ONCE UPON A LIE THE ZAMBIAN PINOCCHIO STORY Once upon a time is how I remember that fairy tales begun. They inevitably ended with and they all lived happily ever after. As a child once you heard the words Once upon a time you knew you were about to be treated to a wondrous story with sparkling imagery where good always triumphs over evil. Some of my enduring favorite fairy tales are Pinocchio and also The elves and the shoemaker. Pinocchios basic character was created by a woodcarver called Geppetto as a puppet and the size of his nose would change and grow due to his lies or stress. Pinocchio was Italian. In The elves and the shoemaker a poor shoemaker needs money. He has leather to make just one more pair of shoes which he cuts out before going to bed. Elves come in the night and make the pair of shoes which he sells for more than his asking price the next day. He uses that money and he has enough left to buy enough leather for two pairs of shoes. He cuts the pieces of leather for two pairs, and retires for the night. The elves come, again, that night and make two pairs of shoes with the additional leather. This repeats itself over and over again. One night he stays up to find the elves making the shoes. The shoemaker and his wife make clothes for the elves the next day, but the elves are lifted from their obligation when given clothes, so the elves leave, and the shoemaker and his wife never see them again. Later in life I came to learn that there were various versions of Pinocchio throughout the world. The Scottish, for example, have a version they call PiScottino who like Pinocchio is a puppet. PiScottino however is created by Cobratto and not Geppetto as in the Italian version. Cobratto at the time had a shop near Kings Cross Station in London. Later PiScottino left Britain and joined Cobratto in Zambia. In Zambia the PiScottino story is told in the Zambian version of fairy tales known as fyabukaya. Fyabukaya is so complex and confused that several fairy tales are merged into one. In the Zambian PiScottino version, Cobratto has become quite old. Cobratto is a hard worker and jack of all trades. Cobratto it turns out, being a Man of Action, is also the shoemaker trying to put more money in his pockets. Being a wood carver the shoes he makes are made of wood like Dutch clogs and he produces them under the trademark Gonga. They carry a ninety day guarantee but I have not heard of anyone who has managed to cash in on this ninety day warranty. Due to his advancing age Cobrattos production started slowing down. Luckily for Cobratto, some elves started helping him make the Gonga shoes. In the Zambian version of PiScottino, the Shoemaker and the Elves, Cobratto soon finds that his elves are useless and is heard to publicly lament this fact stating, ama elves aya fipuba Sana and fili totally useless! The only ones he relies on are Summerbee, Freaky Freddy Krueger and the one with a vernacular LOZI name, Musebezi. What Cobratto did not know is that this trio were not elves but gremlins. Musebezi, apart from being a gremlin, also doubles as the troll that lived under the bridge that led to freedom. This troll was known to try to stop anyone attempting to cross to freedom. Freddy Krueger is the main antagonist of the A Nightmare on Elm Street horror film series. He appears as a disfigured serial killer who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams, causing their deaths in the real world as well. In the dream world he has created, he is a powerful force and almost completely invulnerable to damage. However, whenever Freddy is pulled into the real world and out of the tabloids, he has normal human vulnerabilities. Summerbee is PiScottinos puppeteer and PiScottino admits that, he is Summerbees Chola Boy. Summerbees main pre-occupation is to make honey for himself. It is only in Fyabukaya that such scary characters can find themselves in a tale for children. PiScottino has more complex issues than the Italian Pinocchio. Apart from the propensity to lie which causes his nose to grow, PiScottino also exhibits, like the Italian version Pinocchio, obnoxious, bratty, and selfish traits. He is disturbingly fond of even broadcasting his lies on and in the world media. PiScottino has serious identity issues and has been heard to lament that he is not married to his creator the old wood master Crobatto and therefore cannot know if the old wood master has been sent to an old peoples home or not. PiScottino due to his drinking is quite detached from the real world and shakes as if he has Parkinson disease. With each dose of escalating Bufi his nose grows and quivers like an arrow shot from a bow, however it is not Parkinsons disease but the effects of the whiskey giving him the shakes and the bright red nose like Rudolph the reindeer. Cobratto does not fully trust PiScottino and when he left the cobblers shop, and to show appreciation to Summerbee and his gang, Cobratto left his authority and power of Attorney with Summerbee. Just like the elves in the original fairy tale who were given clothes by the shoemaker, Summerbee no longer feels he has the obligation to Cobratto and Cobratto will never see the three gremlins again. Summerbee and gang are preparing to do a Donchi Kubeba on poor old Cobratto and his rightful heirs, the little Bambino Cobrattos. In the meantime, as old Cobrattos empire is burning, PiScottino just keeps on engaging in Bufi and tippling in whiskey. Kids have been asking, Jeepers, creepers where did you get that nose and how did it get that size? This is one Fyabukaya tale that does not end with, ....and they all lived happily ever after. This is more like a true nightmare on Fumubwinji Street where Freaky Freddy lurks. In Fyabukaya Tales there is so much Bufi that unlike the fairy tales we know they do not start with, Once upon a time... But with, ONCE UPON A LIE.... #sAKWIBAsIKOTA
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 15:24:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015