Indaba, My Children: African Tribal History, Legends, Customs And Religious Beliefs. Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa
she submit to sharing a love-mat with Odu.
Then suddenly a bright idea struck her
Which made new strength course like fire through her veins:
What if . . . supposing . . . Odu should fall a victim . . .
A fatal accident while out on a hunt!
The Goddess could never blame her—
Amarava – for the accidental death
Of her uncomely and revolting mate!
Supposing a hole were drilled in the side of Odu’s canoe
And temporarily sealed with a soluble gum . . .
Her eyes were lit up by the strangest fire
When she recalled that Odu was unable to swim.
But then another, much better idea
Struck the already excited girl—
An idea so patently simple
It took her breath completely away . . .
Odu came crawling into the hut
With an impala slung over his back;
This he humbly presented his mistress
Whom he could not regard as a mate as yet.
Amarava sang with delight as she skinned
And cut up the meat for supper—
Her hands were trembling so slightly
With barely suppressed excitement.
Soon, soon she would be free, she thought,
Well rid of this clumsy and ugly monster
Who was completely unaware of the fact
That he was a living creature.
When at last they had eaten enough
She curtly commanded Odu to sleep
And this he promptly did, being completely unable
To do anything unless instructed.
For a time she sat with her knees drawn up,
Staring fixedly into the fire
Which was burning on a slab in the centre of the hut—
Then she rose to add some more wood
And did not care much about slipping a piece
From the stone slab on to the floor.
As the grass floor took fire and quickly spread,
She leapt to her feet and dived through the door;
Once on dry ground she dashed like a pursued impala
Through the forest with a pounding heart.
Once she paused and looked behind her
At the blazing red glare in the night sky—
‘He is dead . . . most assuredly he’s dead by now,’
She breathed, ‘that revolting brute – I’m free!’
Through the forest she sped as fast as she could go—
Rapidly increasing the distance between herself and her crime;
Soon she burst into a treeless clearing,
Face to face with dozens of luminous eyes.
In the moonlight she recognised lions
Twice the size of their recent descendants—
Paralysed she stood and could only watch
As the biggest maned lion came crouching towards her.
It sniffed her belly and licked her buttocks
And for a few terrifying moments both woman and beast
Stared deep into each other’s eyes.
With a low growl of deep puzzlement it slowly turned tail
And made off promptly with the rest of the pride!
It dawned upon Amarava after some considerable time,
That these lions had not been molested by humans before
And that the old one’s behaviour was prompted by curiosity alone.
After this rather interesting experience
Amarava spent the night up a mopani tree;
She did not relish another encounter
With four-footed tribes such as these.
Dawn found her wide awake, but exhausted
And only sheer hunger could force her
To descend and start searching for food.
It was as she was eating some wild figs,
That sudden pains like scorpion stings
Erupted on her nipples, right hand and stomach.
She squirmed in agony on the ground,
But the pain mounted to intolerable intensity
With every passing moment.
Through the purple haze of hideous aching
The words of the Great Mother came to her
And she remembered . . . she remembered!
She also realised quite plainly now
That her deed of the night before was no accident,
But plain and straightforward murder!
Maddened by pain she now dashed through the forest,
Hoping to reach the burnt-out hut again,
But having lost all sense of direction
She lost herself in the primaeval wilderness.
Eventually she begged the Goddess for mercy,
But the blue skies kept a stony silence;
Forward she dashed again in blind agony
Until she reached a lake which she mistook
For the river where the hut had stood.
Repeatedly she called out Odu’s name
And with another forward lunge she leapt
The vertical face of a precipice.
At the bottom of the cliff she struck a tree
And that was all she could remember . . .
There were three of them . . .
And the one was more hideous than the other;
Like nightmares torturing a fevered man . . .
They stood on their hind legs with front legs crossed
Over pale-green protruding bellies.
They were taller than a man
And their girth was incredible;
For all the world they looked like
Crosses between frogs and crocodiles,
And they were watching the woman Amarava
Slowly recovering her consciousness.
She cried out weakly in terror when she saw herself surrounded
By such gigantic monsters
Inside a humid smelly cave;
She tried to rise but was gently pushed back
On