A Nasty Forest Trap

A Wolf Trap

My adopted family love their cattle  so much that whenever one died everyone felt sad. Usually, lions, wolves, and hyenas killed our cattle, camels, horses, and donkeys.

Wolves ate our goats and lambs. We also had dogs and they were just like members of the family that helped my cousins as shepherd. Differently from dogs, we use our cattle for milk and sometimes for meat. To preserve our cattle and keep it growing, instead of eating their meat, my cousins hunted wild animals for meat.

However, our dogs' jobs were to prevent wolves and other wild animals from killing our cattle. One night, a wolf sneaked in and stole and killed our oldest goat and ate her. That old goat was a mother, a grandmother, and a great grand-mother of many of our goats. Our goats and lambs followed her as if she was the mother of them all. She was the leader of the herd. She was the oldest goat that guided and warned them from dangers entering into danger zones. With all the years of experience that old goat had an amazing instinct and sense of direction. Wherever my cousin took the herd for drinking water and grazing, the old goat followed my cousin and the herd followed her.

Nevertheless, no one really knew how the wolf got to her and killed her all the while unnoticed. When we found out that she was missing and was killed by the wolf, It was a nightmare for the family. That night, my cousins and parents were so upset and sad about the death that they couldn't eat. I was crying and didn't sleep until late that night. My cousins were angry and they decided to catch that wolf that ate her. 

So, my cousin started setting traps in the forest to catch the wolf. After long hours of trapping, finally, my cousin had caught that wolf during sunset. Then he brought the wolf back to our village while his foot was still stuck in the trap. He tied the wolf to a post. As wolf stood there tied to the post, our goats and lambs noticed the wolf and they started panicking and looking at it and being wary. Our dogs were barking and were getting ready to attack him.

However, what surprised me was when the wolf saw the cattle, it forget that his leg was into the trap and that he was tied to a post. So, he started making weird happy sounds like "hihi, haha, hihi." he got so excited that he forgot that his foot was in the trap. He was getting ready to start feasting on our cattle, completely oblivious of his plight.

So, as a child when I saw the wolf making happy sounds I thought that the trap didn't hurt his leg. I contrived to steal one of my cousin's trap. I went deep in the forest where no one could see me, then I tried it on my own foot. I already knew how to open the trap because my cousin had taught me how to do it.

There in the forest, I opened the trap and put my foot in it. It suddenly made a quick click and snapped, then abruptly closed on my foot. Its metallic teeth penetrated into my skin, and it hurt so bad, and the pain was so terrible that I screamed so loud that the entire forest echoed my voice away.

Many people heard my scream and my wailing and they came to save me. My cousins and some young people couldn't stop of laughing because they had  never seen a person willingly being caught into a trap just like an animal. That day my stupid cousins couldn't stop laughing at me, and they thought that I was truly stupid. Once again my cousins made fun of me for years to come.

I had learned a great lesson not to play with traps ever again. And still to these days, it will really shocks to see how the wolf in the trap was able to bear the pain and get excited upon setting his sight on our cattle.

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A Cow's Poop

When I was younger and lived with my family in the desert. My family was very organized because everyone knew their daily role. My mother took care of the donkeys, the tent, and the cooking.  Sometimes, my father helped her with the cooking. He also was in charge of the camels and the horses. My stupid cousins took care of the cows, lambs, and goats. I took care of my pets, my babies lambs and babies goats. 

However, in the desert our medicine are based on natural and organic herbs. One day, one of our cows had constipation with severe pain to her stomach. In the morning, my cousin decided to treat and cure the sick cow with herbals medicine using a Tuareg technique.  So, that morning our parents went to work. However, my cousin and I stayed at home. He milked all the cows that morning and then he gave me some milk to drink. So, I was sitting in the tent, drinking fresh milk, and watching my cousin treat the sick cow.  

First, he gave herbal medicine to the cow by mouth by making her chew it, and then he went around the cow and he blew with his mouth some air into the cow's buttocks in order to alleviate her constipation. However, feeling pressured in her butt, the cow projected a big watery poop into my cousin's mouth while he was still blowing air. She literally pressure pooped all over his face, head, and chest. When I saw the scene and all the poop all over his face I couldn't hold it anymore. I burst into laughter until I could not laugh anymore and was out of breath. That day, I laughed so hard that I could not breath anymore and my stomach got in pain. I had never seen in my life such medical practice. It was the very first time that I saw my cousin giving strange medicine to the cow through her butt. That day was mine, I had fun and I was very happy to see that big cow poop on his face because now I could make fun of him, and tell that story for years to come. Some time ago, I gave a short speech about that funny story in College. My classmates and my teacher love the story so much that they couldn't stop laughing and I got an A in that class. 

The funniest part was when my cousin removed quickly the poop from his eyes and turned towards me to see if I had seen what had happened. He looked like an owl in the night. He had to check because he did not want me to tell his girlfriend about that event. He even attempted to bribe me with wild fruits and a monkey as a gift, not to tell the story. He really did not want anyone to know about what happened because I was the only that had seen it all and he did not want to be made fun of.

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An Event in Hadesh's Life | Hunting in the desert

The very first time, I went hunting, I was about 7 seven years old. My adopted parents were nomadic tuareg people. They always moved from one place to another based on the seasons because of their herds of cattle. One day, they moved to a forest where was a lake and fresh weeds grew lusciously to feed our cattle. 

It was raining season, and wild animals were having babies. To get there, the whole family and I rode on donkey's back, camel's back, and horses' back. Once we got to our new settlement, I jumped out of my donkey's back, and went for new discoveries because I was hungry and my mother wanted to give us only curdled cow milk and she really did not have time to cook since they had to unpack and settle. 

