Uncle Rwamiti once sat at the village well and told us this story with a mischievous smile.
“A young man complained to me, ‘Uncle, I am 40 and still without a wife. What will people say?’
I asked him, ‘Do you know the story of Okello’s goat?’
The goat lived free, roaming the hills, eating cassava leaves from every garden, sleeping where it pleased. The villagers mocked: ‘Poor goat, no tether, no master, no place to belong.’
Then one day, Okello tied the goat to a short rope and said, ‘Now you belong to me.’ The goat stopped roaming. It ate the same dry grass every day. A few months later, it grew thin, sick, and finally died.
I turned to the young man and said:
👉 ‘Nobody ever died because they had no tether. But many die early because they were tied to the wrong one.’
If love finds you, let it be the right rope. If it does not, work hard, make your money, enjoy your life, and dance freely like Okello’s goat before the rope.
Better to be a free goat than a tied-up corpse.”*
And Rwamiti chuckled so hard, we all laughed until our ribs ached — but the wisdom stayed sharp as a spear.
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