Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Week 6 Reading Diary A: Nigeria


I chose to do my reading this week over the Nigeria unit. Many of the stories offered explanations as to why certain things were the way they are.  I always enjoy stories like this because it shows the curiosity that the people of these older times had in wanting to learn about the world around them. In this unit the Nigerian people explained why the elephant has such small eyes, why the sun and moon take residence in the sky, and why cats eat mice; amongst other things. My favorite was probably The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull. This is probably the most bizarre story I have read so far in this class. The story starts off with a very beautiful woman who felt she was too good for all of the suitors that approached her despite her parents’ wishes.  She felt she deserved the most handsome man in all the land and nothing less because of how beautiful she was. A Skull from a far off spiritland fell in love with the woman from afar and concocted a plan to win her over. He borrowed the best looking body parts from the different people in his land and went on a journey to meet the woman. With all the best looking body parts he was easily the most attractive man in all of the land and ended up marrying the woman. He took her back to the spiritland then had to give the body parts back to the others. The woman realized what a terrible mistake she had made but was stuck with him. She was tasked with taking care of the skulls frail old mother. The old woman grew very fond of her and told her that all of the people of the spiritland were cannibals and sent her back home to protect. The woman went on to find a new husband and live a long and happy life. Sound strange? It certainly did to me but it gave me a pretty good storytelling idea for later on in the week!

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