Cartoon of a man urinating on the Bible. Photo credit: @tylyorbo
There’s a story in Yoruba land and it goes thus:
The ubiquitous tortoise once had a wife. Unfortunately, tortoise, being the lazy type, it gets rewarded, for everyone of its actions rather handsomely.
It so happens that the tortoise’s father in law is a farmer of repute. In contrast, the tortoise and his wife are suffering because they lack food.
On a market day, the tortoise decides to go to the market. The major difference being that while others are going to the market to buy commodities with their hard earned money, the tortoise goes to his father in law’s farm to steal what he can.
Knowing the tortoise and his greed, it’s no surprise that he decides to bite much more than he can chew. At the end of the day, he’s not able to carry what he has, ‘farm lifted’.
Since it’s the market day, his father in law goes to the farm to see what he can also take to the market. But he discovers traces of his farm products being tampered with.
He doesn’t go far before he discovers his son in law, the tortoise, trying to make off with those things he had stolen from his farm.
The man doesn’t bat an eyelid before tying up tortoise in a place where people going to the market will be seeing him.
Whenever anyone accosts the tortoise to ask what had actually happened, he doesn’t fail to tell them the truth of the matter.
Each person will then blame the tortoise for his seemingly unpardonable behavior.
However, when those same people are coming back from the market, tortoise is still there.
They then start abusing the father in law. Some of them are even to say, the tortoise will not eat what he has stolen alone. He will eat the proceeds of his theft with the man’s daughter.
Due to the COZA affair, a columnist did an article on the pastor’s wife. Actually, most people wouldn’t have noticed the article. However, the artwork that accompanied the column has unwittingly made the article famous.
The cartoon shows someone urinating on the Bible!
A lot of dust was raised. The most common being that the artist couldn’t have done it to the Quran. If he had done it various people were saying various things would have happened to the Punch and it’s workers. Those things wouldn’t have been favorable.
The court of public opinion then decided that heads must roll for that misdemeanor.
Since the proprietors of the Punch are in business to make money, they did the bidding of the court.
Heads did roll!
At the last count two editors have been forced to resign. The columnist is to rest her column. And the main man, the cartoonist, was sacked.
People are now saying the judgement of the Punch management is too draconian.
Alo n t’ahun!
Abo t’ana e!!
071119
