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

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Told by Monto Masako. Translated by Joaquim Chembembe and Marlene Winberg.

This story shows how we adapted our traditional way of telling stories when we started a new life; one with roads, cars, licences and money.

According to this story, the car paid for the road with its third party license. The donkey and the goat do not have this third party and therefore no right to the road!

The car saw that the donkey, the dog and the goat kept on using the road and said: “Come, let us have a meeting. “

“Why?” replied the others.

“I paid for the road,” said the car, “But now all of you are using this road. Is this right?”

“No,” said the dog, the goat and the donkey, “It is not right.”

“Everyone must pay.” said the car.

“But how much?” asked the donkey.

They all agreed on the right amount and said that everyone must pay in full.

The dog said to the car,”I do not have the right amount. You must give me change.”

The goat said: “I will go and fetch my money.”

But he did not, he ran away instead.

The donkey gave the car the right amount.

Then the car drove away.

This is why we see donkey lying dead on the road today. He insisted that he had the right to lay there and then the car drove over him.

The dog is still chasing the car, because the car still owes him money.

And the goat? Well, whenever he sees the car, he runs away into the veld.

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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