Exploring "Why is the Sky So Far Away?" – A Journey Through Nigerian Folklore

It keeps following you around wherever you go . I'm so sorry if I sounded creepy , I just wanted to make it funny . Well , it was quite an adventure to find this book . By the way , this book won the New York Times in its book review , so it was a real adventure to find this book .

Me and my grandmother were hungry for tasty treats , so we tried to find a bakery . We found one bakery , but we couldn't eat the food , wah-wah . Then I noticed there was a library , so I wanted to lighten the mood and go in there . Like I love books , so I really wanted to just look at all the books and read maybe every one inside there .

So that's how I got to this point . So then this one caught my eye and decided to read it and I really liked it . I read it about twice . I read it about twice in the library . So that's how I got this book . When you open up the book you see a beautifully illustrated page by Miss Carla .

So the book says in the beginning the sky was very close to the Earth . Actually , scientifically , the moon is actually used to be very close to the Earth , closer than it is now . Fun fact , fun Facts . In that time men and women did not have to sow crops and harvest them .

They did not have to prepare soup and cook rice , but children did not have to carry water from the stream or gather sticks for the fire . Anyone who was hungry just reached up and took a piece of the sky what Coconuts it was and ate it . It was delicious too . Sometimes the sky tasted like meat stew . That tastes very nice , well like .

Sometimes like roasted corn oh my grandfather would love that and sometimes like ripe pineapple . That's my favorite . There was very little work to do , so people spent their time weaving beautiful cloth , carving handsome statues and retelling tales of adventures , like we're doing . And there were always festivals to prepare for .

The musicians practiced , the mask carvers , the mask makers carved their masks in secret and everywhere the children watched the preparation in wonder , as you can see the page . You can see the page has a lot of the people working . The king of the land was called Vaoba and his court was magnificent .

At the royal palace there was a team of servants whose only work was to cut and shape the sky for ceremonies . You could see them cutting and shaping the sky . One looks like a fish , another looks like a carrot and to me that last one looks like the top of a pineapple . But the sky was growing angry because the people were wasteful .

Most often they took more than they could possibly eat and threw the leftovers into garbage heaps . I am tired of seeing myself soured and spoiled on every rubbish bin of the land Brewed the sky .

So one morning at sunrise the sky turned very dark and thick black clouds Gathered over for Oba's house and a great voice boomed out from above Oba mighty one , your people have wasted my gifts . I am tired of seeing myself on heaps of garbage . Oba mighty one , your people have wasted my gifts . I am tired of seeing myself on heaps of garbage Everywhere .

I warn you do not waste my gifts any longer or they will no longer be yours . The Oba , in terror , sent messengers carrying the sky's warning to every corner of the land . In every village , people were told about the sky's unhappiness . Children were warned never to take a piece of the sky unless they were truly hungry . You can see the page have opened .

It looks very serious , but I can tell he's very scared . The people were very , very , very , very , very careful . I added a couple extra berries cuz I thought might spedazz it up a little . That is for a while . Yeah , you probably should have seen that coming . Then the time of the greatest festival of the year .

It was the festival that celebrated the power of Baobab , the most important palace . Dancers performed all through the night and Vaoba himself , in ceremonial robes , danced for his subjects .

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da

da da da da da da da that , with all the dancing and mirroring , the people might forget the sky's warning . So he made sure no one took more sky than he or she , absolutely . Now there was this woman in this kingdom who was never satisfied . She could barely move when she wore all the weighty coral necklaces .

Her husband had bought her but she still carved more necklaces . She had eleven children of her own , I think of her own means genetically related somehow . That's a lot of kids , but she felt her house was empty . What , and most of all , adice loved to eat .

Okay , well , I can tell she loves to eat , because it looks like she's talking to the water model Saying you look tasty , oh , I'm going to enjoy you . On the very last night of celebration , adise and her husband were invited to the Oba's palace . Oh no , there they danced and danced and ate . Well past midnight . Oh no , what an evening it was .

Adise fought later standing in her own garden Again . How I wish I could relive tonight the drumming . I heard the riches , I saw the food I ate . She looked up at the sky , hoping to taste again the cocoa lambs and meet Stu , the sky offender . She took a huge piece to eat , but she had only finished one third of it when she could swallow no more .

What have I done ? Well , daddies , I can't throw this away . Oh no , no , she screamed , calling her husband Come finish this piece of sky for me . Her husband , exhausted from all the dancing and stuffed with the sky , he had eaten at Boba's house . He could only eat two bites . Where's my children ? Bites with my children , screamed daddies .

Now the children had spent all night at the masquerade and party . After their dinner , most of them were still too full to even nibble at their mother's piece of sky . Oh no , and the neighbors , neighbors , were called . But Adi still had in her hand a big chunk of sky . What does it matter , she said . Finally , one more piece of sky on the rubbish heap .

I think it does matter . And just to make sure it didn't matter , she buried the leftover garbage in the bin back at her house . Suddenly the ground shook with thunder and lightning creased the sky above the old west palace . But no rain fell . Nope , sometimes that actually can happen . Oba , mighty one , boomed a voice from above .

Your people have not treated me with respect . Now I will leave you and move far away . But what will we eat , cried Viola . How will we live ? You must learn how to plow the land , gather crops and hunt in forests , answered the sky . Perhaps , through your own labor , you will learn not to waste the gifts of nature . Whoa , that was a little intense .

Let's see what happens after that . No one in the land slept very well that night . The rising sun uncovered the heads of the men and women peering over the rooftops and windows , straining to see if the sky had really left them . It truly had . It sailed upward , far out of their reach .

From that day onward , men and women and children had to grow their own food . They tilled the land , planted crops and harvested them , and far above them rested the sky , distant and blue just as it does today . Whoa , this story is at least 500 years old , first told in Bini , in the Bini tribe found in Africa , where they are is now Nigeria .

Are is now Nigeria . This story was told to teach the children of many of the Bini tribe to not waste gifts of nature . Well , wastefulness is a very big problem in today's world . So many reasons why we've just been wasteful on our garbage . But , as told in this book , we could potentially save it . We could save our home .

Remember , earth is the only home we know of today , so might as well save it as much as we can , because there's no planet number two . Earth is the one and only that we've found that contains life . While climate change is a big problem in today's world , wastefulness is really the big problem .

When someone gives us a snack to eat and we don't finish it all and just throw it in the trash . Or when we buy food but then we look at the expiration date and then we just throw it in the garbage . Well , or when we don't . Or when we don't eat the food that someone's prepared us , or we don't eat the food that came from some place .

Someone had to grow that lettuce , someone had to grow that food or feed that cow that we eat on either a burger or an everyday salad . So remember , do not waste the gifts of nature . Just like how the sky said , do not waste the gifts of nature because nature is wonderful . Because nature is wonderful .

If there is a way for you to recycle things around your house , if there is a way for you to recycle things around your house , do it . Save this planet . There's no planet number two . We have not found one yet , but let's save this one as long as we're on this earth . Nature provides so much of the world we see today .

Nature provides the wood to build houses , the food , the air that we breathe , the food that we eat , the water we drink . Nature provides us with almost everything , so make sure to save nature . When you don't care about nature , you hurt the environment . Our environment is the world around us , so save nature , care about it .

There's no planet number two , not yet . Thank you for listening to this episode of the Shara's Rating Podcast . Don't forget to like , review and smash that subscribe button Bye-bye .