2. ORAL NARRATIVE
A long time ago, there were two men who had been friends for many years. They were like brothers.
Now, there came a time when they both wanted to get married. They decided to marry one woman with
whom they had both fallen in love.
Between the two of them they had enough bride wealth to pay for the woman, because each of them had
half the required bride price. The woman's father accepted the bride wealth and gave permission for his
daughter to get married to the two young men. They made an agreement among themselves and laid down
conditions that were going to guide them in sharing this woman as a wife. One of the friend chose to have
exclusive right to the woman from the waist to the legs while the other one chose from the waist upwards
to the head.
Whenever the man who had chosen the upper part desired the woman, he called her into his house and
had a pat on her and that was all. The other man who had chosen the lower parts took the woman to his
house for the night. This arrangement worked until the woman became pregnant.
After delivery, the friend who owned the upper part said to the woman, "I won't allow you to breastfeed
because the baby is not mine."
The woman objected loudly saying, "But the baby is mine and the breasts are also mine so I'll have to
breastfeed it."
"No and yes, the baby is yours and my friend's, but the breasts happen to be yours and mine, so you and
my friend should try to get milk for your baby from elsewhere. I don't want you to feed it from your
breasts." The man was serious and the woman got very worried.
"Perhaps my friend who owns your upper part can pay me back the part of the bride wealth I paid for you
then he can have you as his wife and you won't have to be a wife to both of us," the other husband
offered. However, he knew very well that his friend had neither money, cattle nor anything else which he
could refund to him as part of the bride wealth he had paid for their wife.
The matter was taken to the elders for discussion and settlement. After much consultation, it was decided
that, that woman should be married to the man who owned the upper part of the body as the baby had to
be fed. The friends disagreed and had their first quarrel.
The situation was critical, so the father of the baby conceded and allowed his friend to refund the share of
the bride wealth he had paid. It was then agreed by the elders that the woman should be exclusively
married to the man who owned the breasts. This development marked the end of the friendship between
the two young men.
Questions
1. Classify the above genre. (2mks)

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