Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Bonsamo Miesso

Once upon a time, there was a huge baboon who had a great herd of baboons which followed him. He was a real dictator and he gave them all a hard time. But there were many huge baboons in the troop, and the other baboons were never sure which one was giving the orders.

So they said to the chief, “You need a distinguishing feature, so that we can be sure of who you are. Then we’ll be able to follow your orders.”

“All right,” said the chief. “I’ll wear a head band round my head. But if I do that you must make sure that you follow my instructions to the letter.”

So a big baboon tied a head band round the chief’s head and the chief said, “It’s agreed then. From today, whatever I tell you to do you must do. I don’t want any sort of disobedience.”

So when the chief jumped the others jumped, when he sat down the others sat down. When he screamed, the others would scream.

As time went by the head band became tighter and tighter. And the chief sat down and said, “Oh my God, this head band is hurting me.” And he put his head in his hands.

And all the baboons sat down, and they put their heads in their hands, and they said, “Oh my God, my head band is hurting me.”

And he said, “No, I’m serious.”

And they all said, “No, I’m serious,”

And the chief said, “This thing’s killing me.”

And they all said, “This thing’s killing me.”

And then he fell off the rock. And they all imitated him and fell off the rock. Then he began struggling and they began struggling and then he died and they survived.

And the moral of this story is, if you only have Yes Men who never disagree with you, then you will have a very hard time.