How The Zebra Got Its Stripes

There are many stories and questions on How the Zebra Got his Stripes, and here in Africa one of the most well-known is from the the San/Bushmen people of the Namibian Kalahari Desert.

So, how did the Zebra get his black stripes, or is it white stripes? Well, let me tell you a fable from long, long ago when animals were still new in Africa...

The weather was very hot back then, and what little water there was could only be found in a few isolated pools and pans. One of these waterholes was guarded by a boisterous Baboon.

The Baboon claimed to all and sundry that he was the “Lord of the Water”, and forbade anyone from drinking at “his” pool.

One fine day, a Zebra and his son came to have a drink. The Baboon, sitting at his fire by the waterhole, jumped up and barked: “Go away, intruders. This is my pool and I am the Lord of the Water!”

“The water is for everyone, monkey-face!”, shouted the Zebra's son. “If you want some water, you must fight for it,” replied the Baboon in a fine fury, and in a moment the two were locked in battle.

Back and forth they fought, raising a huge cloud of dust, until with a mighty kick the Zebra sent the Baboon flying high up among the rocks of the cliff behind them.

The Baboon landed with a smack on his seat, taking all the hair clean off, and to this very day he still carries the bare patch where he landed.

The dazed and bruised young Zebra, not looking where he was going, staggered back through the Baboon's fire. The flames scorched him, leaving black burn stripes across his white fur.

Shocked at being burned, the Zebra galloped far away to the savannah plains where he has stayed ever since.

The Baboon and his family, however, remain high up among the rocks where they bark defiance at all strangers and hold up their tails to ease the sore rock-burn of their bare-patched bottoms.

(adapted via Gateway Africa)

(images via cmozz and Anisa Hasby Fauzia)