Week 7 Reading Diary: Western African Folktale

Reading Diary #7: Western African Folktale

Father Anansi Climbing the Tree

·        How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race: There was a man that went by the name of Father Anansi. He was the man people came to when they needed advice and help because he possessed all of the wisdom in the world. There was one day when the men of Fanti-land offended Father Anansi, who quickly proceeded to punish all of them. The punishment he decided on was that of which he was going to gather up all of his wisdom, even the wisdom he had already given out to the other people of the country and hide it in a place that no human being could reach it. Kweku Tsin was the son of Father Anansi. He began to think that his father was up to some kind of secret design, so he decided to watch his father very carefully. The next day arrived and Father Anansi left the house with a pot that he would use to put all of his wisdom in, so his son, Kweku Tsin decided to follow him through the forest till he found the tallest and most difficult looking tree, then he began to climb this tree. Father Anansi wanted to hang his pot at the very top of this tree, but was unable to. Kweku Tsin watched his father’s failed attempts and tried to control himself, but eventually called out to his father. His fathers turned to him and acknowledged that his son had more wisdom than he thought he possessed. In anger, Father Anansi threw the pot down, in which it broke and the wisdom inside escaped

How Wisdom Became theProperty of the Human Race, William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair

Week 6 Review

This was my favorite image from this past week's class announcements. 

Creativity 

       I think that this image speaks a 1000 words, even though, it is so simple. I believe that for some people once they obtain knowledge and experience, they become stuck in their ways instead of using those ideas/thoughts to be creative and create something fresh. 

Event Announcement: On Tuesday night at 7:00 PM, the Men's Basketball team plays Baylor on Senior Night, which means this is the LAST opportunity to see Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins, Ryan Spangler, Dinjiyl Walker, C.J. Cole, and Austin Mankin suit up in the Crimson & Cream at home in Norman

Week 6 Storytelling: The Teammates Who Took It All Away

The Teammates Who Took It All Away

            Ryan Parker was your normal local kid from Inglewood, California. He was the quarterback for Inglewood High school and his play had made him into one of the best players in the state of California, but not just California - he was widely considered one of the best quarterback prospects in the entire United States. He stood at 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighed in at 205 pounds. Ryan was always making and grabbing the headlines for his miraculous skills and plays he made out on the football gridiron because he was a once in a generation type of talent. He had offers from all around the country, but he cut his list of schools down to his Top 5 choices, which were the University of Oklahoma (OU), University of Southern California (USC), University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), Ohio State University (OSU), and the University of California – Berkley (CAL).

           Inglewood High School Football Team

 As the season began, Ryan started to get an unearthly amount of publicity and stature from all major sport news television shows, including ESPN, Fox Sports, and the NFL Network. All of this attention that he was getting seemed to be a good thing except in the eyes of a few of Ryan’s teammates. They were jealous of all the lights and cameras being solely focused on him and not the overall success of the team throughout the season, even though they were having a historic season by chasing an undefeated record throughout the regular season and playoffs. They would become the first Inglewood High School team to accomplish this feat. 
            The season went on and they would finish the regular season undefeated; now the goal was the win the State Championship in the Open Division of California. Ryan led his team to the State Championship, where they were 15-0 and had one last game to cap off this miraculous season. In the State Championship game, Ryan and Inglewood High School would take on perennial powerhouse, De La Salle, who had been the dominate team in California for quite some time. Inglewood High School would go on to beat De La Salle in the State Championship game by a score of 35 – 24, in route to becoming the first and only Inglewood High School football team to go undefeated throughout the entire season.

There was celebration to be had, but also it was the point where jealousy got the best of a few of Ryan’s teammates. In respect to the State Championship victory, some of the students decided to throw a house party to celebrate it all. Ryan was the celebrity of the party; every girl at the party wanted to talk to him and be with him, while every guy was vouching to give him a celebration shot in honor of winning the championship. He became very intoxicated after all of the alcohol he had consumed and from across the room his teammates noticed. They approached him to “help” him get outside to throw up and relieve himself, but they had a different plan for him. This was their chance to finally get back at him as their jealousy had turned into anger at this point. They all finally got outside to the side of the house and this is when his teammates unloaded on him, punching and kicking him till he was lying on the ground. His teammates continued to beat him up until they decided he had enough, but did not leave without kicking him in the head, one last time.

