How the Monkeys Came to Be: A Zambian Folktale

In the old lands of Zambia, where the forests hum with the voices of unseen spirits, there once lived an old man and woman whose hunger was matched only by their greed. Though their neighbours often fed them from kind hearts, the couple repaid generosity with deceit, stealing small things from every home they entered. One day, they took a sick man’s precious bag of cowrie shells and fled into the wilderness. The villagers pursued them until the thieves climbed a tall tree, clutching their stolen treasure. Days passed, then weeks, as hunger gnawed at their bellies. They ate the tree’s fruits, its leaves, even its bark, until their hands hardened, their bodies grew hairy, and their voices turned to senseless chatter. When at last the cowries slipped from their grasp, they no longer cared for riches, only the taste of the forest. The villagers recovered the treasure, but the old couple vanished into the jungle, never to walk as humans again. And so, the people say, that is how the first monkeys came to be—born from greed, condemned to climb and chatter in endless want.