The Donkey and the Fence
Someone built a fence across a path used by people coming into Wamba. The fence was built out of split rails. People removed rails from where the fence blocked the path. One day, a trader came into town with four donkeys. He led his donkeys to the gap in the fence. The lead donkey stopped, but the man hit it with a stick so it moved into the gap. The donkey got its head and shoulders through the gap and then stopped. The man again hit the donkey with a stick, forcing it forward, but there was no forward to go. The donkey was trapped. Its head and forefeet were on one side of the fence, and its tail and buttocks on the other side. It could neither move forward, nor backward. The donkey went wild. It brayed. It bucked. It was frantic. People gathered. Everyone had an idea how to help. When someone approached the donkey’s head, it bit, and when someone approached its tail, it kicked. Nobody could do anything with the donkey. The man wanted to remove one or two more rails so the donkey could be freed, but the crowd wouldn’t let him.
The owner of the donkey was angry. He shouted for someone to get the owner of the fence. When the man came, the trader demanded that the rails be removed so his donkey would be free. The man with the fence told him that he would be happy to remove the posts, but only after he returned the missing ones. The trader said that he had nothing to do with any missing posts, that he rarely came to Wamba, and that he had never seen the fence before in his life. They shouted back and forth — Donkey! Posts! Donkey! Posts!. Finally, the trader told the owner to step aside, that he would remove the posts, now, and save his donkey. Without even waiting, the man struck the owner on the head with his rungu. Again, without waiting, he drew his sword and cut the man across his stomach. The man fell. His intestines spilled out onto the ground.
When the trader looked up, he saw that he was surrounded. He was a stranger in this place while the owner was a friend, a neighbor, a relative. During the argument, morans had run to get their spears. Someone in the crowd said that we should stone him. The crowd took this up, ‘Stone him! Stone him!’ The morans held the old man at spear point while the crowd scattered to pick up stones. When the crowd reassembled, the stones began to fly. ‘Hit his head! Hit his head!’
When the trader was dead, people remembered the owner. The wind had been blowing, and there was now dust and dung on his intestines. He was carried to the Catholic Mission Hospital, which was only a few minutes away. After a short time, the doctor came out of the surgery and asked for blood. Everyone liked him, so many gave blood.
A few people had gone back to the fence where they tried to help the donkey. But when they approached his head, he bit, and when they approached his tail, he kicked, and so they gave up. The donkey was left pinned by the fence. It took five days, and then the donkey died.