Week 9 Story: How the Hyena Got its Laugh

Authors Note: This week I read tons of Nigerian Folk Tales. Most of these stories came from Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell. I found these stories to be very engaging, for most of them provided and explanation of why something is the way it is today, like thunder and lighting for example. I would like to write my own folk tale to explain something, using the models of several Nigerian folk tales. I did some research and found a page called Gateway Africa. African folk tales usually have a moral point to them or are used to educate, entertain, or explain an animal behavior. In animal tales, a certain animal would always have the same character role in each story as to limit confusion. For example, the Hare is always the trickster, while the Hyena was always being tricked by the Hare. I decided to write a story explaining how the hyena got its laugh.

Long ago in the Sahara Desert lived a family of royal hippos. These hippos lived a glorious life. They ruled the water hole, and all animals worshiped at their feet. Well, almost all of them. The hyenas always did whatever they pleased. They were greedy little creatures who always stole from others. They were perfectly able to hunt, but always lingered around and stole others prey.

The hippos were tired of getting complaints about about these pesky creatures, so they held a meeting with their royal servants, the hares. The hares were clever creatures, and always had the best solutions to the desert's issues.

"What are we going to do about these hyenas? They are causing chaos across the Sahara! I am sick and tired of hearing complaints about them!" said the Queen Hippo.

"Should we ban them from our Kingdom?" said the King Hippo.

"How would we maintain such a band? We all know how sneaky those scum bags are!" said the Queen.

"What if we tricked them and taught them a lesson?" said the Hare.

"What are you thinking?" said the Queen.

"What if we tricked them into stealing the Lion's food. We could poison their pray with laughing serum. This serum will make them laugh uncontrollable in awkward situations. They will struggle to ever sneak up on people again!" suggested the Hare.

"Oh what a wonderful idea!!! Yes lets do that! Where do we get this laughing serum?" asked the King.

"Oh I know a guy, don't worry about it I'll take care of it" said the Hare.

And so the Hare bounced off to get the serum. To this day no one knows exactly where the Hare received such a curse. The Hare went to the lions, and asked them to catch an antelope. They did as they were told and then the Hare spread the serum all over the prey. The lions pretended to leave the antelope unattended, and sure enough the hyenas were soon there to snatch it.

The Hyenas dragged the antelope to the bushes and feasted furiously like they always do. Soon enough, they were all laughing uncontrollably. No mater how hard they tried, they could not stop laughing! The Hippos and the Hare heard this in the distance and laughed hard themselves. Their plan had worked. Over the next few weeks, the Hare continued to poison the lions prey until all the hyenas had consumed this laughing serum.

To this day, the Hyena still laughs often and in awkward situations.

Hyena Laughing Source: Pixabay Images