The king and the fool
Audio 05:53
The king and the madman © FMM
10 mins
In the heart of the forest reigned an evil king called Hediala (Fulani
onomatopoeia expressing anguish
).
Still frowning, Hediala opened her mouth only to insult and only raised her arm to strike.
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Every morning, he took a malicious pleasure in tormenting his subjects with questions that made their brains boil with anguish.
He asked some to swallow flames, others to lick a sharp knife, and God only knows what else!
No matter what her advisers did, Hediala, as stubborn as a mule, had decided once and for all to torture all those who made people talk about them.
However, in the region, there lived a man reputed to know a lot of things: children, women, young people, men, old people.
Everyone spoke only of his great wisdom.
It didn't take much for Hediala the tyrant king to want to bother him;
so he sent for him to come to him.
On the day of the meeting, the large crowd gathered, from the smallest to the largest, from dignitary to slave, no one wanted to be told this story, each eager to witness what was going to happen.
The King: Did it happen to me that you prided yourself on knowing everything?
Sage: Lord, I have never claimed full knowledge.
I only know what I know.
And what I don't know is a huge ocean.
The King: Hmmm!
So you don't know anything.
Yet you are playing clever in the midst of your so-called disciples!
Well, you're going to have to dive into the tiny drop of your knowledge to find the answer to this question: when you drop a pestle into an empty mortar, does the resulting noise come from the mortar or from the pestle?
Think carefully and answer, otherwise I will have you hanged immediately!
".
They say silence is a friend who never betrays.
The sage was silent for a moment, then he said: The noise comes from both.
The King: But in what proportion of intensity?
The sage, not knowing what to say, remained silent.
Hediala continued: Let us hurry then, pretended wise man, whose knowledge lies beyond a mortar and a pestle!
At the same time, a dirty, weird, filthy man with all torn clothes split through the crowd and walked up to Hediala.
The madman: O King!
No man who has never had a concussion would ask such a question, and it takes a cracked mind to answer it.
Thus, it is I who will give you satisfaction.
And, raising his arm, he slapped the King so loudly that even the birds that were resting on the branches of the trees flew away.
A slap so loud that everyone heard it throughout the village.
Then he burst out laughing:
Le Fou: Well, O King!
Did the noise come out of my hand or your cheek, and in what proportion?
Singing
It often takes a fool to educate a tyrant.
Credits
The King and the Madman
Extract from "Small bodiel and other tales of the savannah"
by Amadou Hampâté Bâ
.
Performed by Rebecca Kompaoré, Charles Kohoury, Jean-Marc Kouasi Kouadio and Vincent Kouamé.
Music: Jean Sempé Ake Olloé.
Storytelling research and adaptations: Flore Kra, Valérie Gobey, Eugène Konan and Elvis Tanoh.
Associate production company: Sonia Arruda Touré, Romain Masson
Production assistant: Romain Chmiela, Eugène Konan,
Assistant director: Elvis Tanoh.
Director: Laure Egoroff and Tidiane Thiang.
Thanks to Thomas Weill, Yanick Zagba, Sony Music Africa, Stéphane Dogbo, and the RFI teams.
With the support of the "Accès Culture" program of the French Development Agency and the French Institute.
A
Making Waves
and
Books For All production - Ivory Coast
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