The Acrimonious, Gauche, and Incongruous
‘Ajantala’
By
Gregory V. Boulware
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.
It is the opium of the people
~Karl Marx~
~”It is Glorious – This History of Ours”~
~Langston Hughes~
One day while playing together, he and his sister decided to play hospital.
“You be the doctor and I’ll be the nurse,” she said. After playing together for a long while, he said aloud, “Maybe I’ll be a real doctor someday. I like to help people.”
It was raining that day. They had to play inside. The time spent after play, allowed for thought time.
“Is that really what you want to be when you grow up, Danny?”
‘Danny,’ Daniel Hale Williams discussed the possible endeavor many times. When old enough, he worked hard to earn money to attend college to become a doctor.
Everyone was proud of ‘Dr. Dan.’ His placement in the much desired environment saved many lives. One day, a badly injured man entered the hospital where he worked. He was in extreme distress. Dr. Dan operated on his heart and saved his life.
The president of the United States asked him to come to Washington, D. C. and teach his techniques to other doctors. President Grover Cleveland was very proud of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams of Hollidaysville, Pennsylvania.
He became a surgeon at Provident Hospital in Chicago. The man with the heart problem was stabbed. Everyone thought the man would surely die. That is, everyone except Dr. Dan. It was found that the man was still bleeding internally. Dr. Dan opened the wound and found that the man had been stabbed in the heart. There was a hole in the man’s heart that was causing the bleeding. Dr. Dan decided to try to save him. He operated and saved him…he operated and sewed up the knife wound in the man’s heart. He then replaced the heart with its own walls while it continued beating. The operation required great skill, great daring, and a great doctor. The Black Man, who happened to be a master surgeon, sewed up the wound in the man’s heart, thus becoming the first successful operation on ‘Open Heart Surgery.’
Dr. Dan was offered the position as head of ‘Freeman Hospital.’ He held that position from 1894 to 1898 when he returned to Chicago and private practice. He also continued practicing at ‘Cook County and Saint Luke’s Hospitals until his death in 1931. Dr. Dan was also elected a fellow of ‘The American College of Surgeons in 1913. This was a great honor. He is regarded as one of America’s greatest physicians.
~”This History of Ours – It is Glorious”~
The Acrimonious, Gauche, and Incongruous ‘AJANTALA’
Another version of the legend as suggested by
‘DO Fagunwa’ from “Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole”
A most noxious intruder, aka, a guest, named:
‘Ajantala’ was born in a Nigerian Village. “A hunter once lived in this village,” writes Amos Tutuola, “who had a wife.” Mr. Tutuola’s version of this story is included within a group of poems, essays, and stories from ‘Senegal’ to ‘Capetown’ by Brother Langston Hughes’, ‘An African Treasury.’
While she was pregnant, old people of the village warned him. They told him to “stop killing the bush animals. If you continue to do so, you will kill the baby that your wife is soon to deliver. When it is time, she will deliver a terrible creature in the form of a baby, but it will not be a baby.”
After the people had gone back to their houses, the hunter replied, “That is pure superstition.”
Other hunters did entirely stop killing animals until after their wives had delivered so that they might not kill their wives’ babies who possibly had changed to the form of bush animals and after that gone to the bush.
When the hunter’s wives’ time had come, she delivered a male baby.
“I will not keep here long before I go back to Heaven! Ha! Ha! Ha! This is how the world is! What did I come here for? I thought this world would be as beautiful as Heaven, from where I came! Look at everything. How it is very dirty! Of course, I will not keep long before I go back to Heaven!” exclaimed the baby immediately after coming down from his mother’s womb.
Having said that, he stood up from the blood and walked with trembling feet around his mother’s room.
“Ha! Look at this ‘Baby,’ standing here and walking all at the same time He is born!” The people all exclaimed with embarrassment. “Heigh! I’ve never seen a woman give birth to such a terrible baby as this one!” screamed the suffering woman.
And when he took the soap and sponge and washed from himself all the blood and goo away from his body, he wrapped himself in an article of clothing owned by his mother. He then sat upright atop a high stool and looked at the people. He looked into everyone’s eyes with his ungrateful red eyes.
