🐢 Mbe and the Feast in the Sky

Long ago, the birds decided to hold a magnificent feast in the sky. Every bird was invited, but Mbe (the tortoise) had no wings.

Pretending to be humble, he pleaded with the birds to lend him a feather each. Moved by pity, they agreed, and Mbe flew with them to the feast.

Before they arrived, Mbe said, “It is our custom that every visitor should take a new name. From today, call me ‘All of You.’”

The birds thought nothing of it.

When the hosts welcomed their guests, they announced, “This feast has been prepared for all of you!”

Immediately Mbe stood up.

“You heard them,” he said. “The feast belongs to me.”

Ignoring the hungry birds, he ate the finest yams, the richest soups, the juiciest meat, and drank the sweetest palm wine until little remained.

The birds were furious. One after another, they collected the feathers they had lent him and flew home, leaving Mbe stranded in the sky.

Desperate, Mbe begged a passing bird to tell his wife to spread soft things on the ground so he could jump safely. But the bird, still angry, told her to spread stones and hard objects instead.

Trusting the message, Mbe’s wife obeyed.

Mbe leapt from the sky…

He crashed onto the stones, and his shell shattered into countless pieces.

An old healer gathered the broken fragments and carefully stitched them back together. That, the elders say, is why a tortoise’s shell is covered with cracks and patterns to this day.

Wisdom is a gift. But when wisdom is ruled by greed, it becomes self-destruction. A feast shared creates friends; a feast stolen leaves a person eating alone.

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