The Inseparable Twins
My tale flies and lands on two twins, Zinsou and Sagbo.
They came into the world in a time of great distress. Famine was rampant and hunger overwhelmed villages. Their parents, already poor, struggled to provide for the family. Every day was difficult, and each meal was a battle. The father and mother had the habit of going into the forest to collect palm nuts to make sauce. They lacked sufficient flour to make even a proper serving of pâte. To save money, they prepared a mix of palm nut sauce with flour. This resulted in a thick mixture that served as a meal. It was a miserable meal, shared in silence without complaint, for there were no other options.
One night, believing the children to be fast asleep, the parents hatched a plan: they would bring the twins into the forest under the pretext of teaching them to gather palm nuts, and then abandon them deep in the forest. They said they were exhausted from being unable to feed their children.
But Zinsou was not asleep. Hidden in the shadows, his eyes open, he heard every word. Meanwhile, Sagbo slept peacefully.
At dawn, Zinsou awoke first. Quietly, he filled a small sachet with ashes and slipped it into his pocket. Soon after, the parents announced to their children, “Today you will follow us into the forest. It’s time that you know where we find palm nuts and vegetables.”
They had never gone with their parents before. The twins looked at them with surprise, but they obeyed.
Traveling into the heart of the forest, Zinsou secretly sprinkled ashes behind him, marking a path invisible to inattentive eyes. In the heart of the forest, the parents announced, “Stay here. We are going to look for vegetables a bit farther. We will come back to get you.”
They left and did not come back.
The silence thickened, and the shadows grew. Sagbo, worried, said, “Zinsou, our parents aren’t coming back. We don’t know the way home. What will we do?”
Zinsou replied calmly, “Last night I heard their plan. They wanted to abandon us. This morning, I sprinkled ashes on the way here. We only need to follow the ashes back.”
The two brothers followed the gray path, faint but there, until they found the road that led to their house.
The parents, who were getting ready to eat, were shocked to see their sons return.
“We were just about to come get you!” they said, feigning innocence.
The children said nothing. They shared the meal, but the boys were mistrustful of their parents.
Night came, and the parents again lamented. This time, the father spoke, “Let’s sell them at the market. That way we will be able to survive.” The mother accepted.
The day of the market came, and they sold the two children. Zinsou was brought to Agbaga by a merchant. Sagbo was sold to Kétou, in a kingdom where a king without an heir raised Sagbo as his own.
Years passed. The merchant who had bought Zinsou lost his fortune. Overcome with misery, he sold Zinsou. Destiny, in all its silent irony, brought Zinsou to the kingdom of Kétou. There, a subject of King Sagbo bought Zinsou to watch over the kingdom’s fields and chase away the birds. No one knew that the king was born a twin. Every day at noon, Zinsou sang while clapping under the burning sun to chase away the birds.
Zinsou nɔnvi Sagbo é, lé ʃɔè
Zinsou nɔnvi Sagbo é, lé ʃɔè
Tɔ dokpo ɔ, nɔn dokpo ɔ wɛ ji mi lé, lé ʃɔè
E sɔ Zinsou sa do Agbaga
Bo sɔ Sagbo sa do Kétou
Nou wa nyɔn Sa bɛ wa xɔ zin lé, lé ʃɔè
Xɛ dé mă dú nɔn cé vi li o, lé ʃɔè
His voice traveled far in the fields. The king's subjects reported that a new guardsman was working hard in the field and singing songs with strange lyrics. Intrigued by the contents of the song, Sagbo decided to see the fields for himself. Carried in his royal hammock and surrounded by his subjects, he arrived under the shining sun and asked the guardsman of the field to sing. Zinsou sang the same song again. The king's heart stopped. He asked his subjects to leave them be and told the young man, “Tell me your story.”
Zinsou told him everything: the famine, the forest, the marketplace, the separation from his brother.
And so Sagbo understood. “Zinsou... I am Sagbo.”
The two brothers looked at each other for a long time. They then embraced each other, finally reunited after so many years of separation.
Sagbo shared his kingdom and his riches equally with his brother. And so, he who was sold as property became a prince.
My story ends here. It teaches that the link between twins cannot be broken by misery, nor by distance, nor by destiny. Nothing can divide those who were born united in a single breath.