The Eagle and Chicken Kingdom

(Leadership Lessons)

Once upon a time, Munezi the Eagle and the Munela the Cock ruled two neighbouring kingdoms. Munezi ruled the kingdom of Menezi, land of the eagles, while Munela ruled the Menela Kingdom, land of the chicken. Both eagles and chickens knew how to fly.

In Menela Kingdom the chicken had a beautiful kingdom with worms everywhere, insects, grains, nuts, and seeds growing naturally. Rainfall was ever certain and the beautiful sunshine where they basked every morning. The chickens had a beautiful easy life. They grew fat, fatter, and lazy. 

With time, the chicken unlearned flying. ”What would be the use of us going in the sky when everything we need is just with us.” They said. They remained to enjoy the fruits of the land.

The Chicken would…

• Wake up and look for food;
• Eat, eat, and eat again,
• Bask in the morning sunshine,
• Make merry, make merry, make merry again
• Produce (Lay and hatch eggs)
• Grow the chicks quickly and get more
• Sleep, sleep, sleep and sleep
• Wake up and eat and eat and eat, … and on and on…

In Menezi Kingdom of the eagles, it was a harsh environment to live in. The eagles had to learn to survive. Food was scarce, water was miles and miles away. In this kingdom, everyone was a worker, they learnt earlier the tricks and strategies of survival in the harsh environment of Menezi kingdom.

They had to manage the little resource available; they learnt to further and further fly higher and for long distance to look for food and water. There was never time for merry-making. Life had no luxuries to offer.

This forced the Eagles to master life lessons and skills:

• Flying to the highest height and distance possible
• Flying with their own kind (after all the chicken were busy merrymaking).
• Flying with strong vision (ever looking for food and water)
• Never to eat dead meat (they learnt to hunt and sometimes would invade Menela kingdom and snatch some chicks, after all they were many)
• Flying through the storm
• Testing before trusting
• Training others to be eagles
• Self-restoration
• Strategic thinking (the big bigger, long term)  

One day, human beings invaded both kingdoms and destroyed them. The chickens were too lazy to run away, let alone flying. Man settled in the Menela kingdom (The Chicken kingdom). He domesticated the chickens because they would produce quickly and easily provided eggs and good meat. Moreover chicken would not fly away and they would remind man the time of the day.

In Menezi kingdom, the eagles simply flew away higher and higher, far from man’s invasion. They went and created their kingdom up in the sky.

To-date the eagle still rules the sky, far beyond man’s reach. Meanwhile, the chicken stays in man’s home as a source of protein.

End of the story. 

Written by Allen K. Baguma…(©2023)

Leadership lessons:

What leadership lessons do you learn from the story?

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