One thing is peculiar to any boarding house in Nigeria and they’re telling the same stories all the time probably with little modification. These stories are very predominant in Nigeria’s boarding schools and they’re very funny and laughable.
What’s most surprising is the fear that consumes students ‘ minds once these stories are told. You ‘d expect these students to be able to distinguish fact from fiction or theories, but they didn’t believe these stories.
Some students claim to have first-hand experiences with these stories, but you can imagine that most of them are lies.
Besides the Legend of the Lady Koi-koi, There was another myth so popular and this is the story of the Bush Baby.
This particular story deals with students in the boarding houses and this is due to the parallels between the novel and what happened. It is suspected that this Bush Baby makes funny noise at night but keep in mind that all sorts of animals make noise in the night as well.
This then made students consider every sound made in the night to be that of the Bush Baby and this created more fear.
This story has so many versions but here the one we heard!
Daddy and Mummy Bush Baby were madly in love, their love was so deep that it can be attested to by all members of their group.
Their love life was praised by some and, as you might imagine, it was also greatly envied by others. The leader of their town was one particular man who despised the love they shared.
He felt that love in marriage could not be kept hidden for the whole world to see. The leader of their world became so angry from envy that he wanted to put an end to this love between two beautiful people.
He then decided to accuse them of a hideous crime, and as the chief, he was believed by the entire community.
As a result of the crime they were accused of, their chief banished them from the land, right into the thick forest. At that time, the couple was expecting a baby, so to put an end to the love that the chief placed on the baby.
Unknown to the plight of the chiefs, they traveled into the forest and a few weeks after their banishment, they had their first child. Fear and consternation struck the couple when they saw the unsightly creature they had brought to earth.
It was at this moment that they decided to leave the baby on a mat and flee for their lives.
It all started as a rumor that there was a strange-looking woman with eyes so bright and breasts so long that they visited windows and wouldn’t stop crying.
It was only a rumor before the Bush-baby visited the chief himself and all the heck was let go. This is because the Bush-baby didn’t just cry, but he also hit the chief and gave him injuries as well.
When community leaders saw what had happened to the chief because of the Bush-baby, they all left their village and settled elsewhere.
Now people searching for land to establish their schools gave the abandoned land at a gift price. Upon completion of the school building, students hurried to school without realizing what was going on.
It didn’t take long for the students to get a fair share of the Bush Baby and he moved on crying from dormitory window to dormitory window.I hope you enjoyed the story.
Thanks for reading.
Story Credit; @Nigeriastories