The muzungu princess and the toad, a modern day fairytale from Rwanda

Once upon a time there was a muzungu princess who lived far far away in the kingdom of Nzige, the land which time and public transport forgot. However the muzungu princess was a modern kind of girl. Sometimes she went off to visit the land of Kigali which time and public transport forgot slightly less. Life can be boring for the princess in the kingdom far far away, and she can become bad tempered without her airtime to call the other muzungu princesses who live in other far away kingdoms. One day on her return from the land which time forgot slightly less, the princess rode back to the kingdom of Nzige on her steed of a shiny red motorbike. When she unlocked the gates to her palace and returned to her bedroom she found a visitor waiting for her. A small green toad stared up at her from the bedroom floor.

The muzungu princess had read a story about another princess who had kissed a frog and it had turned into a prince. The muzungu princess wondered if it worked with toads because they look kind of similar. But she just couldn’t do it. The toad was ugly, uglier than the most ugly frog, and unlike the frog in the other story he didn’t seem able to speak to her. So it seemed unlikely that the magic would work. Instead she got a large stick from the palace gardens and tried to chase the toad out of the palace. The toad was stubborn and continued to look up at her with those big sad eyes. The muzungu princess felt sorry for him. What if one day he had been a prince and now he had fallen on hard times? So she decided to leave him there, staring at her from the corner of the room.

Well in the end the toad lost patience with the muzungu princess. Maybe she wasn’t a real princess after all? The toad was expecting a beautiful girl with long flowing locks of hair, wearing a long silk dress and jewels around her neck. But this princess looked different. She had greasy hear which had been squashed by a motorbike helmet. She was wearing jeans stained with red dirt and the only thing around her neck was mosquito bites. Surely a real princess would never allow herself to look like this?! So the toad sadly hopped away to be by the pond outside. Who knows how long he will have to wait now for a more credible princess to move to the kingdom far far away.

The end