Monday, January 30, 2017

The Hyena Anecdote



The hyena is a scavenger, but a usurper at that.  It comes around when other animals have done their work and meat is ready. A pack of hyena will always appear out of the blue to commandeer their own portion of the reward of another fauna’s labour.

In a park, the clan of hyenas assumed that their bravado had been taken for granted and no animal would dare put up a resistance whenever a pack of hyenas would come to harvest where they had not sowed.  As you may know, the hyenas are a lazy and loathsome pack.

A time came when other members of the park decided to turn the heat on the hyenas.  It was time to make inroads upon the clan of lazy but greedy and gluttonous hyenas and do away with them.  So they agreed to set bonfire in a crescent around the clan of the hyenas so that the only way of escape from the fire would be the opposite direction.

Spearheading the fire plan was the pride of lions.  The lions would lay ambush in the direction that the hyenas would run in their flight from the searing heat.

At the sudden burst of fire around the clan, the hyenas took to their fours in the race for life toward the only avenue of escape.  The lions waiting in ambush pounced, tearing in pieces many of the hyenas; while those that ran back went headlong into the raging bonfire.  The carcasses of the hyenas lay wasting in the field for vultures to feast on, as the flesh of the hyena is not a nutritious meal for other members of the fauna.  Thus ended the inimical presence of the worthless hyenas in the park.

If only a people will rise and call the bluff of the hyena-like loafers in their community, then the community will be liberated from those who laze about but looking toward harvesting where they neither laboured nor sowed.  The writer Chinua Achebe called them “efulefu.”  Yes, ndi efulefu must be resisted and put where they belong.

Those who do not work do not deserve to eat. And the Bible supports this concept. (2 Thes 3:10-12)

Frank Monye
27 January 2017

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