The Night Fire: What the Monkey Desires
The old man Tambanle has truly seen a lot of this world. He has seen a lot of seasons and a lot of things. It is a very long time now that he has stopped daring to explain to himself what is happening in this world. Every time he accepts a fact, he never says "yes" but always repeats a word, "sedem" (which in the initiatic language means "heard" or "yen-de"). And every time he is shocked by a fact, he always says "yen-yo", which can be translated into English as "is that so". The old Tambanle, for a lot of people, was a living mystery, especially for every person trying to understand the word "sedem". He has lived in a small village of the savannah somewhere between the modern countries of Burkina Faso and Togo. Besides his life of being an initiatic priest, of which only a few people knew, he was known as a peddler of salt, potassium and tobacco. He was affectionately nicknamed "the friend of women" be- cause his salt allowed women to maintain attention of their husbands with the food they were cooking at home.
The old Tambanle could not have enemies; his "sedems", "yen-de" and "yen-yo" were not perceived as offensive. These expressions placed him in the position of an individual who recognized he didn't know very much of this world and did not have opinions. One could not even say if the old Tambanle had friends... yen-de! He was not the kind that could be a partner in crime; he was not the kind that could encourage you to your own loss just because he needs to be pleasing. He will always say "yen-yo" or "yen-de" to give the impression that you just opened his eyes to another aspect of this world... yen-de!
The old Tambanle has lived a very long life that many of us will find boring because of a lack of hysteria and follies. It is said that one day, his first son confronted him. He blamed him for not having desires and not hesitating to give up his dreams; but as usual, the old man responded with a "yen-yo". His son attacked again: "Yen-de, yen-de... father, life is a battle field and everybody is trying to survive. And what are you doing?" The old man shook his head and emitted another "yen-yo" before returning to his meditation.
Days passed, then one day the old man asked his son to come with him on a journey toward the mountains. The mountains in these regions were infested with wild monkeys. For a very long time, no farmer could live there because monkeys would eat half of his productions. It is said that only the old Tambanle had found a solution to reduce the actions of the monkeys on the agricultural products. All the farmers around the mountain were very grateful to the old Tambanle, but the people of the plains never knew what he did. Even to his son, the old Tambanle never revealed his secret.
While walking towards the mountains, the son asked the old man, "How were you able to solve the problem of the monkeys on the mountain?" The old man, in the same tone, answered, "By using traps". He waited a long minute before adding. "The traps that only get the greedy and stubborn monkeys." The son found himself with a head full of questions, but instead of asking them, he decided to be patient and wait to see what kind of traps are capable of selecting and catching just greedy and stubborn monkeys.
When they arrived, the old man presented to his son a box perforated with holes and said, "This is the trap that only catches greedy and stubborn monkeys." Seeing that his son was unable to see how a simple box perforated with holes could catch a monkey, the old man decided to demonstrate how the box worked. He placed a nut on the ground covered it with the box, and asked his son to try to get the nut without removing the box. All the holes were big enough for his hand to go through, but as soon as he grabbed the nut, they were too small for a fist to come out. The young man tried in vain and did not succeed in retrieving the nut. Every time he abandoned the nut, he could take his hand out very easily from the box.
"You see that?" says the old man, laughing. "The monkey that does not want to abandon their desires will die with their hand in this box. I spent my life trying to survive beyond this box by saying to myself that it is not my desires that count, but the practicality of the means and the consequences of what I will get..."
The old man could see discomfort in the eyes of his son. It is undeniable that this anecdote of a trap that only catches greedy and stubborn monkeys is a parable that could be applied to the human life. Individuals that want to impose their will, ignorance and knowledge are not different from a monkey sitting on the box with their hand inside. The old Tambanle then said, laughing, to his son, "The individual with opinions is not different from the one that wants to retrieve a nut from this trap." This trap of life comes in many forms and takes a human being that wants something hostage. This is as true as the strength of our will and our desire.
The old Tambanle, by inviting his son on this journey, was hoping to solve the mystery surrounding his life, but he only made the mystery of the old peddler of salt who was saying "is that so" or "heard" thicker. He al- ways tried to make sure that there was enough salt for sale. For some rare occasions where there was not salt to sell, he always said to his clients that were surprised, "Yen-de, yen-de, yen-de," his favorite expression.