“Ha! I am badly hungry for food. What can I eat now?” He then started to sniff the sweet smell of food which was inside the room nearest his mother’s room.
“Yes, I am glad, I shall get better food from this room; I’d better go in now.”
The room was filled with guests of the homes’ owner. He did not care. Without bearing fear of all the people and their wonder and surprised filled eyes, he stood up and entered the room. He ate all of the food. Food that was intended for thirty-five people or more. After that he kicked all of the pots, pans, dishes, and plates from the table. They shattered upon contact with the walls and floor. They shattered into hundreds of pieces. He then came out and sat down in the middle of the people who were looking on with withered hands and lips.
“Good evening to you good mother of this newly born baby! Thanks be to God who has helped you deliver him safely. We hope you have not any complaint after its birth?” The people of the village, craven as they were, were not thoroughly foolish, they knew when and to whom homage is paid. Hearing the news of the birth, they came to greet the mother and to see how the baby was.
“There is not any complaint at all and thanks be to God for that!” replied the unhappy mother.
“Without a doubt, this is not a real baby but a spirit of one of the animals which his father, the hunter, had killed.”
The people were saying so on their way when returning to their homes.
In the morning of the seventh day that he was born, several old people gathered in his father’s parlor, just to give him a name. This must be done even though he was terribly evil.
Then he walked into the place of worship and sat himself down in the middle of the people, and he was looking into everyone’s eyes as they were praying.
“Long live the baby, and may he – .”
But to their horror, when they were about to announce the name which his father, the hunter, wished the old ones to name him, the baby himself announced very loudly and clearly to the masses, “My name is ‘Ajantala,’ the Shrine, the Rock from Heaven, and there is no need to give me another!”
The people sighed and mumbled with anger, fear, and wonder. Then the kolas, honey, a large quantity of alligator pepper and drinks of palm, rice, guinea, plantation, corn wine, and plenty of bitter kolas were brought before the people in the spirit of celebration. For all these were served at the naming ceremony.
But when they were about to start to eat the food and drink the kolas, Ajantala unexpectedly jumped up high and pierced one of the people with a sharp iron spike. And when he turned to stab another, before he was pierced like the first, he was successful in escaping through the door as did the rest of the party. All of the people had rushed to the outside. All were running away as fast as they could. He then chased them for a short distance before returning to the house.
“There is no wonder, no doubt this baby! It must be the terrible spirit of a wild animal. Of course we forewarned his father to stop killing animals, except after his wife had delivered her baby. But he did not heed our warning; he refused to listen to those who know – the old ones. Now this is the result of his ignorance and insolent behavior.” Said the people of the village.
“Oh yes! This is a thick long stick.” Ajantala took it from the ground and slammed the door behind him. He then began to flog his father and the rest of the family with the stick severely. The rest of the family had no idea of the time when they forced open the door and ran away. He did not touch his mother.
“What more is there to do? Yes, there are still many things to do.”
Remembering what the next thing to do was, he took and ax and started to chop down the wall.
“Ha! Stop that,” his mother shouted.
“Oh! Defiant are you bitch? I see that this means that you have no sense either, you’re in need of a lesson too! All right, I will teach you some good sense now as I have taught all the others.” And then he gave his mother seven slaps across her face. She was flabbergasted.
“Aha! Ajantala, you are an evil and cruel boy, and you are slapping your mother,” exclaimed a man who stood witness to the incident from outside the house.
Before the man could finish saying what he was espousing, Ajantala let his mother be and jumped over and across the veranda railing to the outside and gave the man seven slaps across his face.
“Hai! Ajantala, stop that!” exclaimed another man standing near and witnessing the same as the man before him. He was appalled at the wicked deeds of this foul and cruel boy and his awful deeds. But to everyone’s chagrin, as soon as the man said Hai! His mouth was split and cut open nearly to the nape of his neck and hairline. The man fell back in pain, horror, and silence. He was very fearful that this devil of a boy would surely kill him if he uttered another word.
