Analysis African Folktales: The Story of Sorghum

The following story is a transcription of an oral recording:

"Nploplowo….

Do you know where the sorghum comes from? Well, I’ll tell you.

I saw this a very long time ago, when I was leading my father by the hand and carrying my mother on my back.

I saw a man with three sons. One afternoon, an afternoon a very long time ago, they heard about a funeral in a nearby village, and the sons decided they wanted to go. The father agreed, but before their journey, he said to his three sons “You must listen to me very carefully—you must not court any woman, for I know what you do, and you will be punished.” And the three sons agreed and went on.

They came to the nearby village and went to the funeral, which lasted one week. The oldest son did not court a woman, and the second son did not court a woman, but the youngest son met a beautiful girl who was very gentle, very lovely, and very nice. On the last day of the week, the third and youngest son said to his beautiful girl “My love! I should not have disobeyed my father; now I will punished!” to which the girl replied that when she was very young, her mother taught her to watch things from a calabash of milk. So they bought a calabash of milk, and the girl said that she would watch for him.

In the evening, when the three sons came to the entrance of their village, their father greeted them with a spear in his hand. He wanted to know if they had behaved, and told them that if they told the truth and jumped over the spear, nothing would happen. If they lied and jumped over the spear, they would die. So he asked his oldest son “Did you court any woman?” to which the son said:


N ta’a dure la*
Tumangari jenbe
Jenbe tumangari
N ma moso daa dure la
Tumangari jenbe
Jenbe tunamgari
Mò moso ma na n da
Tumangari jenbe
Jenbe tumangari
N’a to’a ni n ni mò mosò daa
Tumangari jenbe
Jenbe tunamgari

Ka n swò
Ka n nuu bò
Tumangari jenbe