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Dalton1
3485 Posts |
 Posted - 10 May 2008 : 16:57:33
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BY YJ
The weekend’s humor
The story goes:
The family man Muntaigha has stolen a goat from the farmer Afang lang. Muntaigha took this goat to a nearby tributary to skin and cleanse the intestines. In his absence, Afang Lang acting on a tip-off has visited the compound of Muntaigha and upon arrival at the compound met Muntaigha’s son, Momodou.
Afang Lang asked, “Where is your father?”
Momodou replied, “He went to cleanse intestines at the tributary.”
Thereof, Afang Lang hurriedly rushed to the nearby tributary to recover the goat and his thief. As soon as he arrived, upon seeing him, Muntaigha dropped the intestines inside the tributary and acted as though taking a bath.
Afang Lang asked, “Mungaigha, where is my goat?”
Muntaigha replied, “Which goat?”
Afang Lang explained, “I met your son at home and he told me you are cleansing intestines at the tributary. Secondary my goat is stolen.”
Muntaigha argued, “My son never told you that. We can go home and ask him.”
So they left for home and as soon as they arrived;
Muntaigha called on to his son, “Momodou-Change-the-talk, what did you tell Afang Lang?”
Brilliant Momodou then managed to sense his father and changed the talk, saying “Afang Lang, what I said to you is my father went to take bath at the ‘Intestine tributary.’ Was I not clear enough to you?”
At that point, the game was over. The young Momodou has saved his father from embarrassment of a guilty plea. As a matter of fact, Momodou’s middle name was never “Change-the-talk.” It was just a direction that the clever gave to his son.
Moral lesson: Just another story to share on this day. It is a direct translation from our African traditional story-telling. It is said that “laughters” and “smiles” will make you look younger. If this is to go by, then humor becomes a necessity in life, regardless of how ‘serious’ our lives can be. Besides, it is also important to teach good morals to your children so that they are with you. My writing of the story emanated from an editorial of the Point newspaper (http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/2008/5/9/parents-and-their-responsibilities ) where fathers and children are taking one another to court. Personally, I think that is just too much. Agreeable that even the teeth and the tongue do clash at times, even though they are neck-on-neck. The parent-child relation should be “for better for worse.”
To you all, what do you think is a perfect relation between parents and their children? You can weigh in from any angle; tradition, religion, et cetera...
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"There is no god but Allah (SWT); and Muhammad (SAW)is His last messenger." shahadah. Fear & Worship Allah (SWT) Alone! (:
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Edited by - Dalton1 on 10 May 2008 18:07:30 |
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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
Posted - 10 May 2008 : 20:24:29
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| Dalton I liked your short story. My contribution would be that there is a very fine line to tow when it comes parent-child relations especially where the Law comes to play a part. Common Law dictates that we take responsibility for our offspring and when we became more advanced the criminal law and other legally binding acts of parliament became instruments used in determining that very same relationship. I want to believe that such laws were meant to solve excesses on the part of certain parents and at times; others who become surrogate parents by virtue of their roles in the lives of the young person. This may be a teacher nurse or guardian as the case may be. I agree that at times some people exceed the bounds of reasonable behavior and therefore would require or necessitate legal/police intervention . In earlier years we had the elders at the family level to deal with such matters now we get the social services and juvenile court administrators dealing with matters arising from such cases.The traditional view is that a child is to be molded into a good person by good examples and guidance of a responsible parent.alas we do have some people who lack the will or skill or may the requisite qualification to parenthood. A famous anecdote is about a parent who loved his child's waywardness to such an excess that he decided to call him Jatta the lion, this child then went on to hurt many people and when the neighbors decided that he puts this to a stop he challenged the child who turned upon him, broke his neck and so he died. It is better the saying goes to train your child never mind his/her tears as a child before he/she grows up to manhood and makes you cry in misery , frustration or regret.They also added that the best time to mold a metal is when it is hot but waiting for it to cool down results in either breaking it or at best getting a different result from what you intended. On the legal side though the law determines when it comes to whether a parent used reasonable and not excessive force in dealing with his child, thus we get some people being penalized for assaulting their offspring. I suggest that excessive use of the law in these cases without taking due notice of the need for parents assumption of their responsibilities in parenthood may create a vacuum of sorts.to wit the fear that any correction would some how be subjected to legal investigation and so an abdication of such responsibility . What you then get is a child/children who have no one overseeing him/them through those tender years and disillusioned about what they can or cannot do and what the result/s of their behaviors would be. In some cases the government then turns around and make claims that parents need to take responsibility for their offspring,forgetting or over sighting the precedent of over zealous official meddling in that relationship. I refer any reader to the emerging (Yob) culture in Europe and it's attendant problems.We've heard of all kinds of ideas and hyped solutions to the problems and now you hear the government here trying to exhort parents to take the all mighty parental responsibility, which I submit was hijacked by too much of bureaucratic ho ha and political correctness gone mad. |
Edited by - kaanibaa on 10 May 2008 20:27:38 |
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