
Storytelling: Tata & Laila their vocation to the village (Part 3)
Early one morning, on the day the village head had fixed for road work, Tata and Laila heard the bell-man calling all the men out. One by one,the men in the village came out of their homes. Uncle Jatau too, took his hoe, and told Tata and Laila he was going to join the road work. He explained that every year, the men of lju repaired roads leading into the village.
Tata and Laila wanted to go and watch the men working, but Uncle Jatau told them that the work would take them about four hours. He explained that the road they would be working on was three kilometres long. However, he promised to show them the road in the evening. That evening, as he had promised, Uncle Jatau took Tata and Laila for a walk on the road. The road was clear, smooth and long.
Tata and Laila wanted to know who had asked the bellman to ring his bell round the village.
“The Village Head told him to,’ replied Uncle Jatau.
“The bell-man usually carries messages from the village Head to the people.’
“Can he tell us to go away from Musuru Village?’ asked Laila anxiously.
‘No, chuckled Uncle Jatau, ‘only if you have been naughty!’
‘Where does he live?’ asked Tata.
‘Oh he lives in the middle of the village, I can show you the place if you want to see it?’
The house was not very far from where they lived.
a big house surrounded by a large, round, wall. They went in through a big gate in front of the house.
It was evening and the Village Head was sitting on a chair outside near the door. Uncle Jatau greeted him.
‘Good evening sir,’
“Good evening my son,’ the Village Head replied, ‘and good evening my little son and daughter.’ Tata and Laila shyly greeted him.
Uncle Jatau explained to Tata and Laila that the Village Head was the father and head of all the people of Musuru. When it was time to leave, the Village Head gave Laila and Tata a little present to take home. They thanked him very nicely and went home to show their presents to Mother.
Tata and Laila had never seen a hunting group before, and they were very excited when Uncle Jatau told them that the hunters of Musuru village were going hunting.
‘Can we come with you?’ Tata asked eagerly.
‘No, Tata’, replied Uncle Jatau, ‘small children cannot
come with us.’ Laila and Tata were sad about this.
‘We are going to a big forest, far away from the village’, Uncle Jatau explained gently. In the afternoon, all the hunters of Musuru village came out of their homes. Some of the hunters carried guns, some carried cutlasses, others took sticks with round, heavy heads. One by one, they set out on a foot path which led into the forest.
There were several dogs with them, the owners of the dogs calling them by their names. The hunting group did not return to the village until after the sun had set.
When the hunters returned to the village, they had with them six big animals which they had killed. But Uncle Jatau only had a tortoise and two rats in his hand. He gave the two snails to Tata and Laila who gave them to Mother to cook.
‘Uncle, but why didn’t you bring home a big animal as well?’ Tata grumbled. Uncle Jatau laughed. ‘Each person does not bring a big animal home, those six big animals belong to the hunting group. I got the tortoise and snails for myself. We shall share the animals among us later. I am going to join the others now. ‘Uncle Jatau went out and took Tata and Laila with him.
They found the whole hunting group sitting under a big tree in the centre of the village. There, the six bush animals were cut into pieces and a piece was given to each person. The tails of the animals were given to all the children. Uncle Jatau wrapped his own share of the meat in a wide banana leaf.
One day, Tata and Laila decided to go and explore the village School. They found out that the same building was used as school. From Monday to Friday, the building was used as a school. Beautiful flowers were planted in rows in front of the building. Tata and Laila picked some of the yellow and blue flowers. Beautiful, brightly coloured butterflies flew all round the flower. They flew round Tata and Laila who tried to catch them.
They arrived home to find that Aunty Mairo had brought the palm fruit and was going to make palm oil. Tata and Laila were excited and ran to the back of the house. They were just in time to see her put all the palm fruit in a big pot and boil them. When they were boiled.
Aunty Mairo put the fruit in a mortar and pounded them to make them soft. The pounding also separated the flesh of the fruit from the hard shell.
Aunty Mairo poured everything into a big, wide basin which she had filled with enough water to cover the pounded fruit. With both hands, she turned the mixture over and over again. This helped the oil to rise to the top of the water.
Aunty Mario used her right hand to gather the floating oil into a big basin. When there was no more oil on the surface of the water, she poured the water away until only clean palm kernels and what was left of the skin of the palm fruit was left at the bottom of the basin.
Aunty Mairo explained that the skin of the palm fruits would be dried in the sun and used for making fire at home.
But the oil was not ready because it was still raw. The raw oil was poured into a small pot and boiled for about an hour. When it had cooled down, Musa and Lola saw fresh palm oil. This was poured into a clean basin and taken into the house. Aunty Mairo used a little of the oil to cook soup for the evening meal. Before the soup was ready, she gave Tata and Laila a piece of boiled yam each and a little of the oil. Tata and Laila dipped their pieces of yam in the fresh palm oil and ate it with great enjoyment.
Musuru village has a cattle farm which is looked after by a Fulani cattle man. As Tata and Laila had never seen a cattle farm before, Uncle Jatau thought he would take them to see one. The cattle farm was only a kilometre away, so both Tata and Laila were quite happy to walk there. As they came near the place, they heard the cows ‘mooing’, and they were surprised to see so many cows. Big ones, little ones, those with horns, those without; old ones and young ones.