The mango tree
vrijdag, december 24th, 2010
Christmas: a period of reflection. As a Christmas great, we give you an almost extinct story from the book ‘Parabels van Grote Spin’ (Parables of Great Spider) by Bob Papeland. The book is not available anymore. The key question in this narrative is: ‘who is teaching who?’ And: ‘what does the story tell us about our cultures?’ Please share you thoughts and write a reply.
Somewhere in Africa, a black man is sleeping in the shade of a giant mango tree. A white man, just arrived from the West, comes over, sees him sleeping and wakes him up: “Get up, sleepyhead, you are able to be lazy throughout your whole life. Prefer to climb into the mango tree and pick its fruit.”
“Why would I, white man? The mango tree drops sufficient fruit daily. I collect them for myself and my family. The rest would spoil in my barn.”
“You should not store them in your barn. You have to transport them to the market and sell them for much money.”
“I understand, white man: I can save the money because that doesn’t spoil.”
“No, silly, you should not keep it. Money must move.”
“Ok, white man. I will give a big party for the whole village. And you can come too.”
“No, no, no! No partying! That’s wasted money. You have to use it well.”
“How am I able to do this, white man?”
(meer…)
Bookmark on Delicious- Recommend on Facebook
- Tip on Hyves
- Share on technorati
- Tweet about it
-
Subscribe to the comments on this post
-
Print for later
-
Bookmark in Browser
