Pass on the love of reading! Read this children’s story to a lucky young person.

This story was told in !Xun and Afrikaans by Bongi Kasiki in 2000 and translated to English by Marlene Winberg. This is a tale about the origins of fire. It also talks about the time when humans and animals separated from each other – the fire time.

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A long, long time ago, the animals and people lived together. In those days people did not have fire. They ate their food raw. Only Lion had the power of fire.

One day, people and animals came together to make a plan. “What can we do to get the fire from Lion so that we can cook our food?” they asked. They decided to wait until the sun goes to sleep. Then they started singing and singing, clapping and clapping, stamping and stamping, calling everyone together.

“Come and dance with us
Come and dance with us
Come and dance with us”

All the animals came from the bush to join the dancing and singing in the dark. Lion came and brought his fire sticks. He rubbed the sticks around and around, rub-rub, rub-rub, rub-rub. Soon a little smoke curled out in between the sticks. Lion blew and blew into the smoke. He scraped dry grass into the smoke. A little flame appeared inside the sticks and grass. The people and animals brought logs of wood to Lion’s fire. Soon they were all singing around lion’s roaring fire.

While they were dancing so, the people whispered to rabbit: “Rabbit, you are a fast hopper. While we are singing here with lion around his roaring fire, you must take his fire sticks and run into the veld.”

While the people were stamp-stamp-stamping their feet around the fire, rabbit grabbed Lion’s sticks and hopped away as fast as he could.

But Lion said: “Why do I not hear rabbit’s hop-hop-hopping behind me?” He looked into the veld and saw rabbit hopping away with his fire sticks. Lion gave a big roar. He chased after rabbit. He grabbed his sticks and returned to the fire circle. Then Lion showed his terrible teeth and sang a bragging song while dancing around his fire:

“I am stronger than all of you
I can roar and you can not
I have fire
And you have not
I am stronger than all of you
I can roar and you can not.”

While they were stamping their feet, the people said to springbok” “You can run and jump very fast. While Lion is dancing here with us, you must grab his fire sticks and run into the veld.”

While the animals and people were clap-clap-clapping around the fire, springbok grabbed the fire sticks and jumped away into the veld. But Lion said: “ Why do I not hear the clippety-clop, clippety-clop, clippety-clop of springbok’s hooves behind me?”

Lion turned and saw springbok running into the veld. He gave a bigger roar and ran after springbok. He grabbed his fire sticks and returned to the fire circle.

Again, lion sang his bragging song.

“I am stronger than all of you
I can roar and you can not
I can eat you who walk
You who crawl or jump
I am stronger than all of you
I can roar and you can not.”

While they were clapping, the people whispered to each other. They said: “Let us ask Duiker. He is small and very fast. Duiker, while Lion is dancing and singing around the fire with us, you must grab his sticks and run away.”

Duiker grabbed Lion’s fire sticks and ran away as fast as he could. But Lion said: “Why do I not hear Duiker snort-snort-snorting behind me?”

He chased after little Duiker who was leaping into the veld. Lion caught up with him and returned to the fire circle with his sticks.

Again, Lion sang his boastful song.

“I am stronger than all of you
I can roar and you can not
I can eat you with hair
You with shell or skin
I am stronger than all of you
I can roar and you can not”

“Oh” sighed the people, “Which animal can help us now? Ostrich has the longest legs of all, let us ask him.” They explained the plan to Ostrich. He grabbed Lion’s fire sticks this time and ran into the veld.

Lion said: “ Why do I not hear Ostrich’s high singing voice behind me anymore?” He looked around, saw Ostrich and chased after him.

Lion returned with a tired face, for ostrich ran too fast for him. “From this day on,” he said, “ I will hunt you all and chase you all and eat you up raw!”

From that day on, people had the power of fire. Since then, people and animals stopped dancing together and lived separately.

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Thank you to the Manyeka Arts Trust for allowing FunDza to republish this story. To find out more about the Manyeka Arts Trust, visit: www.manyeka.co.za