The punishment of a misbehaving child by Paul Banda

The story was like this

There were four children and their mother. The mother went to attend a funeral ceremony. The children were advised to cook okra and nsima (a hard porridge) for lunch. At their home, they were keeping a cat. The mother told the children to take care of the cat, and also they were warned not to cook and eat it. One of the children did not want to eat nsima with okra, instead the boy decided to kill and eat it alone without telling the others. As soon as he finished eating the cat meat, he turned into a cat.

When the mother came back from the funeral, she found that one child was missing. She asked where that child had gone, but the three remaining children did not realize that their brother had turned into a cat as they thought it was the same cat that they were keeping in the house. After a while, the child which had turned into the cat saw the mother and came closer to her and started to sing….

CAT: (Story teller)  Audience responding :
Meow meow ndingindi oh! mum Oh! mum ndingindi (X2)
she said she said ndingindi
not to eat! not to eat ndingindi
the animal! the animal ndingindi
the cat the cat ndingindi
that cries like! that cries like ndingindi
meow! meow ndingindi
meow! meow ndingindi
meow! meow ndingindi

The mother was surprised to hear the cat singing. After listening carefully to the song, she understood that the boy had eaten the cat which he was not allowed to eat and turned into it. The mother felt sorry for her son. She decided to take the cat to ng‘anga (a traditional healer) where she hoped to get the cat turned back into a child. The mother carried the cat on her back, but it did not stop singing

CAT: (Story teller)  Audience responding :
Meow meow ndingindi oh! mum Oh! mum ndingindi (X2)
she said she said ndingindi
not to eat! not to eat ndingindi
the animal! the animal ndingindi
the cat the cat ndingindi
that cries like! that cries like ndingindi
meow! meow ndingindi
meow! meow ndingindi
meow! meow ndingindi

When she reached to the healer, she explained to him what had happened to her son and asked him to turn the cat into her child again. He tried to apply his magic, but unfortunately his oracle told him that the cat was real and not her son. He advised the mother to throw the cat away.

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