Tales From The Great Chessboard Of The Great Canvas Of The Great African Jungle Poem by Pheko Motaung

1. Tlholo and the missing inheritance of Mokele-Mbembe


Once, when the other husband of Mokele-Mbembe who was also a trusted friend of Brother Hare was dying, he said: 'Brother Hare...the money and hence my life saving is in the house of the porquipine that also works as the manager of the bank in this forest.Take the money and keep it safe until my children are old enough to use it in a responsible way themselves.I don't trust my co-husband and my wife because they are reckless and they will go on a willd spending spree and waste the money on the fashion accesories that are available to tempt the animals in this jungle' the other husband of Mokele-Mbembe said and he breathed his last breath and died.

But Brother Hare was careless with the money.And he went down to the tavern where he made friends with Hyena and Wild Dog and Bull Frog and the other ferared gangsters of the jungle.For three days them spent the time drinking and waste the money on nice time and women and song.And every time the money supply was in short supply the gangsters of the forest would wink at The Weeping Dove and order her to tell the women at the watering hole to smile cheaply at Brother Hare and Brother Hare would smile stupidly and go to the bank and betray the trust that the husband of Mokele-Mbembe had placed in his love.The drinking and the singing went on until the money was finished.And when his friends deserted him in droves Brother Hare wept long and hard.And he also wept bitterly and shamelessly in the streets when he realized how stupidly he had betrayed the enormous trust that his friend the husband of the Mokele-Mbembe had thrust upon him.But Olorun, The supreme god of justice and peace decided to punish Brother for his unforgivable sin of betraying his friend.
And you, young and old alike are asked to repeat night and day the words of the proverb

'Trust is like an eraser, it diminishes with every mistake'

And learn so that ye may not to repeat the unpardonable mistake of Brother Hare.

Now Midnight with all his terrors and fears came upon Brother Hare where he was weeping and walking alone in the unlit streets of the jungle.Suddenly the whole forest became as cold as the fridge where corpses are kept to stop them from decaying.Fear gripped his heart as Brother Hare realized with a grim shudder that he was being followed by invincible footsteps.Over and over a great voice that sounded like the voice of the accusing sky god Oludomare repeated the words in the mind of Brother Hare,

'Traitor! Traitor! You have squandered the money that belongs to the orphans! How do you look yourself in the face traitor....every time when you wake up and you hear the screams of the children who are dying of hunger and neglect? '

And suddenly it came and he was pursuid by a terrible horse without a head.It's name is Betrayal and it has the foul reputation of wreaking revenge on anyone who hurts children and defenceless women.It chasedhim away from the beautiful jungle and over through the townships of suffering township and and the town of racism and the village of slander and the cities of filth and drugs misuse and degradation.And as he ran for his life Brother Hare started to think that he was driving a chariot that was taking him to safety.And he also felt as if someone had placed hot coals under his buttocks.And in the morning Brother Hare woke up and realized with shock that he was forced by the gods to fall asleep and they in their wisdom sent him a nightmare to make him repent from the sin of his hideous act of betrayal.And he realized too with a tremor that he had spent the night in a cemetery of dead Mokele-Mbembes.

And behold you who, whether you are old or young.Olorun and the entire pantheon of the African gods around the chessboard they gather to play many games to settle the Fate of Mankind andHumanity.

And in his house on poor earth see in humiliation Brother Hare sighs and cries and begs uNkulunkulu the god of Chaka and Mandela to forgive for his own sins our sins our the treachery that our hearts carry.


2. Tlholo at the religious festival


When Tlholo the rock rabbit agreed that he would not start a lawsuit or fight if he lost his wife in a fixed betting scandal that led to him losing his unfaithful wife to Obe the notorious wife stealer he was very glad to get rid of her.
'The whole nasty affair saves me the enormous costs of an expensive divorce case' Tlholo beamed at his arch enemy Wild Dog.Wild Dog was the Chaka and the Napolen of crime and the Mobutu Sese Seko and the Imelda Marcos of kleptocracy or the art of government by thieving in the jungle.Wild Dog was always planning the demise of Tlholo whose Christian name is Bre'r Rabbit and his Muslim name is....my dear Mandingo man! What is the Muslim name of Tlholo? Anyway Wild Dog approached Tlholo with a nasty look beaming on his dog face, He ignored Tlholo's outstretched paw in greeting and said in his nasty tone, 'Come with me Tlholo.You caused a scandal.Your heart needs to be cleansed at the religious festival and then I will finish you off and kill you myself and send you to Heaven where your soul shall enter without the scandal of a failed marriage to follow you to the pearly gates of heaven. 'And with those blasphemous words Wild Dog trotted away.And Tlholo who was always easy to mislead easily followed him.

