Father of Crows is the type of husband who neglects his wives so that his second wife, Mother, of Pumpkins, receives the (symbolic) seeds of her children from a pair of sympathetic turtle doves, a common species in South Africa. They are, no doubt, ancestral spirits in disguise. In Africa, it is ever so often the ancestors who must act to rectify the behavior of their children, who otherwise would remain childless. This is the worst possible disaster for any family in Africa—for if a woman is barren, who will look after her late in life?

Mother of Pumpkins

Once upon a time, there was a woman whose name was Manyope, which means that she was childless. She was the second wife on a chief whose first wife did have children, but (oh, horror!) her children were all big black crows. They would perch nastily on Manyope’s hut and cruelly soil it, shouting, “hwa! hwa!” as they did so.

The chief used to lament his misfortune:

“Look at this lovely land!
Will it be ruled by crows?
Will birds inherit it?|
Who then will till the soil?

The people in the other villages sometimes referred to him as Father of Crows.

Manyope was also unhappy, for there is nothing more heartbreaking for a woman in Africa than to have no children. Every morning she would go out to her fields to dig vegetable gardens and plant mealies (maize). One day, when she was tired, she sat down and cried: “Why should I work all day? I have no children to grow vegetables for, none to cook mealies for.”

Suddenly, two turtledoves cooed in a tree above her: “Vukutu, vukutu …why are you crying?”

Surprised, she answered, “I have no child!”

The birds asked, “What will you bring us if we give you a child?”