A Bad Way to Treat Friends

Smith, Alexander McCall.  "A Bad Way to Treat Friends".  The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa. New York: Pantheon Books, 2004. Print.

Leopard, Goat, Guinea Fowl, and Wild Cat were all good friends.  They lived together where there was good water and cool places to sleep.

Goat had some fine children, that were strong and heathly.  They could eat the leaves from the shrubs that none of the other animals could reach.  They were clever and all of the other children were jealous.  Leopard's children were not strong, and could not run as fast as leopard children normally run, and their coats were dull and matted.

Leopard decides to trick Goat into going away to buy a dress for a party.  Goat is happy to help and goes away to purchase the dress.  While she is away, Leopard captures Goat's children ties them up in bundles and prepares to take them to the party to be a part of the meal.  Meanwhile, Guinea Fowl and Wild Cat is watching all of this happening. 

While Leopard tries on her dress, Guinea Fowl and Wild Cat release the goat children, telling them to run off and hide.  They replace the bundles with Leopard's children.  Leopard takes the bundles to the party and places them in the pot.  When Leopard realizes she has cooked her own children, she is angry and goes to look for Goat and her children.  But they had already left, and this is why we see leopards searching for goats.

Cultural Origin:

I am unaware of the origin of this particular story.  In the introduction the author shares with the reader that the stories in this book were collected from tellers in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Audience:

I would feel comfortable sharing this story with almost all ages, youth in grades 3 to adults in both school and public libraries.

Adaptations:

I think the most important adaptation for me in telling this story would be to convey the intense hatred and jealously that Leopard holds for Goat and her children.  This would be done with the tone of my voice, through a combination of voice dripping with sarcasm and facial expressions that let the audience know the contempt that Leopard has.

I would not change neither the animals nor the setting because I believe original story provides accurate depiction of the culture from which this story comes.