Kichalundu the Heaven Tree is an African Folktale teaching the beauty of life from death.
Kichalundu the Heaven Tree
| Kichalundu |
Kichalundu went out one day to harvest vegetables from her garden, finding the gourd patch growing very luxuriantly; she stepped on the lushest spot and sank quickly into the soil. Franticly her friends took hold of her hands and tried to pull her out, but in vain; she vanished from their sight.
They heard her crying, "The ghosts have taken me. Go and tell my father and mother," and they ran to call the parents. The whole countryside gathered about the place, and a spiritualist advised the father to sacrifice a cow and a sheep. This was done, and they heard the girl's voice again, but growing fainter and fainter, until at last, it was silent, and they gave her up for lost.
But, after a time a tree grew up on the spot where she had disappeared. It went on growing, until at last it reached the sky. The herd-boys, during, the heat of the day, used to drive their cattle into its shade, and themselves climbed up into the spreading branches. One day two of them ventured higher than the rest, and called out, "Can you see us still?" The others answered, "No! Do come down again!" but the two adventurous boys refused saying, "We are going on into the sky to see Kichalundu in the world above" Those were their last words, for they were never seen again.
| Kichalundu the Heaven Tree African Folktale |
