An African Tale

by John Steptoe

Questions for Philosophical Discussion
by Daniel Lowinger
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Problematizing the moral:

1. What is Manyara’s personality like in this story?
2. What is Nyasha’s personality like in this story?
3. Whose personality is yours most similar to?
4. Who becomes queen, and what do you think the author’s point is?
5. Do you agree or disagree with this point?
6. Do you think someone who is selfish is worse than someone who is self-effacing/altruistic/kind to others? Why or why not?
   
   

Worthy goals in life/The allure and nature of power/The politics of gender:

1. What is Nyasha’s reward in the story?
2. What do you think of this reward?
3. What do Kings and Queens have that ordinary people do not?
4. What do they not have that ordinary people have?
5. Would you want to become king/queen? Why or why not?
6. Do you think someone who is selfish is worse than someone who is self-effacing/altruistic/kind to others? Why or why not?
7. Should a King have a different personality than a Queen? If so, what should those differences be?
8. Is Nyasha’s personality good for being a good queen? Why or why not?

The nature of worthiness and the meaning of beauty:

1. What makes a King or Queen “worthy”?
2. What makes anybody “worthy”?
3. What does it mean to be “worthy”?
4. In the story, the King desires “The Most Worthy and Beautiful”.
5. Does being beautiful make someone more or less worthy.
6. Are beauty and worth different things?
7. Why does the King want someone who is worthy and beautiful, instead of just worthy, or just beautiful?

The nature of True Happiness:

1. What is Manyara’s personality like in this story?
2. What is Nyasha’s personality like in this story?
3. In the story, Mufaro, the girls’ father, is described as completely happy, because he does not know that Manyara is mean.
4. Can one be truly happy if one does not know the truth about one’s situation?
5. Would you rather have the happiness you could have by believing lies, or would you rather have unhappiness that comes from knowing the truth? Why?
6. What about for someone you loved?
7. Would you rather someone you love, like your parent, believe something that is a lie and be happy, or would you rather them know the truth and be less happy?
8. Would you tell someone you loved the truth, if you thought it might hurt them?
9. Should Manyara have told her father the truth?
10. How about Nyasha?
11. If Nyasha had told her father the truth, would she have been being nice to him, or mean?
12. Do you agree that Nyasha is a very nice daughter, since she does not tell her father the truth?
    

Ethics:

1. What is Manyara’s personality like in this story?
2. What is Nyasha’s personality like in this story?
3. In the story the King deceives Manyara and Nyasha by pretending to be a snake, and by having them pass tests without telling them.
4. Was this a good idea?
5. What was the purpose, and what did it accomplish?
6. Was the King successful?
7. If you were the King, would you have done something similar?
8. Do you think the King was being unfair to Manyara and Nyasha by deceiving them, or do you think it was okay to deceive them? Why?
9. Is it okay, in general, to deceive people? If so, why? If not, why not?
10. Are there special cases where it is okay, like the situation in the story?
11. What makes this a special case?
12. How do we know if a case is a special case?
    

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