Hlakanyana the Trickster
Sesotho folktale · ditšomo
Kwesukasukela... Hlakanyana was a tiny, cunning creature, no bigger than a weasel, who spoke even before he was fully born and was wise beyond his size. From his earliest days he outwitted everyone around him. In one famous episode he travelled and met cannibals or ogres and turned their own appetites against them. Sharing a hut with an ogre's mother, Hlakanyana proposed they cook their mothers together; by trickery he saved his own and tricked the ogre into eating its kin, then fled. In another, he came upon birds caught in his traps, ate them, and blamed others. Once Hlakanyana was himself captured by an old woman who meant to cook him; he flattered her, persuaded her to come close, and shoved her into her own pot instead, escaping yet again. His cleverness, however, sometimes overreached: he was occasionally outwitted in turn, by a hare or by another trickster, reminding listeners that no schemer wins forever. Hlakanyana's many adventures are strung together as a cycle, each showing his quick tongue, his greed, and his bottomless guile. The tales delight in his nerve while quietly warning that such trickery, though admired, breeds no lasting friends. Cosu cosu iyaphela.
The lesson: Cleverness can save you from danger, but unchecked greed and trickery eventually turn against the schemer.