The Yesu's Baboon Podcast

Episode 013 - Koyati goes to church (Part 2)

This week, I'm sitting at a camp fire in the bushveld, and I'm telling how Koyati was besieged inside a woodpile by Marcie and her two hyena sisters. A woodpile that was the home of King Mambo, a huge black mamba.

Episode 012 - Koyati goes to church

Koyati, like many children had his own special place where he felt safe and calm - a mountain spring with a pool of fresh, clear water. But the circumstanced that lead him to discover it were not so calm. In fact, it almost cost him his life. Let me tell you about it …

Episode 011— The Rabbit and the Crocodile

Koyati tells how elder Tabari's storytelling of 'The Rabbit and the Crocodile' inspired him to start carving. He went to elder Nuru, the village woodcarver and asked him to teach him to carve a rabbit. This started Koyati off on what turned out to be a … no, I'm not going to put a spoiler in here!

Episode 010 — Koyati's Bedroom

Koyati lives in a tiny lean-to shack, where he feels exposed to the hyenas.

Episode 009 — Sophie is sent away

The area of Tanzania where Koyati's village is located is up in the north, near the Serengeti district, which borders on Kenya to the north of it. The local big city is Arusha (Dar es Salaam is way south). Koyati's big sister — only nine or ten at the time (he was around six years old) is sent to Arusha to go 'live with a family member.' His mother simply put her on a bus, and she was gone. Koyati never forgave her.

Episode 008 — The Apprentices

Two con artist inmates manage to get themselves appointed as Koyati's woodcarving apprentices. They were not intent on harming anyone. They just needed to get away from their cell bully — if only for the eight hours a day they would spend in the woodcarving shop. They know less than nothing about woodcarving. But Koyati could not possibly be worse than the monster with whom they were locked up in their overcrowded cell. Will their gamble pay off?

Episode 007 — The Inner Sanctum (Continued)

In the previous episode I described Koyati's little workshop. In this episode, Koyati is eating the late meal with his fellow-inmates (they decided to never call it breakfast, lunch, or dinner as long as they ate slop out of bowls at picnic tables) and Sparrow teaches them, like you teach little children, what the Holy of Holies is — and why it applies to Koyati's workshop.
This episode also tells about Koyati's two apprentices.

Episode 006 — The Inner Sanctum

At the dinner benches, Sparrow explains what an 'inner sanctum' is. Then he compares Koyati's little workshop within the big workshop to an 'inner sanctum' for Koyati. He does not know how right he is, because in there, Koyati will soon be experiencing visions. Or something similar.

Episode 005 — Miss Heron speaks!

Koyati has many misgivings about recording his life story on the voice recorder inside the fluffy heron. But things change when she unexpectedly speaks to him …

Episode 005 — Must I play with the bird? No, you must talk to the bird.

The author explains how the voice recorder inside Miss Heron is supposed to capture the story of Koyati's life. The reason? Isidora, his defense lawyer, suspects that he had been abused as a child, and if Koyati should talk about that, she can use it for arguing mitigation of his sentence.