OGWOLOGWO THE GREEDY DOG-- FOLKTALES FROM IGBOLAND

OGWOLOGWO THE GREEEDY DOG

FOLKTALES FROM IGBO LAND

Written by

Mazi Michael Ngozi Osuji.

Email; osujimichael60@gmail.com,

Tell; +2348033865418.

Once upon a time; there was a greedy dog named, Ogwologwo. Ogwologwo is a name sarcastically given to rascals in the society. So the dog in this story was indeed a rascal to other dogs in the village.

Ogwologwo was a slave dog to the gods. He was used  in sacrificing to the gods as a puppy before he grew into a big  and mighty dog. Everybody in the village knows that Ogwologwo was owned by the gods of the land; what was popularly known as ,”Nkita Amadioha”, that is, Amadioha’s dog..Amadioha was the Igbo goddess of thunder and lightning.

In those days live infant animals and fowls were offered as sacrifices to the gods. These sacrificial animals and fowls were always left to fend for themselves and roam the village as nobody owns them but the gods. It was believed that the gods who owns them would always take proper care of them so they always grew fatter than the domestic animals.

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The sacrificial animals and fowls were left to roam about the village either as, “nkita, eghu, okuko, aturu, or ehi Amadioha; that is either as dog, goat, fowl, sheep or cow owned by the gods. Everybody knows that such animals are owned by the gods, and so nobody dared to touch them.

They lived outside the homes, and were outstandingly bigger than the domestic animals and birds. The Ogwologwo dog was outstanding in size, when compared with other dogs in the village. He developed muscles which resembled those of the lion, and claws and jawbones similar to those of the tiger. His eyeballs were reddish, shining like those of the hunter’s headlamp.

Ogwologwo, the greedy dogs’ barking sounded like the howling of the tiger, and always sent shivers to the spine of other dogs in the village. He was greatly feared by other dogs. Though the Ogwologwo dog was a slave dog to the gods, other dogs were slaves as well but to human masters. They lived in the homes while the sacrificial animals and fowls lived in the open village.

Ogwologwo was very aggressive, and domineering to other dogs in the land. This made them to fear him greatly, including his overbearing and overpowering attitude towards them. Although, the other dogs had enough to eat because of the crump that felled from their masters’ tables, they still deemed it necessary to go hunting for bones outside the homes of their masters.

But Ogwologwo, the greedy dog, hardly went on bone hunting like the other dogs. All he could do was to wait for the other dogs to hunt bones, and he will overpower them and collect their bones and eat alone. Even though Ogwologwo, was a powerful dog, he was either too lazy to go hunting for his own bones to eat, or too proud to do so.

There were many dogs in the village; they were all scared of the greedy dog. His fangs were rather terrifying, and his sharp claws too deadly to dare. And so every dog feared and dreaded Ogwologwo the greedy dog. And so Ogwologwo lived and reigned like a king and a tyrant among the dogs. Other dogs would rather go hunting for bones only for him to snatch from them and eat.

THE OTHER DOG IN THE RIVER WITH A BONE

But one day the monkey went to the market and never returned. On that day a strange dog appeared in the village carrying a very fat bone in his mouth. The strange bone looked in every inch tantalizing and too tempting to ignore. In his usual overbearing character, Ogwologwo the greedy dog went after the strange dog and his strange bone, overpowered him, snatched the fat bone and ran away.

He then carried the strange bone in his mouth to the river bank to eat alone. “He who eats alone dies alone,” according to an Igbo adage. When the greedy dog got to the river bank, he met the strangest surprise of his entire greedy life. So Ogwologwo surprisingly saw another dog in the river with a tantalizing fat bone in his mouth similar to the one he was carrying in his own mouth. Little did he know that the dog in the river was his own reflection? It was his own shadow.

So he decided to overpower the dog in the river and have his bone as well. With the bone in his mouth, Ogwologwo, the greedy dog dived into the river only to discover to his chagrin that there was no dog in the river after all but the reflection and shadow of himself. Ogwologwo lost the bone in his mouth to the river while trying to snatch the none-existent bone from non- existent dog, and that was how he got himself drowned. Chakpii------woo!   

The End

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