Animals of every color and from all walks of life flocked to the religious festival where Wild Dog and a prophetes who was wanted by the law in Uganda for ordering the mass burning to death of her followers were selling Jesus and God.
There were many many dark skinned hopeful animals from every country in Africa who wanted the prophetess to chase away the night and reveal among themselves the witches who were causing them bad luck and whom they suspected of withholding the rains so that every year their crops failed and ruination became their unwanted stepdaughter.And the outlaw prophetess shouted at Wild Dog and pointed at Tlholo as if to say,
'Look over yonder Wild Dog.Totally obliviou to the danger....your sworn enemy doth enter The Temple Of Doom.'
And there were many many of the followers of the bandit prophetess's followers from West and Eastern Europe who wanted to be rich fast and buy the world and fly all over the globe and never once think and act to end global hunger.And again the criminal prophetess pointed at Tlholo and said in high pitched conspiracy voice to Wild Dog,
'Now.Wild Dog.Start hellfire.Reduce this shrine of false worship to a burning hell.Tlholo must die.'
But Mpundulu The Fire Bird that sometimes acts as the part time lover of the women who would otherwise die of sexual starvation and loneliness in the winter months Mpundulu The Fire Bird who guards the people of the world from his vantage point in the sky acted quickly and decisively and released a great thunderbolt from his anus that instantly killed the prophetess and while Wild Dog fled the scene with terrible injuries.And from that day Tlholo promised himself, that he will never allow anyone to easily mislead him.So you know boys and girls.
You too must not be gullible beacuse there are brigands of criminal minded people who roam our streets.And if you believe anything you are told without thinking they will lure you to the deep forest and cut you into pieces and sell your heart or your liver to the human traffickers will harvest your organs and make a profit at the expense of your brutally ended young life.


3. The love sick rabbit

He is a daysleeper by day
But he revels under cover of the
Night because he must roll he is
A rolling thunderbolt he searches
The abandoned warehouses and
The derelict places of safety but
He knows he is doomed never to
Find out what exactly happened
Where and how to his childhood
Sweetheart and their dead dreams
He talks to the free women in the
Streets of the city and he shows them
Her old photographs but what he gets
From them despite the undeserved
Praises he showers them with they
Shower him with a tirade of insults
He tries to find solace in that last
Photo of her but he discovers that her
Face has been brutally erased therefrom
And the cruel words on the torn paper
Stares blankly at him as he reads
She who was brutally removed from the
Face of the earth serves now a more
Deserving master elsewhere and sinks
On his paws and wishes he were dead

Everbody accepts that Tlholo is a notorious prankster and all except Wild Pig
treat Tlholo like a Jain monk who is forbidden by his religion not to kill even the invincible creatures in the belly of the air that we breath with his breath.Whereas Tlholo is loved for his mild nature Wild Pig is known and feared and avoided by everybody in the forest who has a healthy respect for Wild Pig's virulent temper.

Now, Tlholo arrived arrived when the dance was in earnest at The Festival Of The White Nights in the jungle.Everybody was dancing.But old stuck up Wild, Pig was sleeping citing the illness of a recurring headache that he said the Secretary Bird had sent to him because he and a certain guinea fowl were not seeing eye to eye because they were dating the same ostrich on an ostrich farm in the district of The Great Outeniqua Mountains.But Tlholo laughed cruelly as he cynically hurled a certain breed of a mosquito with a terrible lust to bite anybody and anything for the cynical pleasure of it into old grumpy Wild Pig's ear.Now unbeknown to everybody Wild Pig was feigning fatique.The old warrior knew that Tlholo would arrive late deliberately and try to make a fool of him for the amusement of the crowd of celebrating animals and for the entertainment of his latest girlfriend.The mosquito took one terrible bite iat Wild Pig's ear and in retaliation Wild Pig lashed out at Tlholo and the kick was so strong that Tlholo had to stay in hospital for thirty two years.And the whole fracas at the kiss party in the bush made it's way to the front pages even in Krygystan where one wonders if they have ever heard about the word literacy and the hushed talk about good taste.

And that is why many rabbits sometimes cannot outpace the hunting dogs and their corpses find their way into the hunter's pot.

And that explains why

He sleeps by day and he searches for
His childhood lover in the wrongs places
In the night and he is crying softly
But nobody wants heal his heart




13. The repatriation of Bre'r Rabbit to the African motherland



Early in the morning, at about ten A.M, Bre'r Rabbit who was ashamed of his jungle background education decided to visit the library and read the autobiography of Marcus Garvey and improve his woeful lack behind education.Bre'r Rabbit read and read and read.And he read the words of the prophet Marcus Garvey filled him with pain and longing for the African motherland.And the quotations of the prophet Marcus Garvey filled him with fear for the future of the Africans in the great countries of the first world in the North.He saw that after years of slavery the grandsons and the granddaughters of the slaves are free but they are not free.In the great countries of the first world in the North they own everything but their material posessions own them.

