The Baby Mosquito and Clapping Hands - An African Proverb

Baby mosquito was ready for its solo maiden flight. It was excited. It fluttered its wings, did a somersault, tilted to the left, then to the right, it flew up, then down, all to impress its Mama. “Mama look, I’ve got this,” it said confidently.

Mama looked at her child with a mixture of pride and dread. “Can we postpone your flight till tomorrow? The clouds are gathering, it might rain,” she said. “No mom. No,” Baby Mosquito vehemently objected.

“Stay away from humans…” she started to tell Baby, but before she could finish, baby interjected, “if they come close to you, fly away as quickly as you can! Stay in the bushes and around livestock. Whatever you do avoid humans.”

Mama sighed and bid Baby farewell.

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The Flight And Disobedience

Baby Mosquito flew happily, reveling in her new found independence. She glided along with the wind, landed on an oak leaf, she tickled the ears of a striped grass mouse and back into the air she went, flying. “Mom is so going to be proud of me when I return unscathed,” she thought to herself as she flew over a field of cocoyam. Then she saw something that piqued her interest to no end in a distance; a group of two legged beings, sitting in a semi-circle, with bare arms and legs; humans! She hovered in the bushes for a long while, every stern warning from her Mama playing in her head, but curiosity got the better of her and she inched closer. The closer she got, the more tantalizing the smell of human flesh became.

And so Baby landed on a hairless leg and had a good drink. When she was full she flew closer to have a good look at human faces. As she flew from one face to another, she expertly avoided clapping hands and waving handkerchiefs. With her curiosity satisfied and her belly full, Baby flew home to Mama.

The Lesson

“Mama, I did good today. Even the humans you dread so much were impressed with me. When I flew close to them, they clapped for me and cheerfully waved at me with their handkerchiefs.”

With a mix of exasperation and disappointment, Mama said to her child, “They weren’t clapping for you, fool! They were trying to kill you with their bare hands. Neither were they waving you on, they were trying to swat you away!”

That is why our elders say in an age old adage, what the old man sees sitting, a young man can never see even if he climbs the tallest iroko tree. We have the experiences of those before us to learn from in order to avoid making our own unaffordable mistakes.

Take advantage of other’s experiences to better yourself.

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