Oct 3, 2018
The Next Day
Kayode Dueh comes home from an early council meeting and finds his wife Famatta happily dancing. He takes her hand and joins her and for a moment, they wordlessly enjoy each other’s company, lost in the rhythm of dance.
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Norway
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from Sweden
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Germany
seen from Canada
The Next Day
Kayode Dueh comes home from an early council meeting and finds his wife Famatta happily dancing. He takes her hand and joins her and for a moment, they wordlessly enjoy each other’s company, lost in the rhythm of dance.
Rural West Africa, 1955
This is Famatta Dueh and her little boy, Olatunje “Ola” Dueh. Famatta has an errand she needs Ola to run.
Famatta: Son, I want you to take a pot of pepper soup to your Auntie Ananda. The other day I heard her tell the village women that she makes the best pepper soup in the village! (scoffs) Ha! We all know that is not true.
Ola agrees: Not true, Mummy!
Famatta: I’m putting her on the spot today! She will serve my delicious pepper soup to your Uncle Bakari and her children and they will sing my praises. Then she will have to admit my soup is better than hers!
Ola repeats: Sing your praises, Mummy!
Famatta: Get going before the sun rises too high and it becomes too hot for you to walk.
Kayode: Why are you so happy today, my beautiful wife?
Famatta smug: Ah, my beautiful husband, today is a most joyous day for me! I’m certain my pepper soup will be selected as one of the dishes to be served at the tribe harvest meal next week! I make the very best soup, as you know, in spite of what my sister- I mean- others may wrongfully declare!
Kayode hesitant: Oh...well...um...about that...
Famatta: You were at the council meeting! Did you hear anything? Did they select my soup? Come now, Kayode, you can tell me. There should be no secrets between husband and wife!
Kayode: Your soup actually made your little sister Ananda and my brother Bakari and their family very ill yesterday. You sent them a pot with Ola, I believe?
Famatta aghast: ILL? My soup! Impossible! I make the best soup in the village!
Kayode: Yes, well, perhaps yesterday’s soup wasn’t your best? Also, there’s been an evil tree spirit lurking about, they say, tainting everyone’s food...at least that’s what Ananda said before she threw up...
Famatta livid: Spirit shmirit! My soup is number one! OHHHH, where is Olatunje?
Kayode confused: What does Ola have to do with your soup? Darling, try making your cassava bread instead-
Famatta: OLATUNJEEEEE!
Moral of the story: Pride and pepper soup come before the fall!
The End
Ola glum: There was no tree spirit. It was me. Olatunje. I ate the soup. I was hot and hungry and the soup smelled so nice.
Ananda: I’m surprised my Big Sis would send you with soup all this way on this hot day.
Ola: She said she wanted you to feed her soup to my Uncle Bakari and my cousins and then they would sing Mummy’s praises because her soup is better than yours. No matter what you say to the village women.
Ananda: Ahhh...is that so? Is that what she said?
Ola nods: Yes. She said it.
Ananda: Well...let’s keep this secret between you and I, Ola. I will tell your Mummy that her younger sister’s family ate her soup, not that you ate it. Would you like some sweet figs and cold water for your trip back home?
Ola: Oh yes, Auntie! I love sweet figs!
Ananda amused: Maybe you should eat in secret? So as not to attract any more greedy tree spirits?
Ola laughs and gives his Auntie a hug.
But it’s a long walk from his house to his Auntie Ananda’s house. And the sun was really high in the sky. And he drank all his water in one go, instead of sipping it slowly as his mother had advised.
AND...he was hungry.
He stops and looks back at the wagon. The pepper soup smelled so nice and spicy. His mother did make the best soup in the village.
Maybe...just maybe...he could have a little taste?
Ananda skeptical: A tree spirit, you say?
Ola nods vigorously: Yes, Auntie! A tree spirit appeared to me on the path here and demanded all of the pepper soup! Not just a taste. Oh no! That greedy spirit wasn’t satisfied with me offering a taste! He wanted the WHOLE pot!
Ananda: The whole pot?
Ola: Yes, the entire pot! And he threatened to turn me into a spider if I didn’t give it to him! So what I could do? I had no choice! I like being a little boy, not a spider.
Ananda: Hmm...yes..spiders are quite tricky creatures*. It wouldn’t do for you to become a spider, like Anansi. Interesting the tree spirit chose that mischievous story-telling creature to turn you into, how terrible of it!
Ola: I agree, Auntie! Terrible tree spirit!
Ananda firm: Well, there’s only one thing to be done about a greedy tree spirit demanding pepper soup from innocent boys and threatening to turn them into spiders. We must bring this before the village Elders. Your Great grandfather the Chief, your father, your uncles and all the men of the village must hear your tale. We cannot allow pepper soup stealing tree spirits to run amok!
Ola gulps: The...Elders? The Chief? My...fff- father?
Andna nods: Yes. All of them. (sly) Unless...there is another pepper soup eating culprit?
