Page 21 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 23
P. 21
Community
is notorious for bullying others by the gate in the cold of the
and consistently trying to have Savannah night until morning.
the food alone. Even though I hail such acts of
discipline and patience, Dude’s
I don’t like greed or self- own seems to be all about the
centeredness, so you can food. Well, what else should
imagine my dislike for this one expect from a dog?
dog who constantly fights with Samuel Phillips
other dogs for dominion over On the other hand, Picky is is a writer, graphic designer,
food. At some point, we started quiet and cute; you hardly hear photographer, songwriter, singer and a
to bring out the food only him bark, and he doesn’t fight lover of God. As an African content
when this vicious dog was not the other dogs for food. Picky creator, he is passionate about creating a
around the gate. At least let the will choose to run away if you better image and positive narrative about
others eat in peace. get too close to the food you Africa and Africans.
just gave him. He seems shy
This story is about this vicious, and behaves somehow like a
bullish dog and one of the “gentleman”. would take the food out.
smaller, cute dogs. I will call
the bullish dog Dude and the On this evening, we had As the evening went by, I got
other dog Picky for purposes collected a pile of leftovers and caught up in other things, so I
of this story. were waiting to see which dogs was not paying much attention
would show up. So, while we to what was happening outside.
Like I already said, Dude is waited, I placed the food in the
vicious, bullish, fights for plastic bowl we use for them Then, I heard a sound outside,
food all the time, and his fur and kept it on our veranda just and I looked out of the kitchen
is almost always unkempt. He inside the gate. In my mind, window, and suddenly, from
is constantly lingering around I wanted Picky, or one of the nowhere, Dude was right on
the gate, waiting for food. other cool dogs, to be the one top of the bowl of food. I
Sometimes, he even sleeps that would show up, and then I dashed out of the door, and he,
knowing he was in the wrong,
ran away, passed through a
hole in the fence and got out.
Now I was thinking, how did
Dude get into the compound
with the gate closed? Then I
noticed he had made a space
just under our barbed-wire
fence, which he had used to
come in and get out. He must
WWW.MSINGIAFRIKAMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 23 | JANUARY 2024 21