Once upon a time, long, long ago, no one had to work for food; whenever they were hungry, they just reached up, grabbed a piece of the sky and ate. The sky never tasted the same either, sometimes it tasted like pounded yam and egusi, Amala and Efo Riro, Moi Moi, Akara and so on.
Because people didn’t have to work for food, they spent their time creating beautiful works of art, weaving aso oke clothes and adire fabrics, sharing amazing stories and preparing for festivals. Their favourite festival was the King’s birthday. For the people loved their king, and they looked forward to his birthday every year.
The people lived this way for many years and they were happy. But over time the people started to abuse this wonderful gift. They began taking more than they could eat “I’ll save some of later” they would say.
But slowly, the amount of leftover sky thrown away grew.
The Sky watched silently and grew increasingly upset at the people’s wasteful behaviour.
One day the sky decided “enough” and thick black clouds formed above the palace. A mighty voice thundered “King Oba,” the sky called, “your people have become wasteful and abused my gifts. From now on, if anyone takes more than they can eat, and wastes my gift again, there will be Sky for you to eat”.
King Oba immediately sent out messengers to instruct the people. “Respect the sky and only take what you need” they shouted. “If anyone takes more than they need, there will be no Sky to eat”.
For a while the people did exactly as they were instructed. They were careful not to upset the Sky.
Then came the day of the king’s festival. The palace cooks cut and shaped the Sky into all sorts of delicious food and drinks. The palace was decorated beautifully and the sounds of the Bata and talking drums filled the air. Everyone was dressed in their best clothes and coral jewelry. There was wonderful music playing all day and everyone was happy. As the celebrations continued into the night, the people ate all the food the cooks had set out for them. But, they wanted more. So they started to take chunks of the Sky for themselves.
One after the other they tore chunks of the Sky just above the palace court yard. They took a lot more sky than they could eat. When the King noticed this, he cried “stop!” “Remember the Sky’s warning. Only take what you can eat. We must eat all this leftover food”.
But the people had already eaten way too much and could not take another bite.
“What are we going to do?” They asked. Someone pointed to the ground “let’s bury it. If Sky can’t see it hopefully it will never know”. But the sky sees everything.
The next morning, the sky darkened over the palace and the sky thundered “King Oba, you and your people are wasteful and greedy. You have refused to listen to my warning. So now, I will take my gift away”. The people pleaded with the sky “we’re sorry!” “We promise to do better” They begged. But the Sky had made up its mind.
Slowly it began to rise. Higher and higher.
The people watched helplessly as the sky floated away. High above the earth. Far beyond the reach of the tallest person.
From that day, people could no longer pluck their food from the sky. Instead, they had to work hard for their food. ploughing, planting and harvesting it from the earth.
And If you look up at the sky at night, you can still see the tiny holes made when people took chunks out of the sky. Today we call them stars.
And the massive hole created at the Palace the night of the festival, became the moon.
And that is why the Sky is so high.
The End.
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