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Haruna after consideration of his circumstances concluded that his present means of livelihood which is trading is no longer satisfying, he therefore decided to move on to greener pastures and more lucrative vocations, this being carpentry which was in vogue as the King is building a new city for his new bride.
Haruna therefore reasoning that a donkey is not of any necessity in this his new duty decided to abandon his donkey Ibu in the village and take off. With his fortunes as low as it is he did not have enough to carter for himself alone how much more for a ravenous and troublesome donkey like Ibu. After all, he told himself, the bugger is too old to be of any use in the new environment such as he is going to. So the callous Haruna takes off to the city, abandoning old Ibu to his fate.
Freedom, Ibu laughs loudly, total absolute freedom he laughs and stamps his hoof on the wet ground in gleeful mirth. However, just like every other exuberance it soon wore off and the reality of the moment soon stared Ibu in the face. How would he fend for himself, he who has always been provided for by another. He must have food and shelter. Without much ado, he set off to provide for his immediate need, food.
Wandering the village, enjoying his new found freedom and searching for food, he soon saw a forest of creepers with luscious green leaves. That it is someone’s yam farm, Ibu did not know nor cared. He simply walked in and started a feast, oblivious to all around him. He only stopped when he heard a scream, followed by a hail of stones and sticks. Looking up he saw a very angry man rushing towards him with sticks and stones and shouts. Nimbly Ibu jumped over
the yam ridges and out of the farm land, followed by curses from the irate farmer.
This is how the nuisance of Ibu the donkey started in the village. Today it is somebody’s cocoyam’s farm, the next it is another’s corn farm. In the morning it is Mazi Ude’s yam barn and in the evening it is Baba Tunde’s grain store or Mama Shittu’s vegetable garden. The villagers responded to the menace with equal measure. They beat Ibu mercilessly with sticks and clubs. In one case he was so severely beaten that he passed out and was left for dead by the villagers. He laid there for hours until the hot afternoon sun woke him up. Shaking and famished Ibu blundered into another farm to seek for food. This time a now very angry farmer threw a spear at him. The spear glazed his side and drew blood.
That day, the villagers had made sacrifices in their shrine to their oracle for a good harvest. They made sacrifices of yam, cocoyam, corn, maize, fruits, vegetable and many other farm products. They cut them into small and large pieces and put them in earthen pots and placed them at the foot of the shrine.
They had asked the oracle for rains. By the time the festival was over it had started to rain. It did not just rain, it poured. The villagers had to run back to their houses because of the heavy rain.
Then along came the wounded Ibu; hungry, cold and in pain. He trotted to the side of the shrine to seek shelter from the rain. Then out of curiosity he looks into the hut to see what these noisy villagers had been doing inside there and lo and behold a wonderful meal of sumptuous yam, coco yam and luscious vegetables all laid out in front of him. The hunger crazed donkey did not need any bidding. Turning, with his
hind feet he promptly kicked down and away the rafter and bamboo poles and sticks used in building the shrine hut and soon is at the food. Ibu ate and ate until his stomach rumbled. Then he defecated, depositing mounds of feaces all over the village’s sacred shrine; then he continued eating. He ate and he ate until he could not eat any more, then he laid down in a corner of the shrine and slept off. That was where he was in the morning when the villagers woke up and came to their shrine. Seeing the defilement of their oracle, the outrage of the villagers could not be contained. This nonsense with the donkey has gone far enough as far as the oracle’s chief priest was concerned, he just pointed at Ibu and promptly passed the death sentence on him. Though it was still raining, the irate villagers did not care, they immediately caught Ibu who was still groggy from the overeating of the previous night. They put a rope round his neck and tied him to a tree. Then with raw hide whip they flogged him mercilessly. Ibu screamed and cried, but they could not be deterred. After the beating, they threw Ibu into a hole in the evil forest. This is where they stone people who have offended their oracle to death. Then they started stoning Ibu in the hole. As the rain was falling heavily, they were just throwing their stones at random but fiercely. Meanwhile in the hole something outstanding was happening. Every stone that is thrown into the hole to kill him, Ibu will step unto it. As stones were raining into the hole, the nimble donkey was stepping unto them, both those that hit him and those that did not. This led therefore to the shock of the villagers as unexpectedly they had seen Ibu at the mouth of the hole. Before they could do anything else to stop him, he had jumped out of the hole and leaping over a wide gully which human beings cannot, he escaped into a nearby swamp of the village river.
