Liceo de Cagayan University

High School Department

S.Y. 2010-2011

A Synopsis of
African Folklore

 The Leopard
 The Eye of the Giant
 Big Kihou and Little Kihuo

Submitted By: Submitted To:

Hannah Villanueva Sir Richmond Bejaan
2- Aristophanes

Date: December 13, 2010

The Leopard
 (Folklore from Central Africa)

Setting: Jungle

Characters: Ki – he is the husband of Luetsi

Luetsi – Ki’s wife; the bravest among the three characters
Ntio – Ki’s brother

Conflict: Man vs. Animal

Plot:
Ki, a very short person, had married a Pygmy girl from another village, Luetsi. After a
year, Luetsi wished to visit her mother and Ki agreed and Ki gave Luetsi a piece of meat to take
to her mother, Ki cannot go with his wife, but he promise to fetch Luetsi.

Now it happened that Ki was bitten by a snake and he asked Ntio, Ki’s brother, to fetch
his wife.

When Ntio fetched Luetsi, there was a Leopard appearing and Ntio killed the Leopard.
Then Luetsi put Ki in a test on how brave Ki is and how much he love Luetsi.

As Luetsi lie down, Ntio run to his brother as much as he can. When Ntio arrived at the
village he repeated the words that Luetsi had told him. And suddenly Ki ran after his brother in
spite of his bad foot.

When they arrived at the jungle, Ki threw himself on the leopard, although he was
unarmed. And Luetsi rolled the dead beast over and stood up laughing.

Now Luetsi knew how much Ki love her.

Theme: “Love can’t always be feel, sometimes love can be seen by their
actions”

The Eye of the Giant

 (Folklore from Togoland)

Setting: hut and village

Characters: The giant, young man, young man’s brother, young man’s sister
young man’s sister slave and villagers

Conflict: Man vs. Man

Plot:
Long, long ago there was a young man searching for food, and he saw a giant. The giant
asked him what he wanted. The young man asked the giant to give him some food and the giant
agreed in one condition the young man would serve him for a while.

One day the young man grew homesick and begged his master to give him a short
holiday. The giant agreed in one condition, the young man should bring him another boy, so the
young man returned to his village and persuaded his brother to give to the giant.

In the course of time, the young man got hungry again and longed for meat so he left the
village and returned to his master. The giant asked him what he wanted and he wanted a good
meat, so the giant told him to enter the hut and eat as much as he liked in one condition the
young man would served his master again.

The young man continued work to the giant but he is surprise, he never saw his brother
and when he asked the giant, the giant told him that he was away on his business.

Once more the young man asked a favor to the giant for a leave to return to his village.
The giant agreed in one condition, he would bring a girl for him. He persuaded his sister to marry
the giant and the girl agreed.

Not very long after he got hungry and went to the giant. So he enters the hut and eats
what he wanted and once he saw the bone of his sister.

Thoroughly frightened, he returned to his village and told the elders. And the villagers
burned the giant’s hair and for a moment the giant was dead.
 When he is watching the dead giant he saw a “medicine”, and when they sprinkled the
medicine to the bones, the girls and boy returned to life at once. The young man tried to put the
medicine to the giant’s eye but he was afraid so he put the medicine to the giant’s eye and the
eye opened, people all fled away in terror. When the giant eye shut, a man dies. Unfortunately
the giant’s eye is forever blinking and winking.

Theme: “Don’t trust the people you don’t know yet”

 Big Kihuo and Little Kihuo

(Folklore from East Africa)

Setting: Tribunal Territory, Tribe

Characters: Kihuo, Orombo, Vakishamba people, chief

Conflict: Man vs. Man

Plot:

The story is about chief Kihuo who wanted to keep power over his tribe
even when he no longer deserved it. But his son, little Kihuo, who fought with
many tribes, was able to get the power from his father and gained great glory for
his tribe. The way Little Kihuo increased his inheritance makes this story
interesting. The end is particularly significant when he failed to win the battle
between Moshi Tribe. From that day, he never went to was again.

Theme: “Be contented with what you have”