There was a certain servant who was very diligent and hardworking, more than his fellows. This made his master to distinguish and love him above all his servants. After some years of faithful and selfless service, this faithful man gained his freedom. His master gave him money and a lot of valuable properties as a result of his good behaviour. This servant, now a man on his own, set for his journey back to his village, which was after a large river to be crossed by a canoe. He entered a canoe and they began the journey. When they were at the middle of the river, the canoe broke and everything turned upside down. The river was too large that one cannot cross it by swimming, even canoes used to spend about five days on it before crossing and it was once in a blue moon that one can see canoe on the river.

This man continued swimming for survival; he swam until he got to a big rock in the middle of the river. He held the rock and climbed it to the top which was above the water level. There the man remembered all his sufferings and labours and he started crying like a baby. He knew that the end of his life has come, there was no food to eat and he did not see anybody. ‘Why did I swim for survival?’ He asked himself. He felt he should jump back into the river but he could not.

The man slept there for more than seven days without food, he was tired and could not stand up again. Rain fell on him nearly everyday, he was exposed to sun from morning till evening and strong winds from the river also troubled him. This man suffered a lot on the rock but in the noon of the eighth day, he noticed something from a far distance moving towards him. When he saw it clearly, it was a big canoe with many people inside. He quickly stood up, despite his weakness, to create an awareness that somebody was on the rock. He off his cloth and began to wave it. The canoe kept on coming to his side until it reached the rock.

The canoe was very big with different kinds of designs on its two sides. It was also dressed at the edges with different kinds of coloured pieces of clothes. Some men in the canoe asked the man on the rock to come down but he could not move again, he had lost all his strengths. He just waved his hand to them to come and help him. Two men climbed the rock and brought him to the canoe. When he got there, everybody bowed to him and they all worshipped him. They gave him a delicious food to eat; they changed his cloth and continued to worship him.

The man regained his strength after eating and resting, he was surprised to see all what the people had done to him, and he asked where they were coming from and where they were going to. They told him that they had come to pick him as their next king. ‘King? How can I be your next king?’ The man asked surprisingly but the people further told him that a foreigner used to be their king and the oracle had directed them to the river and pick anybody found there to be their next king. They bowed down and worshipped him again. This man could not believe what was happening. He thought they were planning to kill him. ‘Well, anything they will do to me, I will follow them,’ he decided.

They got to their village and the man was surprised to see that it stood alone in the forest. There was no neighbouring village and it was as if he had reached another world. He was surprised again to see what they did as they took him to the palace, made him to bath, clothed him and made him to be their king. They gave him all what he needed and worship him everyday. Many days after, the man now knew that they were serious as they kept on coming to worship him. He asked them of the chiefs but they replied that they did not have any, they let him know that he was the only person they knew as their leader and they will always dance to his tune. He told them that he cannot rule them alone and that he was a stranger who did not know their customs, culture and rules. Again, the people replied him that they were aware of everything and that was how it used to be, ‘a stranger is always our king,’ one of them shouted. They told him to rule in the way he liked and they were ready to obey all his commands.

This man’s heart was troubled. ‘How can a tree makes a forest?’ He kept on asking himself. One morning he told the village crier to inform all the old men in the village that he wanted to see them in the palace. This was done and the old men gathered in the evening. He welcomed them with food and drinks, and after they had eaten, he addressed them to join him in ruling the village successfully. ‘My fathers in this land,’ he began to talk to them, ‘I want you to join hands with me in building this village. You can see that a termite alone cannot build the termitarium but with the little effort of many termites, the ant hill may be taller than a hut. One hand will always find it difficult to lift a load to the head but the two hands will find it easier. Also, I want you all to consider the broom, a stick out of it can easily be broken but the bunch cannot. Please let us join hands together, don’t let me be like the snake that suffered a lot from human being because it walks lonely, if snakes walk together like the ants and the sheep, nobody on earth will move close to them talk less of killing them. My fathers please come together and you show me the ways.’ The old men laughed when they heard the words of this man. They all shouted, saying that he alone should rule them the way he likes. They kept on telling him this till all of them returned to their various huts.

