Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Abiyot Legesse

Once upon a time a man, his mother and his wife used to live together in the same house.

Now one day when the man went out he came back and his wife refused to speak to him. He sat down and asked her what was wrong and she said that she had a terrible life because her mother-in-law gave her such a terrible time. She said that his mother hated her and was always nagging her and making her life a misery. So she said that she couldn’t live any more with his mother and he had to find a solution.

But he didn’t know what to do, so he asked his wife what he should do. She said that if he killed his mother, they could live happily. So he sat down to think about this, and realised that his mother was an old lady who didn’t have a future and was basically useless, whereas he could live a good life with his wife.

So he decided that if his mother was being such a pain, he should throw her over the cliff. So he carried his mother and started walking towards the cliff.

After a while his mother realised that he was going to kill her, so she said, “Be careful, my son. When you’re throwing me over the cliff you might slip and fall down yourself, or I might grab you and pull you down with me. Therefore hold onto a tree when you throw me off so that you don’t die too.”

He was very surprised that he was about to kill her and she was worried for his life. So he asked her the cause.

She said, “It’s only a mother who’s given birth to a child who can really appreciate that relationship, and you won’t understand it until you have children too. Anyway, be careful.”

So he set her down and started to question what was going on. He realised that if she valued his life more than her own, she must be a very good person and his wife must be the cause of all the problems.

So he set her down, took her home and then chased away his wife and lived happily ever after.