The villagers were in shock, but despite their disappointment and anger they could not help but be impressed by the resilience of the wily donkey to be alive. In the face of this wonderful escape, their superstitious nature soon took over.
“Are you sure that this is a real donkey?” one asked.
“I have been wondering so myself” the other added.
However, the more resolute ones are bent on killing the donkey- animal or spirit, it defiled our shrine, therefore it must die.
They however, started going home, consoling themselves with the adage that if the prey escapes today, that tomorrow is still there for a hunt. These villagers were still on their way home when there was a terrible scream from the river bank. Turning to investigate they saw a child of the village running towards them from the river. The breathless and very frightened boy could only say repeatedly “Ibu- the donkey- the river”. Thinking that he was trying to tell them that Ibu had drowned in the river, they tried to placate the child not to worry as they made to go on home. But the child was crying and pulling on the arm of one of the men, and as he had got back a bit of his breath shouted “Ibu, Emeka, the dam, river —”
Then suddenly the import of what the child was saying hit them and off they went full speed to the river. What they beheld when they reached the river bank was too mesmerizing for their simple minds.
The rain had flooded the river which in turn had carried a lot of debris and has therefore placed too much weight on the dam which the villagers built across their river for irrigation of their farm lands.
The dam was locked with a key which comprises of a large log and knots made of thick ropes and tied in seven places on the dam.
Two of the knots had cut because of the force of the water and the large log has gone out of balance and is askew. Because of this, the water flow has increased and the flood is threatening to break the remaining knots and burst the dam. This will flood the whole farmlands and the villagers will lose their farm produce for the year. This will be a great disaster. However, the greater disaster is that one of the village children, Emeka, the only son of the wealthiest farmer in the village- Baba Tunde, playing in the river has been caught in the fast flowing water. He has caught hold of the large log that is holding the dam. The child was crying and very frightened.
What really was mesmerizing was Ibu. The donkey, in that mindless and selfless way of animals has gone to the rescue. The good donkey not minding its wound and hunger and not thinking about how badly the people had treated him has put his shoulder to the log and is holding it up; log, clinging child, water, debris and all, the villagers couldn’t believed it as they gazed in wonder at the trembling donkey. It was sweating pots of sweat and crying desperately for help out of fear and fatigue.
The village young men despite their surprise immediately charged into the river and in less than no time had rescued the drowning boy and repaired the damaged key to the dam. When the weight of the log was taken off his shoulder poor Ibu dropped on the ground out of sheer tiredness. It laid there with its breath deep and shallow. Ibu was dying.
Meanwhile the story of what happened in the river had spread all over the village and the villagers at home have all come running to the river. They all gathered round and are
The Naughty Donkey
rejoicing over the child and their whole farm work for a year that has been saved. They were most grateful to Ibu the nuisance donkey. All the earlier animosity and anger have now turned to gratitude and appreciation. The native doctor crushed some leaves and mixed it with water and the mixture he rubbed all over the body of the dying donkey. Ibu fell asleep and the village people put him in a cart and took him back to the village.
Baba Tunde was so grateful that he pleaded with the village people to let him keep Ibu. He promised to look after him and will make sure that he did not spoil nor damage any other person’s property. He also promised to pay back the things that Ibu had damaged in some of the villager’s farms in the past. The village chief granted him his request.
Baba Tunde reasoned that Ibu has not been acting responsibly because he was alone and lonely. He therefore went and got for him a female donkey. Within a short time the female donkey had two little donkeys for Ibu.
Ibu was very happy. With a wife and two children, he became very responsible and well behaved. But he still always laughs, this time happily, as he plays with the children of the village who ride on his back or as he goes to the farm with his new master and his friend.
