Only One Cowry: A Dahomean Tale

"Only One Cowry" is a great book about the traditions of the African culture. The book shows greed from a king,Dada Segbo, and strategy from a servant, Yo. The king is requesting that someone find him a wife with just one cowry. The servant Yo takes his cowry and uses it to double its worth. First he uses the cowry to buy flint and with the flint he uses it to start a fire to catch grasshoppers. Then with the grasshoppers, he feeds a woman's chickens and she rewards him with beans. With the beans, he throws some beans into the water to help a man catch fish. To reward him, he gives him a bag of fish. With the fish, he feeds a blacksmith and is rewarded tools for the fish. Yo then takes the tools to help a farmer with clearing his land. show more To reward Yo, the farmer gives him oil. Finally Yo goes to a baker who ran out of oil, with half of his oil Yo helps the baker make more bread. To reward Yo, the baker gives him bread. Yo makes it to the next village to present the bread, oil, tools, fish, beans, grasshoppers and flint to the chief of the village. The chief of the village then presents Yo with his daughter for the king, Dada Segbo. The daughter overheard Yo say that he found the King a beautiful wife with only one cowry. After being offended, the daughter requests items from the King before she meets him and he delivers. After requesting many items for her and her village, she goes to the King allowing him to think he only spend one Cowry for her. This story shows traditions of African villages to give gifts to the father for the daughters hand in marriage. The story is humorous but also informative on different traditions. show less

Summary:
This is a story about an African king that is ready to find his wife. In their culture, it is a tradition for the king to give gifts to his future wife's family. Although this king had plenty of money and fortune, he was greedy and wasn't to keen on giving up any of his wealth. He held up a cowry shell, claiming this would be the gift. All the people protested except for one fellow. He was sure that he would be able to find the king a wife for one cowry. This gentleman was extremely clever. He began with selling the cowry for a piece of flint. By helping others, he was given many gifts in return. Once he had multiple gifts to offer, he asked the chief if his daughter would marry the king. Being that the king showered her family show more with gifts, she gladly accepted. She then overheard the clever gentleman telling a villager to let the king know that he found him a wife, for only one cowry. This was upsetting to her, but she found a way to get even where the king definitely ended up spending more than one cowry to find a wife.

Personal Reaction:
This story was interesting. There are so many different cultures with various traditions. I think it's extremely important to introduce multicultural books to students. Not only does this help us learn about different cultures, but those coming from different cultures can enjoy reading about the things they're familiar with. David Soman did a fantastic job with his illustrations by making the people, clothes, items, etc. portray the African culture.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. This story has an open ending. The king ends up giving the clever gentleman another cowry for finding him a wife. He bought a sweet potato and then dug a hole in the ground. I would have students write a journal entry about what they thought he did with the sweet potato and how he could make his fortune grow as he did with the first cowry.
2. I could have students create a diorama of their favorite scene of the story. show less

Summary: A Dahomean tale, the king sends Yo to find him a wife with nothing more than one cowry. Yo trades his way along his route until he presents the queen to be with a pile of goods, which she accepts. She then swindles the king into more goods for offering so little for her hand.

Criteria- Critique of Genre: Folklore- African: A Realistic fictional story about the ritual of how wives were bought in the past. An old-time tale of trade and marriage. Culturally specific in the way it demonstrates marriage cultural rituals in Dahomean.

Age: Primary, intermediate

Media: Collage

The main character of this folk tale tricks his king into spending a great deal of his wealth on a bride. The king says that he only wants to spend one cowry for a new bride and he young man says that he can find a bride for just that. Through trade and trickery, he makes the king believe that he aquires the king's new bride for that one cowry. This book is appropriate for all ages.

I like this book because it expresses truth about the past and opens up the mind for imagination of the future.

Great culture, diversity. Different, creative. Great sense of worth of an item.