Every time Bre'r Rabbit studied the condition of his Africain brethren in the world and his blood ran cold.And he rose on his front paws and the librarian hid under piles of books and he screamed loud and long and said,

'Repatriation! '

And, having uttered the terrible words, Bre'r Rabbit repatriated himself off to the African motherland where he bought himself a house on Kwame Nkrumah via Nelson Mandela Avenue.The house is still there.It stands as a monument to the damage that has been done to the African image and the African psyche and the way to self degradation for the Africans to continue to love to make caricatures of themselves.

'Hallo Mother Africa! How are you doing? 'Bre'r Rabbit said that morning, that day as soon as his dirty paws touched the African soil.

And another year passed and another year also passed and Bre'r Rabbit saw that the Africans would never rise from their seas of poverty and their cycles of violence because everything about the Africans including their wealth and their spiritual wellbeing is controled by malevolent spirits outside Africa.And when Bre'r Rabbit realized that the whole thing of Africa being an equal partner to the great countries was revealed by his own insight as a lie and a sham Bre'r Rabbit sold his house and gave the money to charity and left to spend his action packed life in the barrows of the earth and the holes of the wild pigs and the crevices of the abandoned flats of the hobos.Sometimes, when you are lucky, you will spy him through the window of the house of ill repute where he annotates a large volume of the book of his games of Los Alamos Chess

2.Bre'r Rabbit visits the king of the lions of Tsavo

In his student days at the University Of Life in Thaba Bosiu Tlholo or Bre'r was a top student under the wise tutelage of Mohlomi the sage and philosopher and the Socrates of the Mohokare Valley Territories.In the days before television came to rob people of their thinking capacity the most reliable harbinger of bad news was the little bird Motintinyane.
'Tlholo.I have come to tell you that the lions of Tsavo are at it again.They have killedand devoured sixteen people this month alone.My informers the honey bees and the pythons of Masvingo tell memthat the death may be rising'the little bird Motintinyane said and he flew away when he saw danger innthe form of the tree snake aim it's terrible fangs at him.There was an elephant with a vacant stare on face that was gauging itself drunk on the fruits of the nearest morula tree not far from where Tlholo the wise and clever rock rabbit had received the bad news.The elephant looked as if it was hungry for action so Tlholo the university dropout jumped on it's back and the fastest elephant was doing six thousand miles per hour and more when they arrived in the lion's den in the eerie mountains of Tsavo.The smell of death was everywhere.The lions were whipping the men and the women onntheir death march to the caves.
'Lamb meat! Lamb meat! 'Thenyoung lions wouldmshout in trumph as they pointed to the terrified children.
'Cow meat! Beef! Beef! Oh how I love beef under the hot African sun! The old lions would shout back as they drove the men and women to the slaughter house in the terrible caves of death.

And now Tlholo the clever rock rabbit who feared no terrormentered the fray and he spoke directly to the blood thirsty king of the marauding lions of Tsavo.Tlholo said,

'Oh king! Majesty! Know if thou be deserving of the crown of king

Heal and do not injure and thre shall
Be no pain innthy kingdom,
Encourage and do not despair them and thy reign shall
Be noted formit's enduring legacy of prosperity and success
Rule all, with amfirm hand and justice for all
And ye shall hqve no need for jails and armed guards
Study everything and join nothing
Andntheremwill be no rebelions
And factions wherever your vast kingdom stretches
Let thy kind words and thy wise jugment lead your judgement
And not thy cursing lips be the judge of men
Be kind to and love your subjects and all this
Mindless blood lust will not be repeated
Where your name will be remembered with fondness and not fear'

And when after listening to the wise counsel of Tlholo the king of the lions of Tsavo abandoned his wicked ways.He left the kingdom undermthe wise stewardship of his son and took upmfarming.But Tlholo who doubted his own parental talents refused to accept the hand of the daughter of the kingmof Tsavo in marriage.Instead he chose to spend his time behind the chess playing the variant of chess known as Bishops and Knigts chess.3q


