Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters contains the major characteristics of a fairytale in that there is a problem to be solved, an evil or no-good character, royalty, and a character that “shines’ with goodness. In this story there is a kind man who lives in a village and he has two beautiful daughters, Manyara (mean-hearted) and Nyasha (kind-hearted). One day the king summons the two daughters, because he is going to pick a wife from between the two of them. Manyara rushes ahead, secretly, and is mean to those she meets on the way. Nyasha comes later and is greeted at the castle by her screaming sister saying that an evil, five-headed snake is waiting on the throne. Nyasha goes in anyway and finds her friend, a little snake (Nyoka) who then turns into the king. He tells her that he is pleased with her and wants to marry her. Hr sister, Manyara, becomes a servant in the “Queen’s” household.
The themes that resound over and over again in this story are that goodness conquerors evil. This is shown when Manyara is rude and mean to her sister and the objects or people she meets on her way to the city. Nyasha, on the other hand, always puts the feelings and concerns of others above her own, which pleases the king who disguises himself as a little snake, a hungry little boy, a woman in the woods, and trees. Nyasha cares for the young, listens and respects the wisdom of the older people, and is kind to nature.
The theme of not being greedy rings throughout the story, with Manyara trying to greedily become the queen by starting out in the middle of the night, without her sister, refusing to feed a hungry child her own food, and her all around attitude towards her sister in taunting her to say that “she will be queen” and her sister will be a servant in her household. Nyasha gives constantly of herself and in doing so, proves that she would make a kind and benevolent queen, which is exactly what the king wants.
As a child, I was brought up on reading about Cinderella, her evil step-sisters, how she made the prince fall in love with her, and eventually lived happily ever after. I found it interesting to discover an “African Cinderella” version. I also found it refreshing that Nyasha (Cinderella) was not abused so roughly by her sister (Manyara), but it is easy to see that Manyara does have characteristics of an antagonist (greed, rudeness, bragging, etc.). I know some Manyaras (usually they are trying to cover up for some deficiency that they feel about themselves by picking on others) and at times I worry that I may act like a Manyara. It is easier to relate and connect to the antagonist character when they are simply greedy or mean-spirited. In a lot of the other Cinderella versions, the antagonist is abusive and neglectful. In this story the reader is able to see that the sometimes hidden evils of greed and jealously are just as bad and lurking as the other more abusive and neglectful evils. They are more dangerous in a sense, because they root within a person’s soul and plant themselves deep. Greed and envy are very difficult to overcome, but are very prevalent in our world. I can better relate with this version of Cinderella, because I see greed and envy everyday and this story reminds me to fight against it whether it is manifested in me or in some other facet of life.
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