Origins

Once there was a grand horse, who had a golden horn on his head. He only neighed on Fridays, and when he neighed it sounded like a tornado. The horse belonged to a king of Bornu, but when his son was caught illegally borrowing it for breeding, the son had to run away- and thus began the Casa people.

photo from www.abujacity.com

One of our main roles being in the Sahel will be accompanying the people there, learning from them, and acting as a bridge connecting our cultures and sphere of relationships. For that reason it seems really helpful to learn as much as possible in a short time about the background of the people we'll be interacting with. 

We know that one of the languages we need to learn for working in the Sahel is Casa. Conveniently, my brother gave me a Casa folk-lore book for Christmas! So now we at least know a little of the flavor of the culture in the explanation of their origins, even if we're not quite sure about all the cultural significance of a horse that neighs like a tornado only on Fridays. The first big question this story raises for me is: are there really tornadoes in Africa or is that just a loose translation issue? I'll have to look into that.

Also of interest is the bold caveat at the beginning of this story in the folk-lore book that says "Truly [the Casa's] origin was from the Barbari and Northerners. Any account other than this one is not authentic," and the fact that every story ends with the sentence, "Off with the rat's head!"