Phil and Elin Henderson
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THE RACE BETWEEN THE RABBIT AND THE TURTLE

October 4, 2011 by Phil and Elin Henderson

This is a traditional Mwinika story of the race between the Rabbit and the Turtle.

“The Rabbit and the Turtle were good friends. One day they decided together to make a garden. When the time came for their garden to produce it really produced well. They had lots of food, things like sorghum, corn, peanuts, beans and lots of other food. The Rabbit, when he saw the abundance of food he began to plot ways to get all the food for himself. Soon he hit upon an idea to take advantage of the fact that the turtle could not run fast.

One day the Rabbit said to the Turtle: “Hey friend, why don’t we have a contest in the form of a race to see who will win the garden? Why don’t we race all the way around the garden and whoever gets back to this corner first wins?” The Turtle said: “Ok, that sounds good, just let me inform my family so they can come watch the race.” The Turtle went and arranged with three of his family members. He said to them: “I want one of you to hide next to each corner. As Rabbit is running along he will call out “okhapoo” and when he does you respond with “woo.”

When the race started the Rabbit ran along and called out “okhapoo.” From up ahead of him he heard the Turtle respond with a “woo.” The Rabbit was shocked and said to himself: “What! How is he able to run that fast?” As he went around each corner the same thing happened until he got back to the corner where they had started and sure enough, he found the Turtle already there. That is how the turtle became the owner of the whole garden and the rabbit lost out. In his efforts to gain more than his share he lost the share that he had.”

Moral: Friends should not try to take advantage of each other.

Filed Under: Mwinika Language and Culture

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