Why do bats come out only at night

In African folktales, bats are used to refer to people who are two faced. Whenever there is conflict, a two faced person does not pick a side. He supports the winning party.

The folktale of why the bat comes out only at night tells the story of a big conflict in the animals kingdom. The conflict was as a result of the struggle for who would rule the kingdom. A meeting was held for this deliberation.

The land animal and the flying animals were in attendance. The birds of the air felt that they would make better leaders since they could oversee the kingdom when flying.

The land animals disagreed with this. They felt that they were more wise than the birds. In their opinion, they existed before the birds of the air and so should be the rulers.

Because the animals could not agree on a choice of leadership, the meeting ended with a war declaration. The birds of the air declared war against the land animals.

Bat was one of the flying animals. He did not support the birds neither did he support the land animals. This was because he had friends among the land and the flying animals.

When the land animals held meetings to plan theirs war strategy, the bat would always come to them and share the secret of the birds. Also, when the birds held meetings, the bat would sell the secrets of the land animals to them. He was simply a supporter of both parties. His plan was that if any party won in the war, he would join them as a permanent supporter.

Much to the bat's surprise, the land animals and the birds of the air came to a truce. They decided to stop the war because they came to the understanding that a king was not really needed for the kingdom to progress. They needed peace and understanding.

After the war had been stopped, the animals decided to hold a meeting to show their solidarity to each other. It was in the course of that meeting that the bat's role in the war was revealed.

The birds decided that the bat can not be identified as one of them since he had betrayed them. Seeing that he had been deserted by the birds of the air, the bat turned to the land creatures but was rejected by them as well. He was chased out of the meeting.

Every day, the bat would come out to fly around with other birds but they would chase him away. He would then fly down to stay with the land creatures but would also be chased away.

Because he had been rejected, he would stay indoors during the day and come out only at night when he was sure that other creatures mist have gone to bed.

The story of the rejected bat is used as a moral story of teaching us to not let ourselves be objects of deceits to others. Do not be two faced otherwise who knows if you would be rejected like the unfortunate bat

All images are subject to Google

Thanks for reading 💖