Resource 4: How Mrs Kamau found her story

 Background information / subject knowledge for teacher

Tilly Kamau tried to think of a story that was not well known. She remembered an idiom that was based on a story. The idiom said: ‘There is no jackal bigger than another; all jackals are equal in size.’ She remembered that the story was about a master and his servant travelling on horseback, and that the servant told his master about a jackal that was the size of a calf or an ox. She also remembered that there were rivers to cross, and one of them was called ‘the river that drowns all liars’.

Since she was not sure of what actually happened, she asked her sister-in-law Sanaa about the story. Sanaa said that the servant in the story was a habitual liar. Once, he even told a story of a bug, likening it to something so big, the story could not possibly be true. They were still short of details, so they went to Mr Jumbe, who had been a teacher of Swahili, now an inspector of schools. He could not remember the story, but remembered that a version of it was in a particular reader.

One day, Tilly was speaking to Miss Penda Laliza, a maths teacher, and found that she knew the message behind the story. She said that the master used a certain technique to stop the servant from lying. He didn’t want to accuse him directly of lying. Miss Laliza said that the technique worked, as the servant repented and told the truth before they reached the river. But she also couldn’t remember the details of the story.

Tilly then went to Mr Kamili Mutta, an attorney. He also knew the idiom and the message behind the story. He thought it had arisen because a community was sick and tired of the lying of a particular man. They decided to put him to a vigorous test, and teach him a lesson. He said that the then minister of sport was fond of this story, and of many other stories. He promised to arrange for Tilly to meet the minister. The minister’s version of the story is Resource 5: The river that swept away liars.

Taken from: Kenyon, V & Tshangela, T. (1999), Umthamo 2 – A Whole Language Approach; Communication, Language and Literacy; Core Learning Areas Course.

University of FortHare Distance Education Project