4.The rabbit enters heaven to searh for love

Itis said that Wild Dog once summoned Jackal and Wolf and Skunk to a lion hunt in the forest.They hunted and hunted until they arrived at king Lion's where they proceeded to eat king Lion's children with great cruelty.When Lion arrived at his den he found only the bones of his children packed in a heap in his den.Lion lamented and lamented for a long till all the animals were moved to tears so great was his loss.
Then one day eagle arrived at Lion's den.
'Lion' Eagle said.'One cannot mourn forever.If you go on mourning like this as if there is no tomorrow others will begin to doubt your sanity not to mention your sanity.Go to the god of disease and he will tell you how to get your revenge' Eagle said
'Thank you king Eagle.I appreciate your advice.I shall go after my next meal and consult with the god of disease' lLion said graceciously and Eagle flew away

ow now.Allow me to finish my story.The rabid hell raising rabbit Tlholo himself was robbing the robbers himself when Wild Dog and Jackal and the rest of the most foul smelling creatures and their dangerous hunting dogs pounced on Tlholo and they attacked him with every weapon they could lay their hands on because they knew that they would lose if they evr challenged Tlholo in armed combat.They called Hawk who was the co-pilot of a drone airplane to help them when it looked as if they could not finish Tlholo off who would not die even when the used submarines and every gun to kill him.Hawk had to use fourteen air strikes to finiTlholo off.That night Tlholo arrived badly wounded at the gates of heave.There was a tournament of small chesin progress in heaven.But the gods decided to pospone the tournament for an hour when mthey saw the terrible state Tlholo was in.And they gathered around him and asked him if another war had broken out in the great regions of Africa.But Tlholo didi not answer their questions directly.Instead he asked them to teach him how to love his friends Humanity and the other animals better.And the gods became sad and they turned their backs on him in silence and resumed their games while all over heaven there was much wailing and lamentation over the wounds of Tlholo

Now now now.My friends.Let me finish my story.King Lion arrived was escorted by a disease riddled partridge when to the hotel where the god oof disease was infecting the drug dealers.
'Share some.Give me the disease so that I can hurl it at the Wild Dog who has devoured my innocent children' Lion said to the god of disease.You arrive late.I have already infected Wild Dog and his gangsters withnthe most viral disease you will find on earth.I am not the god of disease for nothing.What do you take me for? '

Wild Dog died as the god said he would die a horrible death.Wild Dog also entered heaven and he caused a commotion and disturbed the gods at their game of chess and demanded that they abandon their tournament immdeiately and face him in a to the death struggle game of chance in wmhich cheating and biting were the the mostvimportant rules.The gods rose and humbly asked himWild Dog to mention his prize and he demanded that they make him rich.And the gods didi as Tlholo asked and they buried him for ever in a massive dome of of fake gold.But as for Tlholo the gods felt pity for him.And they gave him another ninetee nine year lease to love and protect as much as he lived


5.The rabbit falls in love with La Belle Dame Sans Merci Of the Mountains

The old jpeople say.One day when Tlholo was hunting in deep inthe Ruwenzori Mountains he saw an angry mountains gorilla fighting the mirror image of himself that glarred that glarred back at the angry gorilla in anger.And Tlholo laughed so much even the honey bees and the honey birds of the world joined him to share Tlholo's moment of great hilarity.But the mountain gorilla lacked a sense of humor and he charged angrily at Tlholo and tried to kill Tlholo.Even today Tlholo will tell you that that day he ran faster than the speed of Tladi the great thunder bolt that is feared by all in the bush.

In the night Tlholo arrived at the hotel.He paid for the services in an honest way in the same way that all of us who have a sense of honor and justice normally do.Before he went to bed Tlholo borrowed a chess set from the hotel owner with the intention of analysing from memory the games he had won in a one sided match with Drunken ElephantTlholo analysed and analysed until he fell asleep at the table shortly before midnight

The rabbit woke up in the middle of the night.A terrible wind was blowing in the hotel.The wind was unearthly and unGGodly.The putrid smell of death hung all over the room.Tlholo looked around to see the source of the terrible smell.He even looked under the bed to see if crocodile who suffered from a periodic infection of aquaphobia or the fear of water and hence of taking a bath was not hiding there.
But Crocodile was not hiding under the bed in the hotel room.And then Tlholo turned to away from the bed with the thought of going to complain to the owner of the hotel.And he looked up and his gaze fell on her.And she was the most beautiful woman that Tlholo had ever seen.She curtsied to him in a half serious half mocking tone and indicated with her hand that was smeared with the blood of a dead infant to play chess with her.And after a hard struggle during which Tlholo was sure that he could end the game with a magnificent combination that would cataclysm into a marvellous smothered mate the strangest thing happened and Tlholo''s white knight that was ready to deliver checkmate was no longer there and in it's place there now stood a black knight that mocked the names of Justice and Love and and Honor that continued to praise Hate and Lawlessnes and Dishonor.And under cover of the dark deeds of the evil night Tlholo thought that he heard the loud laugte of the terrible mountain gorilla that was laughing at his painful defeat.And he sank on his knees and was never going to stand up and look into the face of the lady without mercy whose whole personality had changed into a concorted tortuos monster and a devil who loves to laugh at the suffering of others he was not going to look into the face of his fiendish conqueror but the hand of Malaika The Goddess oOf Love came and comforted him in his moment of absolute terror.And he looked at the ches again and the position was as before and his faithful white knight stood ready to deliver checkmate.And the devil dissapeared in a burst of the whirlwind.And as Tlholo started to sink to his knees with relief Malaika held him to her bosom and healed his near tempted soul with a bevy of love bites and the whole night they danced it away either while playing many games of chess in a less hostile environment or by engaging in endless orgies of love making.And the mountain gorilla went elsewhere but his wife told him that their time of love making was over once and for all.

