Some villagers were playing the game of ayo under a tree. Elder Chinedu, one of the spectators, jokingly called one of the players “Sadiku Okanjuwa”. Everybody burst into laughter, because the spectators were not on his side. This joked seriously annoyed him but he had to control his anger. In the tradition of the game, nobody should fight another over such a joke.
All of them remembered the story of Sadiku Okanjuwa. He was a hunter, a very powerful hunter but he was very greedy. Anytime he went on hunting with other village hunters, he usually claimed the biggest share. Other hunters were not happy about this but they kept quiet.
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One day, they went on a village hunting. They were to kill bush animals for the New Year celebration. All hunters in the village went into the bush with their dogs. Each of them was to submit whatever he killed. As they were beating the bush and blowing whistles to force the animals out of their hiding places, a big snake ran towards where Okanjuwa was watching.
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Okanjuwa quickly drew out his cutlass and killed the snake. He found that the snake was very big and fleshy. He decided to keep it for himself. He was successful about it.
Okanjuwa got home. He called his wife to cook the snake specially for him. He bought a gourd of palm wine and sat down to eat the meat.
He did not even share it with his wife and children. A few minutes later, Okanjuwa noticed some movement in his stomach. He felt like vomiting. He could no longer endure the pains. He shouted for help.
Many of his friends who were also hunters came around to help him. His wife told them what happened and presented to them the head of the snake. “Yeh pa”, one of the hunters shouted. “This is a poisonous snake”, he added.
All the efforts made to help Okanjuwa failed. He died eventually. As punishment for his greed, he was buried in the bush.
QUESTIONS:
What game was going on in this passage?
What was the tradition of the game?
The story told in the passage was about who?
What quality of Okanjuwa was bad?
Can you the passage another title?
What lesson can you draw from this passage?
What did the villagers do to show that they hated greed?
