Story Seeds

A long time ago, when a bird died on earth, its spirit would leave its body and float up to the clouds where it lived as a cloud person, watching over and caring for the birds and animals on earth. The birds and animals knew about these cloud people. There came a time when…

Once upon a time there was a very poor man called Mzi. “The children are hungry, and we have no money to buy food,” cried his wife, Pumla. “What are we going to do?” “I will go hunting,” said Mzi. “If I can catch some guinea fowl, then we will have a…

A long, long time ago, when giants roamed about and chickens talked, a poor woman lived with her daughter, Tselane, in a little house. Since she had nobody to look after Tselane, the woman was forced to leave the child alone when she went to plough her fields each day…

Long ago, when trees could talk and fish could fly, Frog was the biggest of all the animals. He liked to bully everyone, and the animals were growing tired of him. One day, when Frog had gone swimming, the other animals held a meeting to decide how to deal with him. “We need…

Once upon a time, there was a farmer called Vusi who was very, very strong. Nobody knew how he did it, but he could easily carry two cows at the same time. One morning, when Vusi woke up, he ran around in a panic. “My necklace! Who has stolen my magic necklace?” he…

Long ago when the world was new, Nkwazi, the great fish eagle, called all the birds together. “As you know,” he said, “Bhubesi the lion is king of the beasts. But why should he speak for us birds? We need to choose our own king… and as I am so majestic, I…