And here I would like to end my tale.


6. The messenger

One day when Mister Rabbit was tired of listening to the tales of woe of the love problems of the water buffaloes and the petty squables of the raging political infighting among the lions and the leopards when he was irritated by the complaints of the chimpanzees and the gorillas over grazing land and the endless bickering over who is the prettiest between the warthog and the wild pig a great need to be in action descended on him but a terrible lack of ideas that was greater than any writer's block seized his great powers of imagination and inaction and limbo laughed at him.Then Shango and uMdalidephu Tlatlamatjholo and the whole pantheon of the great gods of Africa took pity on Tlholo in his state of limbo and wept because they thought that he too like many people who are afflicted with lazyness was going to succumb to the disease of inaction and die of inactivity.But the prophet Marcus Garvey believed in Tlholo and thought that rusty as he was he could still be put to better use.And the great emperor Chaka and the mighty empress Manthatisi called a conference of the kings of Africa to which the tyrranical and parasitic politicians were not called and their majesties deliberated and deliberated and decided after much consultation at the urging of the emperor Haile Sellasie to save the soul of Mister Rabbit for posterity with a stern message and many warnings.And the prophet Marcus came to uncle Rabbit and said to him,

Go to the Africans in Southern Africa and say to them I say
I will send an orphan to live among you and suffer with you and triumph with you
His name is Peace and if you cause him injury he will get out of your lives and your
Lives will be of endless struggle and suffering

Go to the Africans in Central Africa and say I say
I will send a refugee among you who brings peace and prosperity to you
His name is Mercy but if you ever hurt or lay a hand on him in an act of violence
He will go away from your cities and needless violence and mindless anger will ruin your lives.

Go to the Africans who live on The Horn Of Africa and say to them I say
A stateless non person person is coming to share your shelter and everything in it with
But if you deny him food and a bed to sleep on
You yourself will be forced into slavery and your wife and your daughter will
Be foeced into prostitution you will be humiliated and you will
Not call yourself anymore because you have no sense of honor

Go to the Aricans in West Arica and repeat everywhere in their region
The words of this prophesy
But when you are in North Africa among the North Africans
Do nothing and sayb nothing
When you remember who the real people of Ancient Khemet misnamed Egypt were and what they looked like


7. Never trust your oponent

In the days when people in Johannesburg kissed with the passion of their hearts and not the venom of obsessing about money Tlholo was the single police man there.And the whole city was free of crime.But today the place is a haven of crime.And Tlholo has turned his back on the city and sought peace in the rural heartlands of Suurbrak which is a village somewhere in the Western Cape.Then he went to meditate about the city of Johannesburgand it's doomed citizenry.It was while Tlholo was deep in meditation that the most beautiful woman anybody had ever seen rose from the sea and came straight to Tlholo.
'I do not trust my eyes.I have dreamed about exquisite and beautilicious women in my dreams.I believe that I am dreaming now.You are to beautiful and as always my eyes are lying to me'Tlholo said and there was lust in in the flame of the passion of his heart.She approached him like a fairy and gave him the kiss of a fairy goddess.Thlolo kissed her and gave her what he thought was a the kiss of a fairy prince.
'Let us play a game of chance'she said and they played and they played.And all the time they were playing on the banks of the Buffelsjaags River Tlholo was wondering if she had swallowed the morning after pill to prevent the appearance of another unwanted pregnancy.
At midday when the killer sharks were watching them from their hiding spot and they sharks thirsted for their blood and the gentle giant whales prayed especialy for the soul of Tlholo she rose up nonchalantly and sid in that husky voice of hers, 'Let us play another game of chance'and when Tlholo protested that he wa s tired she gave him a look that scarred even the killer whales to their chiefs at the bottom of the sea.AAnd the gentle whales cried for they knew what was coming.And Tlholo looked at her anxiously and realized too late that he his latest girlfriend was a a Kaaiman.That dreaded mermaid-like creature that feasts on the wayward womanizers that infest our lives.And the Kaaiman ate Tlholo alive.But in the night while the Kaaiman was sleeping the whale came and ripped Tlholo's bones out of the stomach ofnthe Kaaiman and cried him back to life.And that is why Tlholo will not involve himself with womanizing and womanizers in general today.And that is why you Richard must stop visiting the wife of The Mandingo Man when he is not at home.You will be killed like Tlholo.And that is why I end my story here before the world's notorious womanizers sart to feast their eyes on me.