Now, Ajantala became so fearful that all of the people of the village shunned him and avoided going near his fathers’ house. His nother had nearly died from all the trouble caused by this twisted image of a sweet boy.
This world is NOT OUR HOME – WE ARE ONLY TENANTS – WE ARE HERE TEMPORARILY!
“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord, OUR GOD (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, and any other so-called religious denomination) lives.” (Philippians 3:20)
At last, one morning, she took Ajantala to a very far bush. She gave him plenty of the sweet fruits to eat.
“Please Ajantala, stand near this tree and wait there until I come back for you. Do not worry, I shall return for you before too long and take you home to the village. For I am going farther into the bush to fetch our food for the dinner repast. Tricking and lying to him, she left him there and went back to the village alone.
“Where is Ajantala?” his father softly asked for fear of being overheard by his son.
“I have left that terrible boy in the bush.”
“And he agreed to stay there?” the father asked in wonder.
“Yes, he agreed, by trick and treason.” the mother responded smiling.
“I thank you for that. You see, it is indeed truly helpful sometimes to pay heed to the warnings of the old ones, for they are the wisest and most knowledgeable of all.”
“What do you mean by saying so, my dear?” his wife calmly asked.
“The meaning is that several old people did warn me to stop killing bush animals while we were pregnant. And Ajantala is the end result of my not listening and learning from them. I do believe he is one of the animals which I had killed during the period of our pregnancy.”
“Ho-o-o-o! No wonder things have happened the way that they did!” The wife now knew the reason why Ajantala was acting the way he did and then she too believed that he was truly not a human being but a demon from hell though he claimed to come from Heaven.
After Ajantala had waited, waited, and waited for quite a long, long time under the shady tree, which his mother did not return for him. It was dark now. And then it was morning again before he started to travel and wander about. He did travel and wander all about the land until he came upon a small house that was built in the heart of the bush. A corn farm surrounded the house, and both, the house and farm belonged to three brothers. Their names were Mr. Lion, Monkey, and Goat who was the eldest. There were human beings in those days. The two species did learn to live and dwell in harmony. The three brothers resided comfortably in that small house, in the middle of the bush with comfort and tranquility.
“Good day to you sirs,” said Ajantala, walking zigzag into the house, saluting the three family members who sat there enjoying their leisure hours.
“Hello and good day to you too, boy!” Mr. Goat replied, returning the salutation while the others simply looked at Ajantala, expecting him to say what they thought he would say. He appeared to be well spent and void of intrepidness.
“I am a wayfarer who cannot reach his destination today and probably not for two or three weeks more. Therefore, I would beseech thee to allow me to rest. I shall be grateful and indeed obliged if you will allow me to stay here with you as a guest for a few days. I will continue my journey after that, after I have rested.” Ajantala asked for this obligation humbly with all due respect, as if he were a good boy. A charlatan, he would have them think and believe that is the case.
“Of course, we may have mercy on you to let you stay with us for the few days you request. You are very young and weary,” said Mr. Goat on behalf of the rest.
“Many and all thanks be unto you kind sirs, and God!” Ajantala postulated.
So he was allowed to stay with them. He was eating and doing everything with them.
Having seen this luxurious living, a few days later, Ajantala asked, “Please, sirs, I would like to discontinue my journey and become a servant to you. I shall be complying with all of your demands, requests, and orders from this moment on,” and the three brothers agreed.
The following morning, Ajantala followed Mr. Goat to the farm to fetch their food. Having collected plenty of fruits and placed into the basket, Mr. Goat told Ajantala to carry it.
“Oh, what did you say Mr. Goat?” And Mr. Goat repeated what he told him to do.
“Ho! Ho! Ho! Is that what you mean for me to do? Be your slave and to do your selfish bidding at your command? Well, alright, I shall teach you a lesson that you’ll not soon forget – I’ll teach you some good sense right now! Mr. Goat looked at him intently. He had no feat of him albeit; he didn’t like the look in his eyes. He knew that Ajantala was too small to cause him any harm.
