Of Donkeys and Zebras

Of all the children of the King, there was one on whom he invested time and exerted influence to ensure that he became prominent early in life. The King knew the oracle would be the one to choose the next ruler of the kingdom, who would rule after him, but what is the oracle but men? The oracle does not determine who rules the land; men do. Men, under the guise of divinity, determine the rulership of their fellow men. It has been so from time immemorial. If you tell men you are choosing a leader for them. They will insist you had been bribed or had been compromised in a certain way. However,  if you tell them the same leader was chosen for them by God or the ancestors or deities, and you shroud the process in a mystery, they will accept your verdict without any challenge. 

The king had over a hundred children from over forty wives. It was one of the duties of the king to perpetuate his genes. As soon as each child was delivered, the oracle spoke concerning the child’s future, and he noticed that the voice of the oracle changed from season to season depending on the number of children he had. His first child was widely celebrated, but nobody bothered about his 20th child. By the time he had his 80th child, it had almost become “one of those things” in the palace. This also made him realise that the oracle was moved by a sense of occasion and led by human activities. He had always suspected the “gods” were men designated to control the affairs of other men behind the scenes, and this suspicion was confirmed by several experiences he had as a young man and during his reign as a king. Some of his children were destined for greatness, and some were destined to do not-so-great things. It was his duty to watch over them and, through a process of selection, support the ones that could one day sit on his throne. The process of selection started with the mother of the child, what was her lineage, what sort of training did she have, and how has she been able to cope with raising the children as royalty despite his absence He had money and fame, but the mindset with which a woman raises her children matters, Some of his children grew up as delinquents, and some grew up disciplined. It all boils down to the mother and the way she raised them. Of all his children, some stood out academically. This was expected, and he paid attention to those ones so that they could maximize their potential. 
Of all his brilliant children, one got a fully funded scholarship to study in the USA, and this made his heart very glad. A day before the prince would travel to the USA, the king called his mother and the prince into his room and had a heart-to-heart talk with them. He said, “God has lifted you early. You are heading to the USA at the age of 14 to study in one of the most prestigious universities, and you did it without my influence or the strength of your name or heritage. You did it all by yourself. This gives me confidence that you will one day be prepared more than most to lead this kingdom if you choose to do so. The oracles track the rising of meteors and support which of the stars would make it fast; never forget this. As soon as you begin to make good money, come home and begin the process of becoming a king. The process is simple; establish a trust fund and a scholarship scheme for students in the kingdom, be deliberate in selecting the children of the kingmakers and chiefs among the beneficiaries, do a lot of community projects and establish your name in the heart of the established authorities within the kingdom, this is how you convince the oracle and the deities, and God, to select you as the one who will rule after me. Do this as benevolence and without any sense of entitlement. When you speak, do so as someone who is patriotic and only desires to show your love for the kingdom. Make sure they can only talk about what they have benefited from you, and ask them for nothing. Visit them, but always in a bid to be a blessing to them; they will dream of you, and they will think of you. This is what it will take in your time to become the King. Don’t worry, I will also plant the seed of your kingship in their hearts!” The prince took the words of his father to heart. When he got to the United States, he studied hard and by the age of twenty, he had landed a job with one of the top defence contractors. Money started rolling in, and he was swift to implement the things his father told him. More than anything, he desired to rule the kingdom one day, and he knew he would get that opportunity only once. He established a trust fund and several scholarship funds, and several charity organizations to help the citizens of the kingdom. He made sure he travelled to the kingdom at least once every year to meet with the kingmakers, chiefs, and to commission projects for the benefit of the kingdom. The template his father set for him had put him ahead of the curve; his name was on the lips of the kingmakers and the chiefs. His father, the king, would also often delegate state matters to him so that he would be able to demonstrate his competence and wisdom to the world.

When he turned thirty, he got married. He chose the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was twenty-five, well educated, and she came from his hometown. They met at an event at the American Embassy, and he fell in love with her right from the moment he saw her. He didn’t dilly-dally; he married her within a year. His father loved his wife like a daughter, and the community took to her like their future queen. He delegated the duty of managing his NGOs, charities, scholarships, and endowments to her. She was an accountant, and he trusted her to manage his funds judiciously. His annual trips home were womanishly stopped by his wife. She wanted to spend his annual vacations with him in exotic places all over the world. He didn’t know the damage that had been done until he got a message from his father four years after he got married. His father said he must return to the kingdom immediately. When he got to the kingdom, his father told him that the kingmakers, chiefs, and the communities in the kingdom had consulted the oracle and decided that he should marry a zebra instead of a donkey, and as long as he was married to the same woman, he would never become king in the future. It was a shocking revelation. When he got back to the USA, he asked his wife what she had done to incur the wrath of his father and the community, his wife told him it was because they were all taking advantage of him, and he stopped them from doing so he was shocked he asked her what she meant, and she told him she said she decided to save all the funds he kept sending to her to fund the charities, NGOs, Scholarships, and endowment funds because she could see no value in return for his huge investment. She had invested the funds in some major USA stocks so that they could generate more money for him. he almost went mad, and his wife did not understand why. All she did was plug the holes she saw in his finances; she felt he should be thanking her. He told him the community and the kingdom had rejected her as their queen and told him to divorce her. She thought it was a joke until he moved out of the house and told her to move within two weeks because he had decided to sell the house. She got a lawyer. He had made his money before meeting her, but she had used her expertise to save him millions of dollars. He had also helped to bring five of her relatives into the USA, and they were all employed with his companies. He exploited this to force her hand in settling out of court. He said he would deport all her relatives unless he took the case out of court and stopped trying to take his wealth. The negotiations were dirty and emotionally jarring. While they were still sorting out who got what, his father died, and the throne became empty. The kingmakers called for interested princes to throw their hats into the ring. He did so, alongside eight other princes. he was the frontliner for the throne for many years, but by the time his father died, he was almost no longer in contention. He had no wife, and this was one of the criteria by which kings were chosen. The stunt his ex-wife pulled with the endowments and scholarships had turned the people against him. Another prince had stepped into the void he left by supporting the needy and destitute in the community. The oracle chose this other prince just as his father predicted. 
PS: Royalty is a lifestyle, and it is also a culture. The way the royally minded think is very different from the way a commoner thinks. When royalty marries a commoner, the commoner must learn the way of royalty and master it without any reservation. Zebras may look and act like donkeys, but they are not the same.