8. The green eyes of the envy of Wild Dog

Let's say Rabbit was at one a millitary veteran who was decorated for his valor by king...but I forget the name of that great African king.May the soul of his majestyc forgive me for leaving his marvellous name out of my story
Rabbit was a decorated millitary veteran and he was married to a beautiful sea bird.And Wild Dog was envious of Rabbit and his blamess conduct as a devoted husband.But his sea faring wife was young and her heart was wild.And she smiled coyly you know when Wild Dog would sneak behind abbit's back to touch certain parts of her body in that sensual and exciting way.

Then the wars broke out in Central Africa.And the sea bird went to the bottom of the sea and brought many charms and gave them to Wild Dog although she knew that Wild Dog and Rabbit were enemies starting from that day of infamy when Wild Dog caught Rabbit's great great grandfather in a crude trapxand ate him.
'I am doing it out of animal instinct and animal solidarity'Rabbit's sea foam wife said to her conscience when the mind askeked her to stop doing what she wantedAnd the green eyes of Wild Dog emited animal lust and animal strength.

Bfore he went to the wars in Central Africa she took him to the sea and showed Rabbit the wonders of the sea.And she spoilt him twith the pleasures of her body to so that Rabbit became stupid and dull minded with an overdose of love.And when he left she bought him a pairvof overalls.
'He is OK in them torn workmen's boots and stuffy clothes.The women in Burundi will steal him and he is my bank when they see him in neat and new clothes' she said to Wild Dog who continued to kiss her and caress her as Rabbit saw his first mai mai warrior enemy in the jungles of Congo.

After the wars Rabbit came home and his wife said
'You are home early.Try the wars in The Horn Of Africa.Go and fight for bothxsides in Somalia' the daughter ofvthe sea snake and rock python said jeeringly to Rabbit.And so Rabbit left to fight in another man's war.
After the war in the Horn of Africa was over Rabbit came home.
Tisvtime...try the wars in Central Asia'the granddaughter ofnthe honey bee and the phoenix said. And she smiled knowingly to Wild Dog and she turned and smiled sarcastically at Rabbit.And Rabbit was smitten with the pestilence ofn love.So dutifully like a a dutiful husband he left for the wars in in the middle east he fought in Asia and lost an arm in Yemen.He fought in in Lybia and lost his sight in Iraq.And still he carried on the fight in Nigeria and until he had lost all his limbs.And then he accepted the truth the fighting days were over for him.AAnd he went home limbless and penniless.At the door he met his wife.In her arms she was carrying the child of a wild dog.Thenn Rabbit went to visit Rabbit.Wild Dog was kneeling in a guilty position when Rabbit arrived at his house on roller skate from the comforc of which he proceeded to machine gun Wild Dog with the aid of his new specially designed limbs.


9.The tale of Rock Rabbit and Rock Python

He spoke gently to Chimpanzee and Gorillla and his sincere words were full of love and hope that alll the major animals in the forest would stop fighting and eating their lesser brethren but the animals behaved like people and continued to fight among themselves.
HE called a pitdo or council of the eagles and the falcons and all the major birds of the forest and begged them to respect the just laws of the jungle and the hawks and the eagles took his words to mean that the violence they had learned from people must continue unabated in the jungle.

Then Nyame-the great sky god called all the animals and the fishes and the sharks and the birds that rule the sky to meet him at eight o'clock with the threat of instsnt death hsnging over their heads to meet him at the place wherevthe great Mhondoro used to hive people advice

And the lion and the leopard promised to live side by side and hunt side by side in the same forest but as for peace they said they could not guarantee that.
Then rose Hawk and Falcon and instead of making peace with the little birds they felll among them and slaughtered them all.
Again there came the piranhas and the killer sharks and the killer whales and they slaughtered the small fishes and they starred at the god with the blood pouring from thrir terrible fins and indtead of signing the letter of the armistice they tore it to shreds and boasted about their predatory instincts.

But to the amazement of all Rock Rabbitand Rock Python did not show any of the belligerent attitude that was on displsy that day.They were humble when they signed the letter of peace.They hugged and Rock Rabbbit promised that from that day he would stop running away so fast when Rock Rabbit started lurking at the door of his house when hRabbits Children were unprotected.Rock Rabbit and Rock Python hugged and kissed and the world nodded and said they were cousins.