“Happa, Humpa, Dumpa,” Ajantala sang as he walked like a crab for a short distance. He came back with a handful of dirt and threw it into the eyes of Mr. Goat. As he staggered back and fumbled about for help, Ajantala struck him on the forehead with a heavy stone. And then Mr. Goat fell down. A large quantity of blood was dripping down from the wound on his head. After a few minutes, Ajantala provided Mr. Goat with a helping hand from the floor. After helping him to his to a standing position, he then placed the filled basket on the head of the goat.
As they traveled along the road, on the way back to the house, Ajantala warned and threatened Mr. Goat not to tell a living soul about what happened to him on the farm. Reluctantly, the goat agreed, otherwise he would harm him more severely.
“Ah! Mr. Goat, what has happened to your head and eyes?” asked the rest of the family when they entered the house.
“It was a big stone that fell upon me,” he replied.
The following day, it was Mr. Monkey’s turn to go and the same done to him. And so too did he to Mr. Lion in tandem. All this happened to them at the farm and returned home to the small house in the heart of the bush.
Over time, these three brothers grew tired and was fed up with the living conditions bestowed upon them by Ajantala. He was too terrible and powerful for them.
One night, when Ajantala had gone to bed, they did not know that he never fell asleep. First, Mr. Goat said, “I am afraid, Ajantala is a noxious guest, and if we don’t find a way to escape from him, one day he will kill us all.”
“Certainly, he will kill all of us one day,” Mr. Goat added.
“But I suggest that the better thing to do now is to pack all of our belongings and leave this house tomorrow morning. I am sure before we go, he will not wake, and we shall go far to a place that he will not be able to follow or trace us,” Mr. Lion quietly suggested.
“Yes, you are right, Mr. Lion, and it will be better if we pack our belongings and food into some baskets now. And by five o’clock in the morning leave here and never look back,” said the other two. At the same time, they packed all their belongings into two baskets and put plenty of food in as well. This would serve as fuel and nourishment along the way.
Having done that, they went to bed and slept. But Ajantala heard every word…all of their discussions and plans. He stood up cautiously and began to wrap himself with dried bread leaves and put himself in one of the baskets, well hidden at the bottom under the food.
By five o’clock, the three brothers woke up. Then Mr. Goat put one of the baskets on his head and Mr. Monkey carried the other. They all left the house under cover of darkness, early this morning. They thought that they have saved themselves from Ajantala who was hiding in the basket carried by Mr. Goat.
Having traveled for many miles, they came to a shady tree and stopped to rest under it for a few minutes.
~Think the devil knows how to divide and conquer, knows more about you than you? Remember from whence he came… Remember his hatred of and for all mankind. He was there before you…~
“Eh! We have left our lovely house and home today and Ajantala will occupy it,” painfully said by Mr. Lion.
“Were you not the one who had agreed to Ajantala staying with us? Said Mr. Monkey.
“Yes, you are the one, Mr. Lion,” added Mr. Goat
“Ha! I was not the one, but Mr. Goat was the one who agreed,” denied Mr. Lion.
“Ha! Ha! Ha! It wasn’t me at all – not me! You were the one Mr. Lion,” exclaimed Mr. Goat.
“Shut up there, Mr. Goat, I am quite sure that you were the one,” roared Mr. Lion.
“Ha! Ha! Don’t tell lies against me, Mr. Lion.”
“I say shut up your mouth and if you don’t admit right now that you were the one, I will kill you and eat your whole body at once, especially this moment that I badly hunger for some meat to eat,” Mr. Lion roared again.
“All right, if I were the one, who had approved Ajantala’s request to be with us, let this ground on which we stand now split and then swallow me. But if I were not the one, let something bring Ajantala to us now and scatter all of us to the four corners of the Earth.
Mr. Goat had hardly finished his curse when Ajantala suddenly and viciously jumped out of the basket. He held a sharp and wide blade in his right hand. They could not even glance at him when they scattered to the different ways, fearfully throughout the world.
Mr. Lion’s descendants scattered throughout the woods and forests of the world while the offspring of Mr. Monkey climbed and remained in the trees above. Mr. Goat and his descendants went back to the farm and sold themselves into a domesticated life much like the other animals of the barnyard owned by human beings from that day on.
