Kalulu the Hare's Long Night Under Hyena Rule

The forest fell under a dark reign when hyenas, initially dismissed for their raucous laughter, gradually seized control. Their intimidation wasn’t just about force, but about crushing the spirit, demanding silence, lowered gazes, and complete surrender. Even Kalulu, the usually quick-witted hare, found his cleverness no match for the hyenas’ growing hunger for submission.

The hyenas’ cruelty escalated, with the young buffalo being a prime example. His protest was met with a brutal reprisal, returning a mere shadow of his former self, advocating for subservience. When Kalulu’s own cousin vanished after a jest, the hare contemplated escape, but ultimately chose to stay, unwilling to concede the forest’s ownership to the oppressors.

Life became a trial for all. Animals learned to smile at the hyenas’ cruel jokes, a dangerous act of self-preservation. One particularly grim night, smaller creatures were forced to witness the punishment of a young antelope who refused to clap during a hyena song. Amidst the fear, an old tortoise advised Kalulu not to fight with brute force, but to remember.

Kalulu, too small to confront the hyenas directly, became the forest’s memory keeper. He meticulously recalled every name lost, every fear-driven clap, and every swallowed anger. The hyenas, blinded by their perceived victory, never noticed the slow, collective accumulation of this shared memory.

Their certainty that the forest had forgotten how to resist proved to be their undoing. The ground, metaphorically, shifted beneath them as the forest’s patient memory grew. While the change wasn’t immediate, it was inevitable. The hyenas failed to learn that cruelty, left unchecked, eventually overreaches. When daylight finally returned, Kalulu, marked by his ordeal but still standing, witnessed the end of the hyenas’ reign, a testament to the forest’s enduring memory.

This article is based on ‘Kalulu and the long night of the hyenas’ by Charles Onyango-Obbo.