Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Yusuf Omar Osman

This was in the times of the Amirs, and the first son of the Amir, when he was in puberty, he started to make trouble. He became very aggressive and violent. The Amir didn’t know what to do.

Then the Amir’s close friend goes to the Amir, and says, “Listen. When a boy becomes a young man, he will express his feelings in many complex ways. So this boy maybe wants a girl, and to be married, or he is thinking of something else. So if you marry him to a woman who is wise, he could settle down. So the reason why he’s making trouble is because he wants to get married. So get him married.”

The Amir agrees, and starts to search for the best girl in the town. So he found a girl, and the boy began to live with his wife, but he began to have doubts about her. He began to nag his wife every minute and he accused her of having an affair with another man. The young man began to demand to know who was coming into the house while he was out.

“Who was here smoking a cigarette? Who was here when I phoned you from the office? I could hear voices.”

The girl was very worried. She didn’t know what to do. So one day when things got worse he began to beat her. She ran not to her parents’ house, but his parents.

When she entered, running, the Amir asked her, “What happened?”

She said, “Your son is mad. I don’t know what to do.”

So when his son came home the Amir, who had become very angry, slapped him on the face, and he tied his hands and legs and put him in the corner.

The wife said, “I won’t go anywhere else. I’ll sit and live here with you and feed him myself.”

She began to cook his food in front of him. She asked him if he has calmed down. When he didn’t answer, she told him she would make him suffer more.

One day, she put to one side his potty with his shit in it. And then she began to cook his food in front of him, and she spooned some of his own shit onto the food she was cooking, and she said, “I will make you pay.”

Then she gave him the food. He screamed with anger.

When the Amir heard him scream he came rushing into the room.

When he entered, she said, “Look, he’s not better yet. Look at him.”

The Amir became very angry and began to beat him with a stick and forced him to eat the food.

The Amir said, “This is good food. How dare you say it has shit in it?”

Then he knew that the only salvation for him was for him to beg his wife for forgiveness. So he knelt down and begged her to forgive, and she forgave him, and he was untied and they lived happily ever after.