As a sign of gratitude, I devote this week to that lady spokesperson of the family whose son got married to a daughter of my cousin, recently. In counselling the new couple, she stressed on patience and tolerance with an anecdote worth sharing. Her tale run thus, that once upon a time, there was a certain man who did not have any meaningful work to do at a time his wife became pregnant. He, therefore, with the consent of the wife decided to travel to a far-away place and would return home only after he had made sufficient money to guarantee their future. He accordingly set off and got employed as a labourer in some distant village. At the end of the year, he had saved GH¢1,000. He resolved to make about GH¢2O,OOO before he would return. Indeed, he annually saved GH¢1,000, which meant that he would have to work for a long time to realise his ambition. Back home, the wife delivered a bouncy baby boy, a perfect duplicate of her husband. She resolved never to allow any other man to touch her for as long as her husband remained on the journey. She thus showered the son with all the affection she could muster to keep her attention on her husband. She spent whatever money she could make on the boy who grew to be a handsome, respectable and humble teenager. One day, the man decided to count his savings and realised that he had GH¢18,000 which he felt was enough to take care of himself, the wife and the child, who was not born at the time he set out on his journey. He began to think about what they could do with the money, including putting up their own house. He then decided to inform his landlord about his desire to return home. The landlord blessed him, wished him safe return and God's blessing. But he told the returnee that he had something to be sold to him if he wished to buy since that would be useful during his journey back home. The landlord explained that he had three items and each cost GH¢6,000, meaning if the returnee agreed, then he would likely go home without money but with the items sold by the landlord. The returnee asked the landlord to give hit time to think over the matter. He could not sleep the whole night and wondered how the wife an the child would receive him after nearly 20 year absence. He resolved to buy whatever the land lord would offer and leave the rest to God since he knew that the love his wife had for him was boundless at the time he embarked on his journey. Next morning, he approached the landlord that he was willing to buy the items, but one after the other. So he brought out the GH¢6,OOO whereupon the landlord said, as he went back to his hometown, he must ensure that he kept his composure and closed his eyes to whatever enticements he met, not to touch or taste any such thing along the way. "Se wohunu ade biara a, fa wani hwe, mmfa wonsa nka". Only this for a whopping GH¢6,000, his toil for six good years. He felt cheated but nevertheless, because he had agreed to pay for the three items, he brought out another GH¢6,000 for the second item, to which the landlord, instead of ringing out any item, just told the returnee that s he travelled along the way, he must ensure that he greeted and opened up to all the people he let. "Nipa biara a wo be hyia no no, kyea no na asa neho". The returnee was distraught but kept his composure in the hope that the last item could be meaningful and substantial. So, he dished out another GH¢6,OOO for the third and final item. To his disbelief, the landlord did not present any item but further told him not to be hasty in his actions but to reflect upon whatever happened to him before he acted. "Mpe ntem mmbua asem". Before they parted ways, the landlord thanked him for all he did for him whilst he was his worker and assured him that he would soon begin to reap from what he had sowed. The returnee thanked the landlord and set out on his return journey. Soon the sun began to settle and night fell so went to the palace in the next village and and for a place to spend the night. The room he was given opened to the courtyard and as there was no door, he saw whatever happened. Just as he was about to sleep, he saw near naked young ladies parading in front of the room and asking if they could join him in the room. He woke up and just as he was about to invite one of the girls into the room, he remembered what the landlord told him, not to touch anything he saw. He slept soundly after and woke up early the next morning to see the chief standing in front of the room and congratulating him for resisting the ladies. The chief explained that whoever slept with any of the girls was slaughtered as a sacrifice to the stool and since he did not fall into the trap, his God was great. The chief showed him an adjoining room where the heads of all those who fell into the trap were kept. So, if he had not bought the story from his landlord, he would have been killed and the money not reached the wife. He expressed gratitude to the landlord. He thanked the chief and continued the journey until he reached another village, where he saw the young men playing all manner of games. He greeted them and was invited to participate in the games. In the end, the villagers were full of praise for the stranger who showed them respect and joined them in their games. They told him that all those who came to the village and did not greet always lost their way and remained in the village, but since he was different, they willingly showed him the way to get to his hometown. They told him that as he moved along the way, he would come across two adjoining streams and must endeavour to take water from one stream and pour it into the other stream and vice-versa and whatever came out would be a parting token for him and that after crossing the two streams the path would be straight. He thanked the villagers and soon came across the streams and did as directed, whereupon a big animal came from one of the streams, fell in the other stream, laid prostrate on the bridge and suddenly turned into a pot of gold. Since he had already been told what to do, he took the pot and headed home. It was late when he arrived and he went straight into the wife's house to deposit the pot of gold. But he was awe stricken when he saw the wife in bed with another man. As he reached his cutlass to kill the man and the wife, he remembered the landlord telling him never to act in haste and decided to go to his own house to sleep. Early the next morning, he complained to his brother about what he saw in the wife's room. They, knowing who the supposed man was, asked him to accompany them to the wife so that the matter could be settled. It was only after they met, that he realised that the man he saw was indeed his son, and that if he had acted otherwise, he would have murdered his wife and his own blood, the son, a taboo in their village which required banishment as a consequence. He sold the gold and realised so much money from which they built their own house, settled the wife and got the son capital to trade. That was hundreds of times the value of the GH¢18,000 he paid to his landlord and the family lived happily thereafter. And as is the norm in Akan folk tale, this is a tale shared by a witty Ghanaian woman, whether it is sweet or otherwise, some may take some away as others bring new tales to tell. Source: Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh