Who killed my mother?: A story told by Bazilio Banda (83 years) (Zambia)

In a certain village, the king was very evil. A certain woman in there had one child, it was a boy. The woman misteriously died and left the boy alone. As the boy was growing up, he began to understand some evil things that were happening in the village with the influence of their king. However, he still did not know what had really killed his mother. He was sad and angry with the people there. For this reason, he was so courageous to find a way to kill all the people in the village and start a new village where people could not kill each other. He planted a special seed near a river. Whenever he went to water the seed, he was singing in order to make the plant to grow.

Song

Leader:     My seed grow grow, let me see who had killed my mother!

The plant started to grow. Because of his anger and sadness, the boy continued to sing requesting the seed to grow as fast as it could.

Repeat song

Later the seed grew into a huge tree and started to bear fruits. The fruits got rippen and he shared them with some people. They were not just ordinary fruits but fruits that everyone had not tasted before. Everyone who asked him where he got the fruits, was told that it was a special fruit from his late mother. Soon the news spread all over in the village, that the small boy had special fruits.

One day he sent announcements across the village that they should all go and eat the fruits from his special tree. Everyone was so excited but remember, he had plans of killing all the people in the village. They all happily came to the river and climbed the tree with sacks and bags to pick the fruits. The boy started to sing his song again, now requesting the tree to fall down.

The tree fell down into the river full of crocodiles. All the people got eaten by crocodiles. The boy was left alone in the village. He stayed there and became king of his own village.