They left Ryan out there and he was unconscious, not moving, but no one knew of what happened until one girl came outside to try and find Ryan. She walked to the side of the house and found him there lying face first on the ground, motionless. She immediately called 911 and the ambulance quickly arrived at the scene, but it was, indeed, too late. Ryan passed away due to the kick to the head. This left the whole town, his family, and friends in shambles. He never got the chance to go to college and live out his dream of becoming an NFL quarterback.

Author’s Note:

            The story of The Pretty Stranger who Killed the King gave me a lot of great background information for me to develop this story. It allowed me to creatively think of how I can take the basis of that story and put my own twist to it. The story I chose is about MBOTU, the king of Old Town, Calabar in Nigeria. He was extremely successful, but had many enemies because of greed. The people of Itu wanted to kill him, but were not strong enough as a whole to take him out, so they resorted to witchcraft. There was a woman who was a witch and transformed herself into a young and pretty girl, and armed herself with a knife to go to Old Town to seek the king. The king was fond of pretty girls, and he sent for her. The witch ended up putting a sleep medicine in his meal to put him to sleep and then proceeded to kill the king by cutting his head off. This left Old Town in shambles and vulnerable to attach from the people of Itu. I hope you will read my story, then the Author’s Note, and my story again to see the correlation between the two stories.

Bibliography: ThePretty Stranger who Killed the King, Elphinstone Dayrell (1910)

Week 6 Reading Diary, continued: Nigerian Folklore

Reading Diary #6, continued: Nigerian Folklore

·       The Story of the Lighting and the Thunder: The king had the thunder and lightning live on the other side of the town, so they would be as far away as possible from other people’s houses. The thunder was an old mother sheep, and the thunder was her son, a ram.  The ram had an anger issue, in which when he got angry he would burn down houses, knocked down trees, did damage on the farms, and sometimes killed people. The old mother sheep would have to call out to him to stop doing damage, but the ram did not listen to his mother.
  

Lightning Strike

The people ended getting tired of the ram’s actions, and complained to the king. The king decided on ordering the sheep (Thunder) and her son, the ram (Lighting) to leave town and live in the far forest. This did not help their problem because when the ram got angry he would burn the forest, and the flames from the forest would spread to the farms and consume them. This led to the king banishing the lighting and the thunder from living on earth and made them move up into the sky, so they would not be able to cause anymore destruction. Ever since that has happened, when the lighting gets angry, he still commits acts of damage just as he did before, but you also hear his mother, the thunder, rebuking him for his actions and yelling at him to stop.

Nigeria: The Lightning and the Thunder, Elphinstone Dayrell (1910)

Week 6 Reading Diary: Nigerian Folk Stories

Reading Diary #6: Nigerian Folklore

·       The Pretty Stranger who Killed the King: MBOTU is the king of Old Town, Calabar. He was always at war, and was extremely successful because he was the most skilful leader. MBOTU had become very rich, but along the way he gained many enemies. The people of Itu wanted to kill the king, but were not strong enough to take out Mtobtu, so they resorted to witchcraft. There was an old woman who was a witch and she could transform herself into whatever she pleased, and she presented the idea of killing Mbotu by herself. The witch turned herself into a young and pretty girl, and armed herself with a knife to go to Old Town to seek the king. The king was extremely fond of pretty girls, and he sent for her. The witch ended up putting a sleep medicine in his meal to put him to sleep, then proceeded to kill the king by cutting his head off. This left the town of Old Town in shambles and vulnerable to attack from the people of Itu, who killed and imprisoned many of the people of Old Town.

·       Why the Worms are Blind and Why the Elephant has Small Eyes: The elephant was greedy and always ate the most food at the feasts the king would have quite regularly. The tortoise finally became fed up with the actions of the elephant and took it upon himself to stop the elephant. The tortoise tricked the elephant into taking out both of his eyes because the tortoise “did” and it tasted sweet, but the tortoise switched it out for shrimp and kernels to trick the elephant. The elephant became blind, in which he asked the worm for his eyes, but the elephants never returned the worms’ eyes. This led to the elephant with small eyes and the worms were blind for the rest of life.
  

Small Eyes of an Elephant

  
Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910)