.
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