“Let the workers do as they will…let those in the depths use force and do wrong, so that we can be justified in using force against them…behold a New World Order!”
And it was from that day they became the enemies of themselves and that was the reason the lion is killing the goat and the monkey whenever it sees one of both for the lie they had told against him in the past.
Thus Ajantala was very successful in separating the three brothers and the rest of the occupants of the wonderful and abundant Planet Earth.
“Why is it so-called educated people do not acquire the good sense of knowing better?”
…In conflict with good and evil; the fight between man and the devil; the eternal struggle of human nature against sin:
The Talmud, The Qur’an, The Holy Bible – Translated from Egyptian / Arabic to Ethiopia…Abel – Luluwa, Cain – Aklia and Seth, children of Adam and Eve…
In the beginning there was nothing…Temptation led to Sin.
Cast out of Eden, the metaphor, the story of Adam and Eve bore three sons:
Cain, Abel, and Seth, the beginning people of the Earth.
Cain killed Abel and fled to the East, where he was sheltered by a band of fallen angels; the Watchers!
These Watchers helped Cain’s descendants build a great and mighty industrial civilization. Cain’s cities spread like wild-fire and spread wickedness, devouring the world.
The Euclid:
Balance, Fairness, and Justice – “Things Equal to the Same Things, are Equal to Each Other!”
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”
~Karl Marx~
Til Next Time…
Acknowledgements:
Amos Tutuola
Welcome to 2013 at WFR.com
In “Weird Thoughts”
101 Weird Writers #34 — Amos Tutuola
In “101 Weird Writers”
Amos Tutuola: An Interview with Yinka Tutuola
In “Interviews”
http://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/01/ajantala-the-noxious-guest/
>
A-jan-ta
[uh-juhn-tuh] Spell Syllables
noun
- a village in N Maharashtra, in W central India: caves and shrines containing Buddhist frescoes and sculptures.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Ajanta
>
Another original story by DO Fagunwa from “Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole”
Ajantala, the Noxious Guest
From Don’t Pay Bad for Bad & Other Stories
http://www.yorubaland.org/smf/index.php?topic=195.0
Ajantala
« on: August 17, 2008, 01:20:18 PM »
This is my translation of the original story by DO Fagunwa from “Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole”
The story is taken from my book How The World Was Created:
https://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=3449284
From How The World Was Created:
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“The Spirit of the Soul and the Death of Morals: From Whence Comest Thou?” http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18377562-the-spirit-of-the-soul-and-the-death-of-morals
“ONE PEOPLE, ONE PLANET, and THE CHILDREN OF ONE GOD!”
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http://aneastfallssonontheschuylkill.blogspot.com/2014/07/on-schuylkill-eastfalls-son-twitter.html
‘The Triplets and One’
http://theeyeofcain.blogspot.com/ http://thehebrew-israelitesandjapan.blogspot.com/ http://theessenceofinvasionandannihila.blogspot.com/ http://yahvehthefatherthelosttribesoftwelve.blogspot.com
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“The Spirit of The Soul and The Death of Morals”: Whence comest thou? Paperback – Large Print, January 12, 2012
By
Mr. Gregory Vernon Boulware (Author)
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A Philadelphia Story Teller: “Howl Of An Angel”: Pt. 2 ‘The Loch of Satanus’
http://philadelphiastoryeller.blogspot.com/
ASIAN VOICES
NHK website.
Sep. 4, Thu.
Hong Kong on the Brink
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SAPPHYRE
JASON KOMITO
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‘Black Cowboys’
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“Of Spirit and Faith”
“As The Clock Turns”
“The Spirit of The Soul and The Death of Morals”: Whence comest thou?
“NINETY and FIVE”
“The Eye of Cain”
“The Lost Tribes of Twelve and Yahveh the Father”
“A Love Letter From Father – Genesis to Revelation”
“The Awakening Dream”
“Arc of the Prophet”
“Amongst Us”
“Seeker of Wisdom, Truth, and Justice: BEREAN”
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