A month later, the king also hosted the old women, he asked them how to rule the village but they replied him too that he should rule them the way he likes and they would comply. The king was not satisfied, he further hosted the youths. He asked them the same thing and they also replied that his wish alone would be recognized. The king now followed their instruction to be ruling the people the way he liked and they did all he asked them to do.

One day, as the king was passing along the market, he noticed a beggar who was a very old woman. In fact she would be one of the oldest women in the village, she hardly sees and she had no teeth again. The king decided to make a friendship with this woman. ‘At least she may have one or two advises to give me anytime I am confused,’ he said.

After a longtime of friendship with this old woman, the king told her that he wanted to surprise her. He told her to ask anything she needed and he is ready to do it for her. The king though that the woman would ask for money or something big but to his surprise, the woman ask for kola nut. The king reminded her that she had no teeth and it would be difficult for her to eat. The woman answered him that he should dry the kola nut and grind it into powdered form. The king agreed to do this and three days later, he came with the grinded kola nut.

The old woman was excited; she didn’t believe the king could do it. ‘I know that you have money and materials and you will find it very easy to give me but I have used this, which is not common to test you and you did it. Now I am ready to help you with advices anytime you come,’ the old woman said. Hearing this, the king was very happy; this is what he needed since he became the king. He now asked from the woman why the village had refused to join him in ruling and making decisions.

The woman was surprised to hear the question. She asked the king to promise her that he would not tell anybody that she was the one that reveal the secret of the village to him. The king quickly promised her and she told him that it was true that their king was always a stranger or a foreigner, who did not know the principal culture of the village. ‘The people will make the king to rule them how he likes and they will obey all his instructions but at the end of the seventh year of his ruling, they will send him away to a forest.’ The woman pointed to the forest and further said that there were different kinds of dangerous animals inside and they would surely kill anybody found there. ‘Many kings had died there,’ the woman concluded. The king thanked her for telling him this and returned to his palace with thoughts of the way out from his trap

The king had concluded within himself of what to do when it remains about two years for him to finish his tenure. He first of all sent all the young and strong men of the village to the forest to clear a large portion of it and uproot more than half of the trees there. After that, he ordered them to use the wood to build many huts and a large and beautiful palace there. The people of the village were surprised to see what the king was doing but they must obey him. They wondered whether somebody had revealed the secret of the land to the king but they trusted themselves. ‘It had never happen and it will not happen,’ some of them said.

The forest was turning to another thing, all the dangerous animals had run away and beautiful buildings had come to the place. When the raining season began, the king ordered that nobody should plant any crop on their farm but in the forest. Also, when it remains seven moons for him to be on the throne, he sent the village crier to inform all the young ladies in the village to come to the palace. When they all gathered, he selected the most beautiful fifty from them and sent the remaining back to their home. The king made sure that he impregnated the fifty girls he selected within five moons and he sent all of them to the palace in the forest. He asked some young boys to go along with them and be their servant. He further selected some old and intelligent men, about fifteen in number, and sent them together with their families to the forest. He gave them a hut each and made sure that more than half of the stored food in the village went to the forest. Also, he sent some powerful men to the farm in the forest to be working there always.

One day, when it remains a moon for him to be sent away, he announced that he wanted to see everybody in the village. When they came, he told them that it was an order from him that they should not change the culture of the village. He asked them to continue with what they had started since the history of the village. All of them were surprised, they looked at one another’s face but they could not say anything.

At the end of the king’s seventh year, the people came to the palace and sent him to the forest as they used to do. They worshipped their oracle on that day and asked it to give them another king.

When the man got to the forest, he met his wives and servants in the palace. He crowned himself and called for an emergency meeting. When everybody in the forest gathered, he asked them a question, ‘who ordered you to come to this place?’ They answered together that it was him. He thanked them for the correct answer and told them that he was their king. Without any argument, they all submitted to the wise man and bowed down for him, they worshipped him as their king.

Few years later, the people grew in number and in many things. When the people of the former village were dying of hunger, many of them came and settled down in the new village. The king later appointed the fifteen men he sent to the forest as chiefs, he told them that he needed their assistance because a tree cannot make a forest. The men thanked him. The new village grew rapidly even more than the former and he continued to rule them.