In the shadow of the Drakensberg, a kraal sat ringed by thorn branches, smoke rising in thin blue threads. Hyena, whose laugh could limp a goat’s courage, often circled the cattle at night, counting with hungry eyes. When calves began to vanish, the headman said, We will find the thief by listening to the ground. The diviner planted a staff, tied with white goat hair, and told the people to sleep lightly.
Hyena knew the people were ready. He also knew a secret, the herd’s salt lick had been moved to the river bend where granite stones shine like old coins. There, cows forgot their fear, and moonlight made them slow. Hyena learned this from a boy who talked too much near the reed bed. Hyena said to himself, Secrets belong to those who use them, not those who tell them.
He waited for clouds to cover the moon, then crept to the river bend, eager to pull a calf into the reeds. A shape moved behind him, not lion, not man, but something between. It was Jackal, thin and clever, the shadow that watches the shadow. Jackal said quietly, Brother Laugh, your teeth are fast, but your footprints are faster. They lead everywhere. Hyena laughed, then stopped laughing because the laugh echoed like a cough of guilt.
Next day, the diviner scattered ash and crushed leaves around the kraal’s gate, a medicine that sticks to dishonest paws. Hyena heard and told himself, I will not enter the gate, I will steal by water. He went to the salt lick again. The river kept its secrets, but the mud did not. When he dragged a calf, the mud held prints like signatures on a bad promise.
At dawn the herd boys found the trail, the headman followed, and soon the kraal walked as one body, spears in patient hands. Hyena tried to cover his tracks with grass, then with laughter, then with a story, I was chasing the thief away. The diviner lifted his staff and said, The ground knows who pressed it. Hyena’s laugh fell apart like dry bark.
Punishment was discussed, harsh voices, soft voices, a chorus of fear and anger. Grandmother Nomusa raised her hand, the kraal quieted, her bracelets chimed like old rain. She said, Punish hunger and it will hide, teach hunger and it will listen. The headman agreed, though some frowned. Hyena was made to sleep inside the kraal for one moon, under watch, to guard calves at night, to carry water by day, to clean dung, to mend the fence with thorn that finds the careless hand.
Hyena hated the thorn at first, it taught him slow patience, it made his paws bleed truth. Jackal visited and mocked, Brother Laugh, how does it feel to guard what you used to steal. Hyena answered without a laugh, It feels like drinking water after too much salt.
When the moon thinned to a bone, calves were fat, fences tight, and Hyena’s coat had lost its ash of shame. The headman said, Choose, return to the bush with your old laugh, or stay at the edge of the kraal as watcher. Hyena looked at the calves, then at the hills, then at his paws. He chose the edge, not the center, not the wild, the edge where laughter could become a bark that warns.
From then on, when hyenas howled beyond the hills, the kraal listened for one voice that did not mock, a voice that warned of leopard, that barked at jackal, that remembered thorn lessons. And some nights, when girls pounded maize and boys learned stick fighting, Grandmother Nomusa would say, A secret that bites the hand that feeds you is not a secret, it is hunger pretending to be clever.
Moral, Secrets that harm the herd turn against their keeper
Author’s Note, Zulu tales often hold the kraal as moral center, where discipline and communal labor protect life. This version makes Hyena’s secret a practical edge that collapses under collective attention, then reframes him as liminal guardian, a believable social redemption.
Knowledge Check
Place, Where does Hyena exploit the herd, answer, At the river bend salt lick
Foil, Which character warns Hyena about footprints, answer, Jackal
Evidence, What reveals Hyena’s theft, answer, Mud prints like signatures
Justice, What is Hyena’s sentence, answer, Guard calves, carry water, mend the kraal for a moon
Transformation, What role does Hyena choose later, answer, Edge watcher, barking warning
Lesson, What do elders say about harmful secrets, answer, They are hunger pretending to be clever
Origin, Zulu, South Africa
