Week 9 Story : Why The Man Doesn't Eat The Boar

Congo River, jbdodane. source.

At the edge of a rainforest, there lived a man who made his hut a little further away from the village by the river. Every morning, a wild boar would visit the riverbank and make a splendid mess rummaging through the villagers' waste in search of scraps to eat. Day by day, the man saw the pig visit the riverbank and get more and more plump.

A particular morning when the man's stomach was a bit hungrier than usual, he decided to go out and kill the boar and eat it. When the boar saw the man coming, it cried out in alarm, "My brother! I beg you please do not attack me!"

Surprised at such an exclamation, the man lowered his arm and the boar took this chance to disappear back into lush safety of the greenery. Scowling to himself, the man returned to his hut.

"How can I be a brother to such a creature? She lives her life in a cave or under a bush, I live on land in a dry home. She rummages through my waste for his meals, I hunt and cook on my own."

Unable to sleep that night, the troubled man awoke as soon as the hen croaked in response to the morning light. He set off into the humid forest in search of some clarity from the troubles swimming around his head, and it wasn't long until he ran across his friend, Zumbaa. Perched in the treetops all day, the large parrot observes much, and the man often sought her for advice.

"Oh Zumbaa!" he cried, "I am terribly at ends with this boar. Every morning she pads in front of my window, looking more succulent everyday. I want to kill her and feed on her, but she surprises me by calling me her brother. No longer will I pay attention to her cries, for she is a beast and I am meant to feast on her!"

"You shall do no such thing!" croaked the parrot. "Why is it so hard for you to regard this boar as your sister? Don't you know that one day she will disappear into her cave to give birth to her little piglets, and emerge with her progeny? The leopard does the same, and so does your kind, my silly friend. Look, you engage in conversation easily with me. But am I, who lays eggs in a nest, not more of a stranger to you than the boar is? Return hurm and do no harm to your sister".

Understanding this, the man returned to his hut and no longer made any advances on the boar. Instead, he shared part of his meal with her when she visited the riverbank, and in this way greeted his new sister every morning.

Red River Hogs found in the Congo. source.

R.E. Dennett, Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort. 1989. Web Source.

Author's Note: This was inspired by one of the few stories in the Congo unit that did not revolve around the brutal killing and dismembering of another creature. In the reading, the setting never played a huge role, and most of the stories were plot driven. I tried to keep the background sparce in this story as well, focusing on the whimsical interactions between human and animal. The original story was about an alligator and a hen, and instead of live births, the alligator was informed that he was the hen's brother because both their species reproduced from an egg. I thought it would be a fun twist to change it to a human and a pig and keep the reasoning the same. As a vegetarian of almost three years, I was humorously inspired to write this (as I disliked anything pork even when I did eat meat) and insert a glimmer of my own personality into this. Props to you if you can figure out where I got the inspiration for the parrot's name from.