Then came the year of The Great Hunger.And Rock Rabbit told Rock Python not to join theHunger Boys Of the Forest and eat Rovk Rabbit's family while Rock Rabbit was praying in the the thunder.And Rock Python who had verified in record books of the jungle that he and and Rock Rabbit were true cousins wept bitterly and within his soft flatter of the serpent he told Rock Rabbit to trust him because he so loved him.And Rock Rabbit left. But when Rock Rabbit came back he was greeted by the clean eaten bones of his nineteen children none of whom looked like him when they were alive.And the great sky god Nyame joined Rock Rabbit in the hunt to punidh Rock Python for his unpardonable crime of murder.Rock Python was hiding among the tribe of Tankalu when they caught him.And Rock Rabbit opened his mouth twice the size of the Congo River and swallowed Rock Python.And that solves the puzzle of why countless Turkana medicine men and myrriads of Zulu shamans hunt Rock Rabbit.It is not the meat of Rock Rabbit that they want.It is the skin of Rock Python that they are after because they believe that it posseses power over life and death.



1 A masterpiece of Bre'r Rabbit

Bre'r Rabbit was a soccer star several years ago but he hung up his boots and took up farming because he hated the match fixing and the doping scandals that characterised the organisation of sporting events in the human zoo saying,
'I refuse firmly to be a walking advertisement of drugs abuse for the unwary and athe unfit role model of corrupt practices for our kids'.

And let us learn kindest people and agree that when they come with their heroine and mandrax we will not buy their drugs but we will report the drugs barons and the police will lock them up in jail where they belong.And let us preach on the sidelines against the corruptors of our young minds and let us expose them and make life unbearable for until they turn their backs on their evil corrupt practices.

But before you could say yippyyipdog Bre'r Rabbit found his name on top of the selector's wish list of the animals in this forest who were asked to fight and play their hearts out for the honor of their part of the jungle.Rabbit had the magical touch of Lionel Merci and the scoring prowess for scoring goals from any angle as if scoring goals was going out of fashion.Wild Dog who hated Bre'r Rabbit was not called to represent this forest because he was notorious both on and off the field of play and in and out of the bed.of love and romance of leading a leaky defence and scoring too many own goals.Rabbit agreed without hesitation to represent his adopted country of Mzantsi because he felt to his rabbit bones that here.Honor was at stake.

And learn from the fine example set by Bre'r Rabbit.It is good to die for your country.Do not belive the contrary view of lies that is peddled by a certain English war poet.

On a day during which all the animals and all the people from the seven earths of the earth and the sky birds of the seven skies and all the creatures from the seven oceans of the universe came to watch the mother of all the world ccup matches Rabbit gave a moving and sterling performance.He stole even the stony heart of the queen of Denmark with hiis the genious stroke of everyone of his masterly touches.The goals he scored that day were sublime and and out of this world.But at the post match conference he declined to accept the obscene offer of money that a Russian oligarch and a mafia don tried to offer him to play for his team saying, 'We do this things for love and nofor those who are less priviledged than we are'.

And let us learn wonderful people not to worship money because the whiff of money ultimately invariably corrupts our souls and hardens our hearts to be merciless to others who need our love.

And the people and the president of the people from the land of the people and the animals and the king of the aniamls from the land of the animals and the fishes and the queen of the fishes from the oceans that teems with the fishes and the birds beautiful birds who fill the sky with song and the lord of the birds who rules the sky all linked hands and beaks and paws and fins and filled the national stadium with a cacophony of of roars and shriekd to celebrate the great victory that they still talk abouut in birdland and the pleasure resorts of humanity and the trees and holes of the animal kingdom.And the name that is deeply engraved on the memory of posterity is that of Bre'r Rabbit.


11. The endless rebirths of Malaika Chipanga


In the land straddling the HalfReal-HalfUnreal country of The Impossible Five, that is to say the pagolin, the Cape mountain leopard, , aardvark, pagolin, the white lion and the riverine rabbit there lived two sisters.The youngest of the two sisters was called Malaika Chipanga.And her mother did not love her because she h was born with two horns on jutting from her head.Her father thought she was a great curiosity and he was always happy to loan her to any man with money in his pocket.And he continued to use her to make a lot of money for himself until the day he died.And when the father of Malaika Chipanga died her mother decided to retire Malaika Chipanga and sell herself to the men with lots of money in their pockets.And her hatred of her own daughter worsened and when one of her male friends was around the evil mother would point at Malaika Chipanga and say'I have two daughters.But I hate this one '.And the abuse of Malaika Chipanga at the brutal hands of her own mother went from bad to worse.From bad to worse every day.And sometimes Malaika Chipanga was forced to go to bed on an empty stomach.And in winter her mother would force her to go and sleep in the mountains.And it was while she was shivering with cold in the mountains that Rabbit Bre'r Rabbit Tlholo who was in the company of his illustrious friends pthe pagolin, the Cape mountain lion, the riverine rabbit, the aardvark and and many others that he took pity on her.And Bre'r Rabbit Tlholo decided to place himself under her service as her servant saying'She is a child it is obvious who has suffered too much under the merciless abuse of her mother.As ofmtoday remember that I will always cloth her and feed her and find sanctuary for her', Bre'r Rabbit Tlholo said and his friends nodded wisely

