Maku Mawu

Role: friend · First appears: Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia

In Tale 25, Maku Mawu and Maku Fia are such close friends that they are almost always together. When the King summons them to Court, they exchange a yam and a stone; Maku Mawu breaks his stone and finds ornaments hidden inside. The King gives him a ring and threatens his life if he cannot show it again in seven days. Maku Mawu sees the King’s design and hides the ring in his wall.

The King sends for Maku Mawu’s wife, and Maku Mawu innocently tells her where the ring is. She finds it and gives it to the King for the promised money, not knowing she has sold her husband’s life. But when the ring falls from the King’s dish into the pool, Maku Mawu catches a fish and finds it inside. He presents it at the palace, and the King has no excuse to harm him, so Maku Mawu goes free.

Relationship record

Life events

• The King summoned Maku Mawu and Maku Fia to Court.(Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia · 📍 Court)
  • With: the King (Tale 25) Maku Fia
  • “He sent for them to Court, and they came together.”
• Maku Mawu and Maku Fia exchanged the yam and stone.(Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia)
  • With: Maku Fia
  • “They exchanged, and each went off to his own home.”
• Maku Mawu broke the stone and discovered the ornaments hidden inside.(Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia)
  • “Maku Mawu broke his stone in half and found inside some beautiful ornaments which the King had hidden there.”
• The King gave Maku Mawu a ring and required him to show it again in seven days or lose his head; Maku Mawu saw the King’s design and hid the ring in the wall of his room.(Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia · 📍 palace)
  • With: the King (Tale 25)
  • “He then made him promise to come back in seven days and show the ring to the King again, to let the latter see that it was not lost. If by any chance he could not produce the ring—he would lose his head.”
• The King sent for the wife of Maku Mawu; Maku Mawu innocently told her the ring was in the wall, and she found it and gave it to the King for the promised money.(Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia · 📍 the King’s palace)
  • With: the wife of Maku Mawu the King (Tale 25)
  • “Delighted, she ran off to the King’s palace and gave the ring to him. She got the promised money and returned home, never dreaming that she had really sold her husband’s life.”
• Maku Mawu found the ring, which had fallen from the King’s dish into the water, inside a fish he caught.(Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia · 📍 the pool)
  • “Cutting it open, to clean it, his delight may be imagined at finding the lost ring inside it.”
• Maku Mawu presented the recovered ring, and the King had no excuse to harm him, so he went free.(Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia · 📍 the palace)
  • With: the King (Tale 25)
  • “At once he ran off to the palace crying: ‘I have found the ring! I have found the ring!’ When the people heard him, they all shouted in joy: ‘He named himself rightly ‘Maku Mawu,’ for see—the death God has chosen for him, that only will he die.’ So the King had no excuse to harm him, and he went free.”

Tale 25 · Maku Mawu and Maku Fia

• friends with Maku Fia “Once upon a time there were two men who were such great friends that they were almost always together.”
• enemies with the King (Tale 25) “This the King did, meaning to get hold of the ring in some way and so get the young man killed.”
• married with the wife of Maku Mawu “After two days the King sent for the wife of Maku Mawu and asked her to find the ring.”

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Extracted from the original text of West African Folk-Tales. Made with Rho MD.