How butterfly and housefly got their names

By Ferdinand Mwongela

Long time ago, Butterfly and Housefly were good friends. But they were not called by the names they have today. Butterfly was called Momi and Housefly Mimi. They were both beautiful with long graceful wings and many colours.

One day, King Lion ordered Monkey to organise a dance competition. The two friends wanted to stand out from all the rest and were determined to take the first position. The friends were, however, not satisfied with their beauty so they started thinking of a way they could become even more beautiful.

One day they went to Hare the witchdoctor and asked him to show them how they could become more beautiful. "Apply a lot of butter on your bodies every day. By the time the dance is here, you will be the most beautiful," he said. Mimi and Momi went to the market and bought a lot of butter. Every day they would apply butter on each other and grew even more beautiful. But Mimi started feeling that her friend was more beautiful and was likely to take the crown. So she went to Monkey and asked him: "Can both Momi and I win the crown?"

"No," Monkey answered, "only one individual can win." Mimi started thinking of ways she could outshine her friend.

She went to Hare and told him to help her become more beautiful than her friend. Hare realised that Mimi was becoming vain and decided to teach her a lesson. He told her that on the day of the competition after applying butter she should pass through a fire. Mimi went home happy. On the day of the competition, she applied butter, lit a flame and flew right through it. The fire burnt her wings making them very short. She also became black. She ran away and went to live close to human beings and they gave her the name, Housefly.

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Momi won the crown at the competition. Everyone wanted to know how she became so beautiful and she told them the secret was applying butter. From that day on her name became Butterfly.