If you know, as the hearers of this tale would know, that Krachi and Salaga were two important ports in the western European and North American slave trade, and that, as colonial ports they were also the site of western-style hospitals, how might it change your understanding of the meaning of the story?  Can you see how it might be understood from the perspective of someone inside Togo culture?  The story functions as a special kind of social glue.  It’s mainly a sociological tale, communicating the moral code that the community shares.  It does serve at least one major cosmological function, however—it explains Death.  Why do we die?  Does it make sense?  Well, yes, in fact, it makes a lot of sense.  Here’s why we die.