Story of Mother Kite

"When mother Kite told her daughter to bring back food, and it brought back a duckling, Mother Kite told her child to return it, since the mother of the ducking had not said anything, and the silence was ominous. When her daughter returned, she brought back a chick, and told Mother Kite that the mother of the chick had cried and raved and cursed it. Mother Kite told her daughter that it was ok to eat the chick, because they had nothing to fear from someone who shouted."

Uchendu tells this story because it has to do with the appereance of the white man in the tribal Igbo people´s lives. The Igbo people's way of being is doing what the oracle says, for fear of the gods misfortune. The white man had arrived with good intentions to the villiage, but the tribesmen attacked him becuasethe oracle had "predicted" that they would bring the destruction to their world, which, in the end, did happen.

The Igbo´s made the first move, and it was not friendly, actually it was all the contrary. This is why the white people that arrived in Africa called the natives "savages" and treated them like animals. Certain beliefs were not accepted by them, but it was completely different when practices with a negative impact were involved. If they fought, wouldnt they think that the white men would fight back? If they killed, wouldnt they think the white men would also kill?

Some people have brought up the subject of common sense. Of course the Igbo´s knew the white man would fight back, he did look like a human being after all, but they didnt think ahead. Was it normal for the tribesmen to kill other people? Did they see it as fair? The Igbo people in that tribe didnt see it as fair, but as necessary. Why was it necessary to kill another human being? For them it was the sake of saving their villiage. The white men obviously found no logic to this, and even though they were religious, they saw this as an unnecessary aggression, one that they had to respond to. This led to lots of theories having to do with the logic behind primitism.

Since the Igbo's lived like, looked like, and acted like primitives, the newly arrived missionaries treated them as such. Since their actions were beastly for the white men, they treated them like animals. Were the native african tribesmen's brains really less evolved than the brains of white men? Were they really more like animals? Partially, since they behaved that way at certain times. This led the white´s to treat them that way.

It was wise of Uchendu to mention the story. Remembering the story, if he would have suspected something unusual, he would not have done any violent action, for it was wiser and safer to know what you are facing and the reasons. It is different in the sense that the daughter of Mother Kite actually stole the other animals. The white men simply arrived in Igbo territory, without attacking nor offending anyone. When the little kite stole the chick and the mother acted violently, Mother Kite saw it fit to let the chick be the prey. If the men had arrived and attacked the tribe, it would of been normal for the Igbo´s to defend themselves and counterattack. We dont know what would have happened if Mother Kite and her daughter had eaten the duckling instead of the chick, but we can compare it to the larger group of men arriving and destroying the villiage for what the tribe had done to their man.

In this metaphor, it is completly natural for the little kite to take prey, since that was the way of life, so it has no real interpretation in the real life story, except maybe for the fact that the tribesmen saw the white man. On the other hand, it is not natural for the Igbo's to attack without having a "real" reason for it, even though there was.

Matias Reyes