By
Obododimma Oha
Many of us think it is with tricks we can survive when things are upside-down and that we can learn from Tortoise the trickster. But they are wrong. Even tricksters are overtaken by tricks! A trick remains an unfair practice.
Tortoise experienced it.
His parents were growing old and Tortoise knew that they would soon die. So, he called his kinsmen and said to them: "I am going on a long journey to treat and heal people. If what was not known to happen before happens, send for me. But if what is known to happen happens, don't bother to send for me. I won't come." They agreed and he left, but he knew his game and was getting set to play.
Shortly his parents died and he was invited home. But he refused. So the emissaries went back. The elders consulted on hearing his refusal and went to consult a sage. The sage said: "You are playing with a big-time player. Inform him, rather, that
-- the palm head grew at the end of the palm-fond, the nuts getting ripe there!
-- a man has become pregnant.
-- a person on the ground already has fallen and has killed someone who is up there!
Obviously, these were absurd situations and the sage's thinking was that the reports would stimulate a sense of curiosity in Tortoise. And it did!
Another set of emissaries was sent with the new reports to Tortoise. He was surprised. How could a Pam head with ripe nuts come from an end of palm from? How can a man get pregnant when he has no womb? And how can someone below fall and kill someone at the top? Strange situations!
That people have survived by playing tricks doesn't mean they have done the right. The tricks may just be a way of gaining advantage, which is dubious. Tortoise wanted to gain advantage dubiously by playing tricks. It is not admirable. Burying one's parents is a responsibility and is a thing to be proud of. Is it something about which we can avoid by playing tricks?
Yes. The palm-head with ripe nuts is waiting for the trickster.
Let us examine these strange situations that the trickster could not deal with and just had to return to see them.
A palm-head with nuts getting ripe at the tail end of the palm-frond. Really strange! We can't blame Tortoise. The least that one can do in such a situation is to see it, too. Strange situations actually show that something spectacular is coming and it is best to witness it first-hand, too.
In Igbo culture, that is an indexical sign that "ala arụọla" (an abomination has occurred). Who committed that abomination? When? How? It is not just the sign, but the abomination. It is not wise to focus on the symptom and leave the illness!
Local Igbo people are good observers. Observation is good in nurturing a scientific spirit. If it is normal for a palm-head to sit and develop from the tree where the fronds start off, why now the tail end of the frond? Isn't that a way of making a statement? What is normal in this life is normal, otherwise people would be walking with their hands, their heads towards the ground and their legs up!
As if that is not enough, a man becomes pregnant! Or has he taken excess pepper-soup and beer? How can he be pregnant? Does he have a womb? If he has a womb, then, he is not a man! Maybe a man-woman! Imagine, pregnant! Unbelievable. Tortoise and all his pupils must see this.
And again, the person already on the ground falls and kills the person up. Strange world. Not only that Tortoise must return and see this, he has to volunteer an explanation!
These days that the heads of donkeys can be surgically transferred to medical tourists, especially from Africa, how are we sure that some men have been given wombs. It is even good to give some presidents wombs. It would be nice for them to go into labor just after ordering the army to shoot to kill protesting civilians. Laboring president at the cemetery, breaking news.
You see, Tortoise just had to go back to see how the Igwe is doing in the laborroom. Are we idiotic in peeping to see? There are several logical and ethical issues there, I know.
Logical issue #1, the Igwe must have done it with someone who has a penis, maybe when on a medical trip. But what is the proof? The proof? The pregnancy itself!
Logical issue #2, if the Igwe is in labor, do we know for sure what he would give birth to? A baby or a cow clutching an AK-47? Aah, this logic tough o, but let me try. We are torn here between known and unknown. Pregnant humans should give birth to normal human babies. But now, unusual babies can be born by pregnant men in unusual circumstances! So, working from known to unknown, especially now that heads of donkeys sit on rulers, we should expect a kind of baby that would not just make Tortoise come back to his hometown, his late grandfather should also rise from his grave to witness strangeness.
Logical issue #3, is a man that is pregnant still a man? Is a man a man? Pardon the apparent contradiction and tautology. It is interesting that, in local Igbo area, a man having what is known as "afọ beer" is even considered a good thing. It is believed that having a big belly is a sign of coming affluence for an individual. Funny.
So, a man being pregnant is just a joke of the day. It is impossible and Tortoise must have nailed it there. At the same time, bringing Tortoise back to see impossibility becoming possibility is easy. Who would ignore that in curiosity?Let us see this strange occurrence.
In other words, when craftiness meets craftiness, one would be forced to understand that craftiness can inhabit even the mind of a fool. Tortoise thought that his three-pronged problem had no match and no solution. He was wrong. This problem is younger than that problem.
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