The Origin of Death: the Chameleon and the Lizard
Zulu folktale · izinganekwane
Kwesukasukela. In the beginning, when the world was new, the creator Unkulunkulu looked upon the people he had made and wished to send them word of their fate. He chose the chameleon, unwabu, and gave it a message to carry to mankind: "Go and tell the people that they shall not die, but shall live forever."
The chameleon set off, but it is a slow and dawdling creature. It crept along, stopping to catch insects, and lingering to eat the sweet ubukwebezane berries along the way, in no hurry at all to deliver its great and joyful news.
While the chameleon dawdled, Unkulunkulu changed his mind, or wished to test his messengers, and called the lizard, intulo, a swift and darting creature. To it he gave a different message: "Go and tell the people that they shall die." The quick lizard sped away and, running fast and straight, reached mankind first and delivered its grim word: that all people must one day die.
At last the slow chameleon arrived with its message of eternal life, but it was too late. The people answered that the lizard had already come before it with the word of death, and that word, having arrived first, could not be undone. And so it is, the elders say, that people die, all because the chameleon dawdled on the road. To this day the Zulu hold no love for the chameleon. Cosu cosu, iyaphela.
The lesson: Delay and dallying over an urgent duty can bring irreversible loss; what comes first often stands, and time wasted cannot be recovered.