13 Jun 2009 |
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Story Time at the Village Square: The Cripple and the Blind Long ago, in an African village, a blind man and a cripple lived as beggars. All their lives, the beggars relied exclusively on the generosity of the villagers for their daily food. Even poor villagers, moved by sympathy, went out of their ways to make periodic gifts of food and money to the beggars. And the beggars, finding their handicaps very lucrative in extracting the generosity of the villagers, were exceedingly contented with begging and consequently never developed any vocational skills. They had become so completely dependent on the villagers that even if the blind eyes and crippled legs were restored now, without the generosity of the villagers they would starve to death. Then a Crime is Committed One day, the blind villager and his cripple friend decided to supplement their free receipts with stealing fruits. The target of their crime was the farm of Wazobia, the rich man; a farm full of fruits, the only fruits in the entire village. The road to the heist was, however, clouded by two major obstacles: the blind man could not see his way to the farm and the cripple, who knew how to get to the farm, had no legs. Even more serious than the obstacles was one major fear that paralyzed the duo: whenever a crime occurred in the village, all suspects were required to swear an oath before the shrine of the gods and false swearing always led to death. This fear of death temporarily subdued the duo’s thirst for sweet stolen fruits but did not completely dissuade them from their larcenous plans. For days the duo thought about the physical obstacles of getting to the farm in addition to their fear of death at the hands of the gods for false swearing if they were to be brought to the shrine; and yet, if they were to confess to the theft afterwards, they were certain of being lynched by the villagers. So stymied, they turned this matter over and over in their heads but still refused to give up the idea of stealing the fruits. On the tenth day of deliberation, they finally perfected the physical and linguistic solutions to all the obstacles and their fear. They would go forward. In the middle of the night, but under a bright moonlight, while the other villagers were sleeping, the cripple climbed onto the back of the blind man. While the blind man walked, the cripple directed him, through the footpath, to the rich man’s farm. They reached the farm in a short time. At the farm, the cripple, still perched on the back of the blind man, reached up to the fruit trees, plucking numerous fruits. As he plucked, he would pass the fruits to his blind paddy and the blind one would drop them into a bag hanging on his shoulder. In this manner, they raided the farm every night until one day the rich man discovered his fruits missing from his farm trees. The Linguistic Logic of the Deceptive Duo As dictated by tradition in those days, the rich man, fuming with anger, went to the council of village elders to register his complaint and utter distress at finding his fruits gone from his fruit trees. As was customary in those days, the elders, angered by the brazen theft, summoned all the villagers to the village square – a Nigerian village square. From the village square, they were enjoined to walk to the village shrine where all adult men and women were compelled to swear before the gods that they were not the thieves who stole the rich man’s fruits. One after the other, each villager swore, repeating the exact words of the previous person: “I swear that I did not steal the fruits from Wazobia’s farm and if I have sworn falsely may the gods strike me dead within ten days”. The cripple and his blind partner were the last to take the oath, with the blind man going first: “I swear that since I was born, my eyes have never seen Wazobia’s farm and if I have sworn falsely may the gods strike me dead within ten days.” Finally, the cripple, following his friend’s linguistic deception stated: “I swear that ever since my mother gave birth to me, my legs have never touched Wazobia’s farmland and if I have sworn falsely may the gods strike me dead within ten day.” Some of the other villagers, unsuspecting and gullible, nodded their heads in agreement with the duo for how could a person whose eyes had never seen a farm or whose legs had never walked into a farm steal from that farm. They felt sad that the duo was forced to even participate in the oath swearing. Ten days passed but nobody died. The villagers began to wonder if the rich man himself plucked his own fruits for after all he was the only villager who did not have to swear at the shrine. Some even began to abuse Wazobia. Even the gods, before whom all the villagers had sworn, were handicapped from terminating the lives of the cripple and the blind thieves because their choice of words at the shrine were perfectly true; they did not swear to false oaths. Thus, the criminals escaped not just the certainty of lynching by the villagers but also the wrath and punishment of death in the hands of the gods. The criminals, happy and satisfied, began to whisper between themselves that the naive villagers were truly the blind and crippled ones. But wait, this is not the end of the story. The Gods are not Fools So, the story goes, the gods gathered to determine how to resolve this difficult case. How could they administer the required punishment on criminals when in fact the criminals never swore falsely? The gods debated this matter among themselves. As wise spirits following long-standing methods of rendering fair justice, the gods could not kill men who never swore to false oaths. The gods only granted mortals what mortals requested or administered punishment to those who swore to false oaths. In this case, however, they were confronted with a case of first impression: guilty suspects who, under oath, neither admitted nor denied their guilt. It would be wrong to kill the duo, they all agreed. On the other hand, as the custodians of the laws of retributive justice, the gods reasoned that it would be equally wrong to let confirmed thieves escape punishment. There had to be a way out of this quagmire; perhaps there was a way to make the thieves ask for punishment voluntarily. The emphasis was on the word voluntarily; it would be wrong to force or compel criminals to request punishment for their crime. The request had to be voluntary. But how could this be accomplished? They debated this novel matter until they agreed on a plan. The Criminals will be Cured On the twentieth day after the oath swearing at the shrine, one of the gods appeared at the village square, in the form of an old man. Another one of the gods turned into a one-legged man limping alongside the old man. They walked, very slowly, past the village criminal beggars. As they walked in front of the beggars, the fake old man turned to the fake one-legged man and said “My son, why are you following me? Do you desire a restoration of your missing leg or money for food” and to which the one-legged man responded “Wise old man, I prefer a cure of my handicap if you can”. Immediately, the old man waived his walking stick at the fake limping man and the man suddenly stood erect on two, solid, perfect, legs. The criminal beggar, upon seeing the miracle, and without thinking, quickly hopped after the old man, pleading for a cure too. He got his wish very quickly. The blind beggar, upon hearing the joyful cries of the cripple dancing with his now-restored legs, shouted that he too wished for a cure. Quickly, he too was given the gift of perfect sight. Now that the beggars had voluntarily requested to be restored to perfect sight and legs, and the gods who had turned into the fake old man and the fake limping man had granted their requests, the gods turned round the corner and melted into thin air. But the Cure will be worse than the Disease The first day of their magical restoration to perfect sight and legs was a day of celebration for all the villagers. Such miracles had never been seen before in the village. Then drops of reality struck the duo’s heads heavily like fruits falling from farm trees. They were now able-bodied and healthy men like everyone else. With this reality, the gifts of food and money abruptly came to an end for the beggars. As they sat at the village square, with their hands outstretched, what they received from the villagers now were abuses: go and get a job; stop being lazy; are you still begging; please get out of here before you corrupt our children with your laziness; move on fools. Days ran into weeks. Unfortunately for the former beggars, having been used to begging all their lives, and now with no vocational skills, no farmland, no handicap to extract the sympathy of the villagers, and too old to learn new trades or skills, slow death from starvation became worse than a quick death as punishment for false oaths. Now emaciated, hungry, tired, and at the doorsteps of death, the former cripple and former blind man wished they were still crippled and blind … Indeed, they thought, the Hausa proverb was true which stated that an egg in the mouth was better than a chicken in the coop.
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