Nandi was a very poor widow, raising her daughter in a small village in South Africa. But she was creative- she and her daughter worked in the fields. There was a tree called the umdoni tree that bloomed beautiful flowers in summer. In the autumn, when the leaves from the tree's blossoms died, she collected the umdoni tree's purple and sweet berries and traded them with her neighbors for strips of dried goat meat.
One day Nandi went down to the river to gather umdoni berries, but there weren't any to be found. Then suddenly she heard this hissing of a snake and she looked up and saw a green-gray one wrapped around a tree and he was eating all the berries, which he had taken. "Oh, Snake, you are stealing all my berries," Nandi exclaimed. "I won't have any to exchange for meat if you take all my fruit". The snake hissed again, and stuck out its tongue. He slithered down the tree trunk, getting so close to Nandi that she wanted to run, but she knew if she did, she wouldn't ever get her berries back.
The snake demands something in exchange for the berries, then he suggests Nandi's daughter. Nandi, afraid, agrees and receives her basket back, full of berries. On her way home, she realizes what a dreadful mistake she has made and is determined to lose the snake so that it can't follow her home. However, though she travels through shallow water, over rocks, and the like, she is not careful enough and she leaves a tiny bit of material from her skirt caught on a tree, and three beads from her ankle bracelet lying on the ground along the way. When she gets home she exclaims to her daughter her mistake and burst into tears. The Snake is able to follow her home and when he arrives, Nandi cries, "No!, No!, I can't give you my daughter." But the daughter tells her, "A promise is a promise" and she agrees to marry him. The snake comes to live with them, and the daughter makes a bed for him out of blankets. During the night, Nandi is awakened, but she doesn't know why. She hears voices and she quietly goes to spy on her daughter who she sees from a distance beading a wedding necklace and talking to a handsome, young man of great stature and presence talking gently with her daughter in a deep, calming voice. When Nandi spies further, she sees that on the bed made from blankets, there is a long coiled, green-gray skin. At once, she snatches it up and flings it into the fire. "The spell is broken", he says when the two realize that Nandi has come. "Because a kind, virtuous girl took pity on me". Nandi's daughter, and the Chief's son get married and give Nandi a grandson and two granddaughters.
Pitcher, Diana, "The Snake Chief", Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales
WW. Norton 7 Company (pp.26-28.)
The Snake Chief. Wellington [N.Z.: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1960. Print.
Arnott, Kathleen. African Myths and Legends. New York: H.Z. Walck, 1963. Print.
This is similar to other 'stories of transformation'.
This story would be accessible to school-aged children and up. I could certainly use it for my ESL class. I have a friend who studied in South Africa, and who readily recognized this story as one that is told among people living in South Africa. To adapt this story, I would look try and describe the fruit involved- and may ask audience members to describe fruits that are unique to their countries.
In the author's notes, it states that this is from Zululand and that the snake is a mystical creature and a popular motif in many African tales.
