African Alarm

As I previously mentioned, my Kapchorwa homestay sister, Stella, would often tell Emily and I African stories before we would go to bed. Most of them were about the hare, which is believed to be the cleverest animal. Some of them I didn’t understand, but all of them were hilarious. I’m going to attempt to retell my favorite story. I wish you could have heard Stella tell it, but I guess that experience will have to remain forever only in my memories.


“One day, Hare grew very hungry. He was a long way from home and didn’t have any food, but as luck would have it he happened upon the house of Hyena. Hyena lived at the top of a mountain and had lots of land, so Hare proposed that together they plow the land, plant grain, and produce food. Hyena was desperately in need of help with so much land, so he welcomed Hare into his home. The next morning when they were supposed to start planting, though, Hare told Hyena he was feeling sick and couldn’t work. So Hyena went into the fields by himself. With each new day, Hare come up with a new excuse to avoid the work. By the time of harvest, Hare had done almost no work. Hyena grew very angry about this and decided to kick Hare out of the house and not allow him to take any of the grain. But Hare learned of Hyena’s plan and left in the middle of the night, taking all the grain with him.

The next morning, Hare happened upon Chicken. Chicken saw that Hare was carrying grain and mentioned that she was very hungry. Hare decided he was willing to share his grain with Chicken, so He opened up the bag and they proceeded to eat all the grain. As Chicken sat there happy, full and content, Hare devised another plan, for Hare is very clever. He looked at Chicken and said “now you’ve eaten all my grain. Only the grain didn’t actually belong to me. The grain was Hyena’s. What am I going to do now? I have nothing to give to him and it’s your fault, Chicken.” Chicken grew scared at the idea of facing Hyena, so she decided she would give Hare a panga (African term for machete) in exchange for the grain.

Taking the panga, Hare continued on his way. It wasn’t long before he came upon Zebra, who was standing next to a cow pen. Hare approached Zebra and asked what he was doing. Zebra sighed and said “I need to slaughter this cow, but have nothing sharp to use.” Hare, being very clever indeed, offered Zebra the panga to use. While slaughtering the cow, though, the panga broke. Seeing this, Hare exclaimed “You have broken my panga! Only it isn’t actually my panga. The panga belongs to Chicken. Now what am I going to give Chicken in exchange for her broken panga?” Zebra felt bad, so he asked Hare what he would want in exchange. Hare thought carefully, then offered to take the cow’s head in exchange for the panga. Happily, Zebra handed over the cow’s head.

Hare then made is way to the closest river. After checking the surrounding area for people, Hare walked out into the river and buried the cow’s head until only the horns were sticking up above the waves. Then he became to scream the African Alarm, “Ooo-Wee! Ooo-wee!” (In Africa, any time the “African Alarm” is heard everyone comes running. The alarm varies depending on where you’re at. It is even different in Mukono and Kapchorwa). As expected, everyone nearby came running. Cleverly, Hare ran along the edge of the river acting nervous. “I was leading my cow across the river,” he told everyone. “When I we were almost across, my poor cow sunk deep into the ground. You must help me get it out!” Because it is Africa and everyone helps everyone, all those around the river ran to find a rope. When one was found, they tied the rope around the horns and began to pull, trying to save the poor cow. When they pulled, though, the cow’s head flew out of the river and landed on the bank.

Crying out in agony, Hare pretended to lament the death of his cow. He quickly explained to everyone that the cow didn’t actually belong to him. He was in need of the cow because he owed Hyena something after taking his grain. He said that because this was the village’s river and it had taken his cow, the village owed him the cow so Hyena wouldn’t get mad at him. Feeling responsible, the village quickly found a cow to give Hare.

Hare took the cow and walked away, content with all that his cleverness and yielded to him.

The End.”


I realize this may not be as funny in writing as it was hearing it from Stella, but I didn’t want to forget this story…nor did I want to forget sitting on my bed in our dirt/manure walled room, laughing hysterically as Stella described the cow’s head flying out of the river. Though the story didn’t really have much of a point, it is one story I hope I never forget.