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…

Long, long ago, Giraffe was best friends with Eagle. One morning, when the two friends were at the waterhole, Eagle asked Giraffe, “What do you think is at the bottom of this waterhole?” Giraffe thought for a while. “Well, Hippo says there’s a spirit down there, but I’ve never seen her,” she replied. “I…

Long ago, Mother Moon lit up the sky every night. She had a blanket woven from the most beautiful golden thread. Her blanket shone so brightly that there was enough light for all people to see their way through the darkness. Sometimes, Mother Moon wrapped her blanket tightly around herself and came down…

Once upon a time, there was a very greedy man. Although he was very rich, all he ever wanted was more money. One evening, an old traveller came to the greedy man’s door. “I’ve been walking all day,” the old traveller said. “Please let me rest here tonight.” “Hmmm,” said the greedy man….

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…