But the mother of Malaika Chipanga was furious when she saw that despite all the cruelties she was meting out to her daughter sthe girl was not dying.So she called su, moned a council of all the men who paid money for her services and those she was planning to enlist in her services also made themselves available. And they all agreed that Malaika Chipanga must be killed.And the ver in the night they grabbed Malaika Chipanga and they killed her and they ate the two horns that jutted from her head as a precaution against arrows and knives and bulllets and the long arm of the law.But they did not notice where the spirit of Malaika went to the HalfTrue-HalfUntrue world of The Impossible five.And after killing Malaika Chipanga the men who had committed the crime thirsted for more blood and the taste of human flesh.And they grabbed Malaika Chipanga's mother and they killed her and ate her flesh and they said human flesh tastes like pork.And all the men who had eaten the vile mother's flesh became the fathers of boys who were fathered by one hundred criminals.And that is why the world is full of crime today.And the spirit of Malaika Chipanga's mother infested the homes of all themevil creatures and the evil people of the world.And that is why the world is full of corrupt politicians.But the spirit of Malaika Chipanga filled the beautiful regions of the world and she gets another beautiful rebirth when a baby Cape leopard or a baby aardvark is born or a babby riverine rabbit is born or a baby white lion is born.And that ends our tale for this evening


12. Te tale of Herr Lion and Monsiour Rabbit


Years and years ago Rabbit and Wild Dog and Wild Pig were friends.Rabbit was rich in those days.And he said nothing when Wild Dog and Wild Pig came in the night to steal his expensive jewellery and his expensive clothes.Rabbit evevn took his money out of the bank and gave it all to Wild Dog and Wild Pig for safe keeping.And when Wild Dog and Wild Pig went into a spending spree Rabbit said it was all because they loved him and therefore he was happy to have friends like that.Elephant was Rabbit's girlfriend at that time.She pleaded with Rabbit to get rid of Wild Dog and Wild Pig out of his life.But Rabbit answered her and said he owed Wild Dog and Wild Pig some kind of loyalty.So Elephant told Rabbit that her love was over for Rabbit because she did not like his friends.And when they had sold all his clothes and his car and house, when they had stolen and squandered all his money Wild Dog and Wild Pig didi not mince their words but they told Rabbit that the friendship was over and they resumed the business of chasing Rabbit for the fat of his body and his beautiful hair.
Now Rabbit fell in love with she hyena.But now he was poor.Then Rabbit remembered that he had done Giraffe a favor by paying his medical bills.And he went and knocked on Giraffe's door at the tallest tree. But Giraffe said he and Rabbit had never met before and he threatened Rabbit with the law after that he slammmed the door in Rabbi's face.The Rabbit recalled that a year before he had taken care of springbok and his family and saved them from eviction by the forces of the local municipality.And Rabbit went to Springbok ostensibly with the intention to ask Springbok to loan him money and clothes which he needed if he was to look presentablevto she hyena.But Springbok answered Rabbit by setting two Stalinist type dogs after Rabbit.And had it not been for the strong tsunami that killed the dogs the history of Rabbit would have ended that day.Rabbit looked back in sorrow and decided that day not to have any friends for the rest of his life.And he went and rested under a huge tree.And while he was resting he saw a lion approach him. And fear gripped his heart when he saw the look of hunger in the yes of the lion.And now the lion was very close to him.And he looked and he saw again the look of desperation in the yes of the lion.And he wanted to scream and tell the lion to go and find his diinner elsewhere so long as he not dining on rabbit meat.But the baleful look of sbtarvation in the lion's eyes told Rabbit that he was not the master of the situation.And now the look licked the legs of Rabbit but Rabbit's hunger ravaged legs were as thin as the reeds of the Mfuleni river in winter.Then the lion tried to eat Rabbit's ribs but Rabbit's hunger tormented ribs tasted like the flesh of a one hundred year old woman.And the lion looked angrily at Rabbit and said'I could not feast on your meat so rotten with hunger and suffering it is'.And the lion dissapeared abehind the nearest mountain and was never heard of sgain much to the relief of Rabbit