By: Chioma Madonna Ndukwu
African Talking Drum: Tortoise Lost More Than His Name
In the old days, before the animals began keeping count of what belonged to whom, the forest of Mawira had one rule that everyone understood: a name was not merely something an animal carried. It was something earned.
Lion was called King because he protected the weak. Elephant was called Elder because he remembered what others forgot. Monkey was known as Quick-Hand because he could reach what others could not. Even Snail, though slow, was respected because he never abandoned a journey once he had begun it.
Tortoise had another name.
He was called Wise.
He had earned it through years of settling quarrels, finding hidden paths and solving problems that had left stronger animals scratching their heads. Whenever the animals gathered beneath the great fig tree, Tortoise was invited to sit near the centre.
Then one dry season, a terrible quarrel broke out between the animals of the riverbank and those of the forest.
The river had shrunk, and there was no longer enough water for everyone. The animals began accusing one another of taking more than their share. The elephants blamed the buffaloes. The buffaloes blamed the monkeys. The monkeys blamed the birds for dropping seeds into the water.
At last, they went to Tortoise.
“Wise one,” Lion said, “you must settle this matter.”
Tortoise looked at the shrinking river.
“I will,” he replied.
But that evening, while walking along the riverbank, Tortoise discovered a small spring hidden beneath a wall of reeds. The water was clear and cold, and it flowed beneath the ground before joining the river farther downstream.
Tortoise looked around.
Nobody had seen him.
A thought entered his mind.
“If I tell everyone about this spring, the water will soon be gone.”
He sat beneath a tree and considered the matter.
Then another thought arrived.
“If I keep the spring secret, I can decide who drinks from it.”
By the next morning, Tortoise had made his decision.
At the gathering beneath the fig tree, he announced that the river had no hidden source and that the animals would simply have to endure the drought.
“Are you certain?” Elephant asked.
Tortoise lifted his head.
“I have searched everywhere.”
Nobody questioned him. After all, he was Wise.
That afternoon, Tortoise returned to the hidden spring. He drank until his stomach was full and then rested beneath the reeds.
For several days, he continued doing this.
Whenever an animal asked whether he had discovered another source of water, Tortoise shook his head.
“Nothing,” he said.
But one morning, a young antelope followed him.
The antelope had noticed that Tortoise always disappeared at the same time each afternoon. She kept her distance and watched him vanish into the reeds.
When she saw the spring, she ran back to the animals.
“There is water!” she cried.
The animals followed her.
They found Tortoise sitting beside the spring.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Lion looked at him.
“You knew?”
Tortoise lowered his eyes.
“I found it.”
“And you told us there was nothing?”
Tortoise tried to explain.
“I thought if everyone came, the water would finish.”
Elephant stared at him.
“So you allowed everyone to suffer while you drank alone?”
Tortoise said nothing.
The animals stood around the spring, and the silence was heavier than any accusation.
At last, old Elephant spoke.
“My father used to say, ‘The hand that hides food from the hungry may one day find itself reaching into an empty basket.’”
Tortoise looked at the clear water.
“I was afraid there would not be enough.”
Lion shook his head.
“You were not afraid there would not be enough. You were afraid there would not be enough for you to control.”
The words struck Tortoise harder than he expected.
That evening, the animals gathered beneath the fig tree.
Tortoise was not invited to sit in the centre.
For the first time in many years, he sat at the edge.
Lion addressed the animals.
“We cannot allow one creature to decide who deserves to live because he has found what others have not.”
The animals agreed that the spring would belong to everyone. They built a small channel so that its water could reach the river, and each family was given a fair share.
The drought did not end immediately, but the animals survived it together.
Tortoise remained quiet throughout the work.
Several days later, the young antelope found him beneath the fig tree.
“Why are you sitting alone?” she asked.
Tortoise looked at her.
“I am thinking.”
“About what?”
He rubbed his chin.
“I am wondering whether a name can be lost.”
The antelope smiled.
“Perhaps.”
Tortoise looked surprised.
“You think I am no longer Wise?”
The young antelope shook her head.
“I think wisdom is not knowing where to find water. Wisdom is knowing what to do after you find it.”
Tortoise said nothing.
From that day, the animals stopped calling him Wise.
They still respected his intelligence. They still listened when he spoke. But the old name was gone.
And Tortoise discovered that losing the name he had spent a lifetime earning hurt more than he had imagined.
Years later, when the animals faced another difficult season, Tortoise found a new source of water before anyone else.
This time, he did not hide it.
He walked straight to the fig tree and called the animals together.
“I have found something,” he said.
The animals looked at him carefully.
Tortoise took a deep breath.
“And this time, it belongs to everyone.”
Nobody immediately called him Wise.
But Elephant smiled.
Sometimes, a name does not return because someone asks for it. Sometimes, it returns quietly, after a person has finally become worthy of carrying it again.
Moral:
Intelligence without honesty can become another form of selfishness. What we discover is important, but what we choose to do with it reveals who we truly are.
Comment Hook:
A good name may take years to build, but one selfish decision can make people question everything they once believed about us.
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