Last week, communities and conservation stakeholders from across the African continent gathered in Windhoek, Namibia, to attend the first Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Conservation Congress. “IPLCs themselves organized this congress, set the agenda and led the discussions,” said Patrick Kipalu, Africa director of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). “It was a space where decision-makers, […]
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The story of “How the fox lost its fright of the cock” or “How the cock foolishly made itself the fox’s delicious meal” was one of the “tales by the moonlight” that must have been told in millions of Yoruba households in those days. Grandma told me and the other children growing up under her tutelage the fox and cock story. I cannot say whether, these days, children still gather in the evening before going to bed to listen to folk tales from the old ones. The embellishments may vary from place to place and from story-teller to story-teller but the characters remain the same – the cock and the fox – and the story itself didactic.
The Fox and the Cock In Contemporary Nigeria, By Babafemi A. Badejo
Actually, the foxy southern Nigeria has more unrealised power.
The cock has inadvertently shown the fox it lacks the power the fox attributed to it. Unlike the case in my childhood story, the south needs not do the extreme, but only use this realisation to fortify and strengthen its comparative advantages. This being the case, the erstwhile conception of powerlessness should lead to more protection for farmers all over Nigeria.
The space between the two buildings within a compound in which I grew up as a child in Ijebu-Ode was our play area. It was for football and running around during the day, and a knowledge sharing spot in the evening. It was where we learnt critical thinking through Yoruba stories and proverbs. Without knowing it, as children, we were learning Yoruba philosophy and worldview in a play mode. Out of interest, an older man would share different stories. His stories were more exciting because