Episode 18 - The Maskini and the Tajiri (East African folktale)

WokeTales - Woke Folktales

This is a story where the weak and helpless defeat the strong and powerful. This does not happen in real life, but it does happen in folktales, as in this East African story of the maskini and the tajiri. In Kiswahili language, maskini means poor man and tajiri means rich man. In 1793 “Eat the Rich” was popularized by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Over 200 years later, these words remain relevant and have inspired the global conversation on the ills of ‘the rich getting richer’ at the expense of the poor. They comments on money hoarders, like the tajiri in the story who gluttonously bathe in billions, a fraction of which could easily end world hunger.