The Faraway Sky - Part Two

After this, King Oba and his people were very careful, for a short while. They only took what they wanted and nothing more. No piece of food was thrown away as waste.

Then came the time for the great party that King Oba hosted every year.

King Oba invited all his subjects for the party. 

King Oba's servant took out the pieces of the sky and cut it into various lovely looking shapes and sizes and placed it for the people to eat during the party feast.

All the people in the kingdom were beautifully dressed for the party. They came to the party and when they saw the food placed before them the people were delighted.

They ate on the food that was available there and they were even more happy on eating the food.

However slowly the happiness of the people gave to their greed. 

The more they ate, the more they wanted to eat, though the people were not hungry anymore.

The people plucked out pieces of the sky and started eating and throwing a lot of the pieces as waste because they were not really hungry.

Through the course of the party the people forgot the Sky's warning.

Audio Story Available in YouTube

Adapted from Nigerian folktales

The Faraway Sky - Part One

During the times of old, the sky was very near to the earth. 

In fact, the sky was so close that people could chip the pieces of sky with their own hands. The sky was delicious and people would taste different things from different parts of the sky. The people would eat the pieces of the sky whenever they were hungry. This way the people of earth did not have to work at all because food was always available to them.

The king of the times, King Oba would give parties to his people. Whenever this used to happen, King Oba’s people would cut the pieces of the sky and cut the pieces into different and wonderful pieces and serve the pieces of the sky as food to the people in the kingdom.

But as time went on, the people forgot to be thankful to the sky for what it provided to them. The people did not have to work for their food and so they took the food for granted and did not respect it.

Sometimes, it so happened that people would even cut off larger portions of the sky than they needed. The people would throw the remaining pieces away.

The sky saw this for some time. After that, the sky became very angry. 

Suddenly one day, the sky became very dark.

The frightened people were terrified and came out of their houses hesitatingly to see what the problem was.

“King Oba!” The sky thundered angrily.

The people trembled as the sky continued. “If you continue to take more than what you need and waste the portions of the sky, you will have no more portions of the sky to eat.” 

The people were shocked as the sky finished angrily. “Do not waste food after this time.”

Audio Story Available on YouTube

Adapted from Nigerian Folktales

The story of Lightning and Thunder

In the days of old, Thunder and Lightning lived among the Earth. Thunder was an old mother sheep and Lightning was her son. Lightning was a ram. When the ram got angry, he used to go about and burn houses.

When Lightning did this his mother used to yell at him and ask him not to do any more damage. 

But Lightning did not care for what his mother said and he continued to do the same thing whenever he was in a very bad mood. 

Finally, the people could take it no more and they complained to the king of the place. 

The king made the two of them live in the far side of town as far as possible from the other people's houses.  

However, Lightning still continued with his behaviour. 

So finally, the king made an order that Thunder and Lightning should leave the town and not come back here. 

Though the sheep and the ram left town, it was not of much help to the people because the ram was still capable of burning the forest when he got angry. 

So when the people complained to the king again, the king banished Lightning and Thunder from the Earth and made them live in the sky.

Since then, Thunder and lightning went to the sky. 

When Thunder is angry he still commits damages as before. 

But people can hear his mother, the Thunder scolding him and asking him to stop.

However, when the mother has gone some distance away from the naughty son, people can still see that the ram does damage and his mother's voice cannot be heard.

Adapted from Nigerian Folk Tales