So I decided to take matters into my own hands so I went hunting for meat, eggs, and fruits. I saw strange birds while I was walking in the forest. Those birds were getting in and out of a big bush. So, I was curious to see them closer, but I didn't know what kind of birds they were.  However, later I learned that they were bats, and not birds.

I was very hungry, and I wanted to eat badly those birds instead of just drinking the curdled milk we had at home. After locating these weird birds, I went back to steal a lighter from my parents so that I could go back and cook these birds.

Our lighters back then differed very much so from the modern lighters that use gas nowadays, because our lighters were made of 2 small stones and a piece of white cloth. 

On one stone, we stick an old white cloth that was soaked for a day in a liquid made back home that was always used to feed the animals. We let the cloth dry. Whenever we wanted to light a fire, we ripped some of the cloth and pegged it against one stone then used the other stone to strike against the stone with the cloth on it, the friction would cause fire to light on the cloth and I would use the lit cloth to light wood and dried leaves in order to make a bigger fire and that was exactly what I did that day to cook these bats.

The bats lived in a termite home in a hole under that bush. The bush was naturally designed to look like a small room. There was no way that someone could see me inside it. So, I gather all together some woods and dried weeds and put them right by the hole in which the bats where coming in and out of and I lit it good. So I started my barbecue and a long feasting day ensued. I was very happy that day of my exploit because it was the bats very oily and tasty and I satiated my hunger fully.  

The bats were falling one by one in the fire. When they were ready and cooked well, I picked them out the fire. I rubbed them in hand for the oil and then I tossed them straight into my mouth, with skin and everything else that came with it and ate it all. Then I used the oil on my hand to rub it all over my body as I was naked and I had heard that oil was good for beauty. I had seen my adoptive mother use oil all over her body for beauty purpose so I did the same with the oil from the bat. They were very tasty and oily.  While the mean time,  my parents were frantically looking for me in the forest, but they couldn't find me until I was full,  then on my own, I turn the fire off with dirt and I went home completely satiated and oily. I had stinking bats' black oil color all over my face and body. My stupid cousins made fun of me the entire following year. I became the talk of the tribe. They said to me that bats were not good meat to eat and their oil was not good oil. My parents laughed at the way I looked because it looked funny to them. 

It was a memorable experience and one that can only be lived in the desert and one I can never forget especially the way I ate these bats without even cleaning the skin out and the way I used their body oil for beauty purpose. 

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Hadesh Walet A Professional Singer

Hadesh Walet
A Professional Singer 

Album: Derhan

Hadesh is a local artist from Virginia. Originally from Mali, she is an avid supporter of Amazigh Heritage Foundation and Amman Imman nonprofit work all over Africa. Hadesh has always been known as the woman with the golden voice and the golden heart. Hadesh sang to help many causes. She sang to heal the broken hearts. She sang to support the lost cause of the children of the Azawak. She sang for many causes. Born and raised in West Africa, Hadesh comes from a long line of Amazigh people that may well have originated directly from Kahina. She is a rebel at heart and a great artist. She has raised three children and all of them are grown and successful today. After raising her children and accomplishing her career in commerce, Hadesh decided to start a new career, a career that was more of a calling to her. Since a young age, she always created and sang great melodies and songs. After so many years of ignoring the artist in her, she decided to try her talent. She sang in many venues and concerts. Every time, people kept asking her if she had any albums out. Therefore, she decided to make it a serious career, she hit the studio, and she recently put out her first album called Derhan. Her album is available on Amazon, iTunes, and many other music sites.

We asked Hadesh a little narritave on her life and this is what we got. Now in Hadesh own words: "My songs story started when I was about 7 years old in the desert of Mali. During that time, I lived with my aunt who adopted me when I was about 5 months old because my parents divorced and both of them remarried to their lovers. Therefore, I grew up in a tent in the middle of nowhere and around too many animals. My friends among those animals were lambs and bay goats. I also had three ducks, an ostrich, a rabbit, a deer, and a cat. Every morning, after our breakfast, all my animals followed me to the forest. The forest name is Tinaferan. Tinaferan is the name of a beautiful wild flower, which grows in abundance in that forest. Therefore, my songs started in Tinaferan. I even made necklaces for me and for the baby lambs and goats because they listened to my songs and danced to them. Those animals loved me and loved my voice so much that they gave up on their mothers and chose me as their mother. The baby lambs, and baby goats went to their mothers only when they needed some milk. In addition, whenever my animals got lost in the forest, to find them I would sing a song. When they heard my voice, they answered, "We are here," of course in their language. When I started to sing the baby lambs, and the baby goats did not stop dancing until I stopped singing. Then, they foraged for some grass to eat. In addition, after my animals and I had our dinner we slept together. I remember, one night while we were sleeping, a wolf got into our tent to get one of my baby lambs, and the baby lamb started wailing. We woke up, and then my two brothers ran after that big wolf to get me back my baby lamb. They ended up beating the wolf until it let go of the baby lamb and they saved my baby lamb. He had terrible Bruises on his neck, but he was safe. Sometimes, even now, I wonder why the wolf did not eat me instead. I was a somnambulist and sometimes while I was sleeping during night, I stood up and slept walked to the same spot where I sang during daytime. Therefore, once I got over there I slept until morning. However, in the morning, the sun was so hot that it woke me up. Then, I got angry with my aunt because I thought, she threw me over there because she did not love me anymore, and I cried. I was surprised why she did not look for me and I wondered if she was worried at all that the wolves would eat me."