Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Reading Diary B: Nigeria Unit


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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