Kone
Illustrated By: Jesse Einhorn-Johnson
THIS LEGEND IS FROM THE LAND OF MALI over a thousand years ago. It took place at a village called Segou, where an old woman named Kone lived in a hut with her granddaughter at the outskirts of town.
For years, villagers had brought food and gifts to Kone and the girl to help them get by. However they no longer took the time to visit. They had become busy with their own lives and no longer thought about Kone. But Kone thought about them all the time.
Without help from the villagers, Kone became bitter and her heart turned stone cold. If she had to suffer and could no longer live with dignity, then all the people of the village would suffer, too.
Little did the people of Segou realize that Kone had the power to summon magic. One day at sunrise, Kone stretched her arms to the rising sun and called: "Let them all learn what it means to be hungry! No more rain shall fall on the village of Segou. The crops shall wither in the fields. Let them all know the meaning of fear!"
At that moment, a ghost-like image of a buffalo appeared and pawed the ground. The old woman had created a double of herself. She was the buffalo, even as she continued to live with her granddaughter in their hut. While as the buffalo, she roamed in the forest, attacking and killing hunters.
Indeed, the people of Segou began to know hunger. A few weeks without rain stretched into two months. The crops shriveled in the fields. Worse, hunters who ventured into the forest in pursuit of game were never seen again. A few hunters who had escaped told about a huge, ferocious buffalo that couldn't be killed - arrows simply bounced off its thick hide.
With a drought in the fields and a monster in the woods, the people became desperate. They clamored to their Chief, and the Chief of Segou sent a call for help to all neighboring kingdoms.
In a far-off village lived two brothers, Kirama and his younger brother Kankejan. They heard the plea for help and decided to go.
"My sons, beware," said their father, "This is no ordinary trouble. The crop at Segou has dried for lack of rain, but our village and all the other villages around Segou have had plenty of rain. There's a monster in the forest at Segou that's killing hunters, but no such monster threatens hunters in forests anywhere else. Mark my words, my sons, Segou is under some kind of enchantment or curse. If you go, you must first visit the wise man Sambo. He has magical powers and can help you."
The brothers went to see Sambo. The wise man brought out his divining tray, put sand in it, moved the sand about with his fingers, and read its meaning.
He spoke: "This is a dangerous mission. The buffalo can be defeated, but not by regular arrows, traps, or heroics. Your mission will be successful only if you show consideration and respect to others. If you succeed, the people of the village will offer you gold and your choice of a bride. You must request something different. I cannot tell you what it will be, only that in the course of your travels you will discover it."
So Kirama and Kankejan thanked the wise man Sambo and traveled to the village of Segou. On the outskirts of the village they passed a very old woman lifting firewood.
"Grandmother," said Kirama. "Let us help you." The old woman was Kone.
"Grandmother," said Kirama. "Let us help you."
With her magical powers, she knew that the two young men had come to kill the buffalo.
"Don't trouble yourselves!" she said. "I can manage."
"Of course you can," said Kankejan, not wishing to offend her, "but we're headed the same way you're headed and it's no trouble for us to carry things. Besides, it's not right that a woman of your years should have to work so hard. We'll take two loads, since there are two of us."
"I don't have time to talk," she said, gathering an armful of wood and heading to her hut. "Some of us have to work."
The brothers each hoisted a load of wood and followed her to her hut.
They set down their loads outside her door.
"I didn't ask you to bring that," she snapped. "I'm sure you have better things to do."
"Grandmother, there is nothing else we would rather do," said Kirama, and they went on their way.
The Chief of Segou greeted them warmly and invited them to a welcome feast in their honor. For not many men from the surrounding villages had responded to his call for help.
The Chief of Segou greeted them warmly and invited them to a welcome feast in their honor.
In those days, certain parts of meat had special significance. One member of a family might be entitled to the breast, or to the leg, and so forth. The banquet featured chicken with savory rice and the brothers set aside a chicken breast and a leg, as well as some milk and kola nuts, and took it to Kone.
They found her outside, hauling a bucket of water.
"Grandmother," said Kankejan, "we brought you some chicken from dinner tonight. Enjoy it while my brother takes your water inside."
"Stop calling me 'Grandmother,'" said Kone. "I am not your grandmother, though I see you brought me the breast and that is set aside for the grandmother. You brought me a leg, and that is set aside for the sister. I am not your grandmother or your sister."
But tradition says that one must accept meat when offered as a gift, even from one's enemies. So Kone accepted it. While Kirama took the water inside, Kankejan said, "Here's milk for you to wash it down. And some kola nuts."
She grumbled, "You think of everything, don't you?" But she drank the milk and put the kola nuts in her pockets to give to her granddaughter.
She grumbled, "You think of everything, don't you?"
Every day after that, the brothers visited Kone and brought gifts each time - fruits, nuts, milk, and other treats. She gave up protesting, since they only insisted on doing chores and would do them anyway. On the fifth day, she went to visit them. They talked for a long time and the brothers begin to sense something magical about the old woman. When it was time to leave, it was dark and they insisted on walking her back to her hut. Outside her door, she turned.
