Note: As my 98 year old grandma lays frail in Ghana, and waiting to transcend, I can only comfort myself with her tales...Enjoy

 

 

One day, a skilled, successful hunter entered the forest of Sompa in a bid hunt. While tracking a herd of buffalo, he noticed a cackle of hyenas stealthily following the herd. In Kwampa’s vast experience as a hunter, he knew the presence of the hyenas meant a much bigger predator was also probably stalking the herd, whose catch the hyenas intended to hijack. Or that the hyenas had gone long enough without successfully stealing any food, enough to push them to hunt. Whatever the case was, the good hunter knew to respect the balance of Nature and give the hyenas a chance to feed. So he fell back.

 

Along the way, in a little shallow burrow, tucked behind dense shrubbery, Kwampa chanced upon three baby hyenas, likely left behind to keep each other company while the adults hunted. Remembering his son’s request for a pet, the hunter skillfully trapped one of the cubs, bound its mouth shut with the twine of a honeysuckle, and put it in his hunter’s satchel. A gift for his precious, only son, an exotic pet indeed.

 

He happily muttered under his breathe, “You are the company you keep. Buffalo with buffalo, an obstinacy of prey. Lions with lions, a pride of hunters. Hyenas with hyenas, a cackle of thieves. Baby hyenas with baby hyenas, a defenseless cackle.”

 

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I like the folktales on your website @MissKorang

Thanks Troy. I loved listening to these folktales as a kid and I'm even relishing the retelling more.