The second half of the Nigeria unit was very similar to the
first in that the stories all attempt to explain the world around us. Within
this unit it described why there are land and water turtles, why the birds live
in the trees, and why the moon wanes and waxes. There were several stories that
were told for the simple premise of storytelling in this half unlike the first.
My favorite story within this unit was Of The Fat Woman Who Melted Away. It was
a very odd story but quite interesting. The woman within this story is made of
oil therefore she has to stay out of the sunlight and is unable to work. She
marries a man who promises he will keep her shaded and comfortable her whole
life because she was so beautiful and precious. His first wife was so jealous
of her because she never had to pull her own weight around the home. She
verbally abused the fat woman to the point she finally went to work in the
field. Once there she worked from the shade until she was chastised so much she
stepped into the sun. She melted on the spot with only her toe being left
behind. When her husband discovered the brutal treatment his beloved wife
endured at the hands of his first one he had her sent away and sold as a slave.
After three months of keeping the toe within a pot the fat woman sprung forth
as her former self. This was definitely an incredibly strange story and it didn’t
quite have a moral. The whole point was to illustrate that if a wife displeased
her husband she could be sold into slavery and the man would receive back the
amount he paid for the dowry. This was an odd story but kept me intrigued until
the very end!
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