"I know who you are. But you do not know who I am. You have come to kill the buffalo. What you don't know is that I am the buffalo."
Her voice rose. "The people of Segou abandoned me and left me to fend for myself - I, an old woman who can no longer farm or fish! It was easy for them to forget about a tired old woman and her granddaughter. Now they, too, know the meaning of suffering!"
She paused. "There is something important I must tell you, but first we must go outside the village to the bush." In those days any contract or important knowledge had to be discussed outside the edge of the village, beyond the bush, where the land is neutral. So they went there and she went on.
"I will tell you how to kill the buffalo because you have treated me with respect. Everyone else in the village abandoned me to the crumbs of life, a life without dignity - they can die for all I care! But now I'm ready to die myself knowing that I have been shown the respect I am due."
"I will tell you how to kill the buffalo because you have treated me with respect."
Before I tell you how to kill the buffalo," said Kone, "you must promise to look after my granddaughter. She may look helpless with her hunchback, but she is not. She will express her desire, and you must promise to do everything in your power to fulfill it."
They said, "Yes, we agree."
"Good," the old woman nodded. She gave them a staff, a twig, a stone and an egg. "Tomorrow morning as the sun is rising," she said, "follow the south trail past the village until you see a long grove of trees on the savannah on your right." She told them that they must replace the metal tip of their arrow with the shaft of the staff, as that is the only weapon that will be able to pierce her skin and injure her.
She went on to say that once she is struck, she will no longer recognize them and will seek to kill them. That it when they must throw down the twig, and it will turn into a thick forest. However she will clear the forest and catch up with them. Then, they must throw down the stone and that will become a mountain to again slow her down. Having cleared the hurdle of the mountain, she will resume the chase. As they see her charging toward them they must throw down the last protective item, the egg, and that will become a large lake.
"When I am drinking," Kone ended her instructions, "is when I will have my final moment of life."
"When I am drinking," Kone ended her instructions, "is when I will have my final moment of life."
The old woman turned away and walked back to her house.
The two brothers also returned home. "Can it be true?" asked Kankejan of his older brother. Then, the older one Kirama, said, "What if it's a trick?"
"We know there's something strange about that old woman. To send us to the buffalo like this could mean sending us to our deaths. We would be fools to go along!"
"Though," said Kankejan slowly, "Sambo said we could not succeed with regular arrows. And everyone has said arrows don't work against the buffalo anyway. For as long as we've been here, no one else has given us any other ideas. Let's follow her advice, just as she said."
The next morning, well before dawn, the two brothers took the old woman's staff, twig, stone and egg. They replaced the metal tip of their arrow with the shaft of the staff. They followed the south trail to the first grove of trees on the savannah to the right. Indeed, just as the sun was rising, a huge buffalo with black hide and silver horns appeared and all that Kone had said would happen, came to pass.
When she, as the buffalo, stopped to drink water from the lake to quench her thirst, she mooed loudly four times. Hearing her loud mooing, the hunters turned around and saw the buffalo take a drink, then moo several more times before kneeling down and dying. Kankejan cut off the tail of the buffalo, which was gold, and took it straight to the Chief of Do.
As they shoed the Chief the buffalo's tail as proof that the monster was truly dead and relayed what had happened, They returned to the village, straight to the chief's hut, rain drops started to splatter against the outside of the hut. By the time they left the chief's hut, the rainfall was heavy. The two young men became heroes in Segou.
As was the custom, the chief hosted a grand victory celebration. At the end, he presented the two hunters with gold as was the stated reward, as well as the right to select a bride from among the finest maidens of the land. Instead, Kirama said, "O generous Chief, there is an old woman who lives at the edge of the village with her granddaughter. The old woman has died and we promised to take care of the granddaughter. She has a certain desire, though we know not what. Might we bring her to you, O Chief, and ask if you are able, that you fulfill her wish?"
"She has a certain desire, though we know not what."
The Chief, not unhappy to keep his gold, agreed. "The granddaughter of the old woman who just died?" said the Chief. "She lived in a shabby house and dresses in filthy rags. Very well, bring her if you must."
The granddaughter proved even harder to understand than the hunters thought. On their journey back to the Chief's hut, whenever Kirama or Kankejan tried to talk to hunched-over girl or approach her, she would transform into a porcupine. For as they learned, she too, had the power like her grandmother to shape-sift.
"So," said the Chief, trying to avert his eyes in looking at her, "I understand you have a desire and I have pledged to fulfill it if I can."
"Chief, my desire is to marry you," said she. "Together we will provide an extraordinary gift to the land."
The Chief tried in vain to get a look at the girl, for she stayed kneeling, her head lowered. Something in her voice softened the Chief's heart and after all, he had given his word, and so they were married.
Kone's granddaughter proved to be a wise companion and a good wife. She saw to it that the two hunters were well rewarded. The Chief lived happily with his bride all their years and over time they had children.
One of their children became the legendary hero Keita Sundiata, the famous warrior who united Mali in the thirteenth century and made of it a great empire.
