My story is a parable about the dangers of number-crunching out of context.
Be Careful How You Count:
A Tortoise Tale from Cameroon
Tortoise was hungry. He was always hungry. He lived with his mother. Tortoise would bring food to their house. His mother would cook the food, and Tortoise would eat the food, and then his mother would eat the food that was left. Tortoise was always hungry, and his mother was always hungry too.
One day Tortoise went and fetched home seven baskets of greens. "Cook the greens, Mother!" said Tortoise. "And hurry up please! I am hungry. I am VERY hungry."
Mother Tortoise hustled and bustled and soon she brought the cooked greens out from the kitchen. There were now three baskets of greens, and she put them on the table where Tortoise was waiting.
Tortoise shouted, "Where are the rest of them?" Tortoise then pounded his fist on the table. "I brought home seven baskets of greens. And I told you I was hungry! Bring me the other greens. NOW!"
"What other greens are you talking about, silly boy?" said Mother Tortoise.
Tortoise knew that his mother must have eaten the other four baskets of greens, and that made him angry. They argued back and forth and back and forth until Tortoise finally got so angry that he picked up a stone, hit her on the head, and killed her.
(a stone)
Tortoise then ate the three baskets of greens, and he was still hungry afterwards. "At least she won't be stealing my food any more," he thought to himself.
The next day Tortoise went and brought home another seven baskets of greens. There was no more mother to cook for him, so Tortoise had to cook the greens himself. He put the seven baskets of greens in the pot, and when they were ready he took them out.
There were three baskets of greens.
So Tortoise began to yell at the pot. "You greedy pot!" he shouted. "How dare you eat my greens?"
But then Tortoise thought some more, and he understood what had happened. He had killed his mother for nothing.
This made Tortoise feel so bad that he picked up the same stone, hit himself on the head, and died.
The moral of the story: Not all baskets are the same. Be careful how you count.
~ ~ ~
This story is my retelling of a folktale from Cameroon as found in this book: Tortoise the Trickster and Other Folktales from Cameroon by Loreto Todd, published in 1979.
I added the part about Tortoise getting angry at the pot; the rest of the story is the same as the version in Todd's book, retold in my own words. Here is the moral of the story in the book: "That is why Tortoise died, because he had forgotten that a mother cannot steal from her own child." For my moral, I wanted to make the connection to the dangers of number-crunching in education, especially when people take the data out of context.
About Cameroon: Cameroon is located on the west coast of central Africa; it is sometimes classified as a central African nation, and sometimes as west Africa. You can learn more at Wikipedia.
About Tricksters. The name "trickster" emphasizes intelligence, but tricksters are also notable for being greedy, selfish, and cruel, as you can see in this story.
About Tortoise: There are stories about tortoise the trickster in many African cultures, and enslaved African storytellers brought those stories with them to the United States, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. If you would like to read some African American stories about the trickster turtle, you can find a selection here: African American turtle stories.
About Loreto Todd: Loreto Todd (born in 1942) is a linguist specializing in English pidgins and creoles. You can read more about her work here: Loreto Todd. She collected the stories told in Cameroonian Pidgin English, and then presented them in standard English in this book. It is a wonderful collection of folktales; highly recommended! It's out of print, but there are used copies at ABE and at Amazon.
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