Great Fool
When the human mind lacks inner tranquility and a solid emotional foundation from childhood, it tends to seek external thrills to fill an internal void. Kibwana was never taught how to confront grief, emotional stress, or life's fatigue. To him, any major problem in life called for a brand-new absurd spectacle, far grander than the last.
Following the collapse of his strange tenure as Chief Advisor to the Dog Mayor—which ended abruptly when the dog sprinted off carrying a fresh bone meant for the chief guest at a town festival—Kibwana returned to private life exhausted. The emotional stress of managing three wives and accumulating mounting debts began weighing heavily upon him. But rather than sit down and resolve his affairs like a mature adult, Kibwana orchestrated his final grand stunt that plunged the entire town into chaos.
On a Friday evening, at the very center of the town square, Kibwana set up a massive street loudspeaker. Barefoot and wearing an unbuttoned shirt, he began dancing frantically in the middle of the main avenue. There was no celebration, nor was there a music festival underway. He was simply dancing with unnatural intensity and vigor.
The Dancing Plague Incident:
When local residents saw Kibwana dancing with such fierce passion without pausing, they began to gather. A merchant who tried to calm him down suddenly found himself moving his own feet to the rhythm. Within three hours, over three hundred people had joined him in the middle of the highway, all dancing through the night without a single break! Vehicles were blocked, businesses ground to a halt, and town medical officers arrived assuming a brand-new airborne psychological epidemic had broken out!
While doctors and police attempted to pull apart citizens who were dancing to the point of fainting from sheer exhaustion, Kibwana himself sat atop the roof of an orthopedic clinic's van, observing the madness while laughing hysterically. To him, watching an entire town thrown into turmoil because of a single foolish stunt was the ultimate way to feel important in this world!
Two days later, inside a quiet room at the regional referral hospital, a Specialist in Clinical Psychology and Mental Health, Dr. Mwanjelwa, sat across from Kibwana. Seated beside him were his parents—Mzee Athumani and Bi. Mwanahawa—both bowing their heads in profound shame and grief.
Mzee Athumani pointed an angry finger at Kibwana and pleaded bitterly: "Doctor, please help this man! We gave him everything in life, yet he turned out to be an unmatched 'Great Fool'. From faking his own kidnapping, marrying identical triplets, leaving a CV at a crime scene, to electing a dog as Mayor! Where on earth is his common sense?"
Dr. Mwanjelwa slowly lowered his spectacles, reviewed Kibwana's life file from childhood, and looked up at the two parents. He didn't yell at Kibwana. Instead, he uttered words that fundamentally shifted the understanding of everyone present in that room:
"Mzee Athumani and Bi. Mwanahawa," Dr. Mwanjelwa began in a calm yet heavy tone. "Kibwana is not a 'Great Fool' because he was born that way. Kibwana is a direct reflection of the upbringing you provided him since he was a small boy."
"The day you taught a parrot to repeat secrets of infidelity instead of addressing your marital conflicts with maturity, you taught this child that honesty and transparency held no value. The day you defended his every mistake when he broke household items, saying 'he is small, he cannot do any wrong,' you robbed him of the opportunity to learn accountability. You allowed him to grow physically into a 32-year-old man, but emotionally, you froze his soul as a seven-year-old child seeking attention and love through outrageous antics!"
A heavy, profound silence dominated the room. Bi. Mwanahawa covered her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. For the very first time in her life, she recognized that her excessive coddling and their bitter marital warfare had created the main character of a tragedy disguised as comedy.
Kibwana, sitting on his hospital bed, looked at the doctor, then turned to face his parents. For the first time since this story began, he cracked no jokes, nor did he smile. His wide eyes revealed a child who had simply yearned to be guided along the right path from the very beginning.
As the reader closes the final page of this novel, GREAT FOOL, one realization emerges: no child is born foolish or hopelessly reckless. Every bizarre stunt of an adult in society is an extension of seeds planted or neglected during childhood. A family's history may explain where one comes from, but it remains the responsibility of each individual to break the cycle so it does not repeat in adulthood.
THE END
Great Fool — A Story of Absurdity, Consequences, and the Mirror of Upbringing.