Princess Nkosazana and the Legend of Udo

A story created in to go along with an art project. Featuring an African princess, and her memory of a legend told to her by her mother, before the tragic murder.

Princess Nkosazana lay with her head against the soft fur of the great lioness, Thulani. The two had been inseparable since Thulani’s birth, where she had been entrusted to Nkosazana’s care. Thulani’s mother had been murdered by poachers, and a few years later, after the murder of Nkosazana’s mother, Queen Thema, the two had formed an unbreakable bond of love and kinship.

Nkosazana was remembering the first time her mother told her the legend of Udo, and how the queen’s words had weaved a world of magic and truth.

 

It was a warm spring night, and the full moon that glittered above cast its gaze upon mother and daughter as they conversed in quiet tones.

“Mother, why do we meditate every day?” Nkosazana asked.

“Listen to me my precious daughter, for tonight you shall hear the tale of the great Udo,” Thema said, and with that, she began to spin the tale.

“There once was a man, a simple griot, far back in times long lost to us. He is remembered as being a small man, who never seemed to age, for the crinkles in his face were few, even after all the years spent traversing the land and telling tales. We know him as Udo, meaning peace.

He spent many of his days in solitude, pondering the majesties of the moon and stars, and calculating the positions of the sun. Many an answer he found after a long time of contemplation and meditation. At night, he would sit the village square, animating the tales with his sonorous voice, and talking late with the men about his philosophies.

Over the course of time, Udo had come to realize the stories were not merely stories, but historical legacies rooted in truth. Truth that had the power to bring change; and so he embarked on the journey of his life, a never ending quest to share the knowledge.

One of the many things he had come to know was of perennial battle of the ages- good against evil. For every light there is a dark, and for every dark, a light. Like the opposition of sun and moon, there is good and bad within everyone. Udo meditated on this for many years, contemplating the never-ending cycle, until one day, after conversing with an exceptionally observant child, he came to his final conclusion.

According to Udo, when one learns to transcend the material things in life, they can find a higher awareness, and begin an inner awakening of all peoples. ‘We are but grains of desert sand; alone we are nothing, but together we create a whole piece of the puzzle,’ he said. He believed that if all could understand what we had come to know, there could be peace and prosperity.

Nkosazana, my child, we meditate to honor Udo. To honor the belief. We meditate so that we may become part of the awakening and so that we too can experience the peace and fulfillment that comes from having an open mind and an open heart. We may be different as the sun and moon, but we are all human and through meditation we can go beyond ourselves and bring change to our warring empire.

Do you understand now?”

Little Nkosazana nodded, still entranced by the awe of the story.

 

            The princess, coming out of her reverie, beckoned to the great lioness.

            “Come Thulani, let us meditate.”