Chaka. Thomas Mofolo
des Zoulous, est en moment entre les mains d’un missionaire auquel Mofolo a demandé des critiques et des conseils.”
7Ibid, pp. 508–9.
8J. Zurcher, private correspondence with me, February 1979. Zurcher came to Morija from Switzerland in 1920 to take charge of the Printing Works.
9Gérard, op. cit., p. 129.
CHAPTER 1
Nandi Chooses Chaka
SOUTH AFRICA is a large headland situated between two oceans, one to the east and one to the west. The nations that inhabit it are numerous and greatly varied in custom and language. Yet they easily divide themselves into three large groups: the nations settled along the western seaboard are of a yellow complexion. They are the San and the Khoi. The ones in the centre are the Batswana and the Basotho. Those to the east are the Bakone or the Matebele. The boundaries between them are prominent and visible; they are boundaries created by God, not man, because the nations to the west are separated from the ones in the centre by great sandy waterless deserts, and those in the centre are separated from those to the east by a massive mountain range of towering peaks rising in the Cape Colony and running parallel to the sea, yet far, far away from it. These nations are markedly distinct from each other, so much so that a person travelling from the west to the east is immediately conscious of having come into a different country and among strange people when he arrives among the Sotho nations in the centre, and likewise when he descends towards the Matebele nations over there beyond the Maloti Mountains.
Our purpose here has to do with the eastern nations, the Bakone, and it is fitting that, before we plunge into our story, we should describe how the nations were settled in the beginning, so that the reader may understand what will be narrated in the coming chapters.
The greater portion of the land of Bokone, which lies between the Maloti and the sea, is covered by forest. Besides, the crops there are never bitten by frost, for there are only light frosts because of the nearness of the sea. It is a land of lush greenness, and of extremely rich pasturage. Its soil is dark, and that means that it produces much food; its indigenous grass is the luxuriant seboku; its water lies in marshes, and that means that its cattle grow very fat. There are numerous rivers, and that means that rain is plentiful. It is a land of dense mists which often clear only after the sun has risen high, and that means that there are no droughts since the moisture takes long to dry up.
In the early days, when the people were still settled upon the land, nowhere were there as many people as here in Bokone, because its villages were not only large, but also numerous. As regards their customs, we can say that they are a people more skilled in medicine than any other group in South Africa, and no wonder, since they live in the proximity of forests where medicinal plants are in abundance. None can equal their skill in medicines used for witchcraft, for bringing disaster on one’s adversary, for love-charms, for charms to make one popular and bring good fortune and for dispelling one’s enemies – not even the Khoi or the San, who are so famous for their knowledge of herbs, can measure up to their excellence. They are also famous for their ability to communicate with their ancestors who died long ago, and to talk with them and thus obtain advice from the gods.
Water serpents are highly regarded in Bokone, and so indeed are such little crawlers as the cobra and the puff adder. A person who has seen a snake is considered to have seen something portentous which presages either good fortune or extreme bad luck accompanied by plagues that are coming to him from his ancestral gods. A snake is not to be killed in Bokone, and anyone who kills it is considered to have done a deed that surpasses all others in ugliness. Such a one will carry for the rest of his life the shame of having killed that snake. He who kills a snake is regarded as insulting the gods and showing them disrespect by killing their messenger because, in Bokone, a snake is a recognised messenger who conveys the wishes of the dead to their living descendants. If it should enter a house while the occupants are outside, they will never go back into that house, and will stay outside until the snake eventually goes out at its own pleasure, since its visitation means that one of the ancestors is longing for them. Or if a snake should enter a house in which some untoward event has recently taken place, this is regarded as indicating that the dead are unhappy, that they have been hurt by the way their descendants have handled their affairs, and that they will visit terrible afflictions on them, such as sickness or war. When a snake enters a house, the owners at once begin to express their thanks, or to ask forgiveness from their gods who may be angry with them. Snakes are abundant therefore, since they are not killed. It is understandable, then, that the snake should be an ingredient in all the medicines of Bokone, because there is no way in which such an important thing could be left out.
When one travels downward between the sea and the Maloti, coming from the direction of Delagoa Bay, in the north, the first Bakone one comes upon are the Swazi nation. Across the Mfolozi-Mnyama River were settled the Ndwandwe people who were ruled by Zwide. Between the Mfolozi-Mnyama and the Mfolozi-Mhlophe, all the way to the sea, were the Bathethwa who were ruled by Jobe; or perhaps we may more fittingly mention the name of his son, Dingiswayo, who became more renowned than his father. Between those two, but a little to the north, was settled a small weak little nation which owed allegiance to Jobe, and which was known as the Fenu-lwenja. Later, however, that little nation was to gain much fame, till all the nations of Bokone were called by its name. Near to the Fenu-lwenja were the Mangwane led by Matiwane, who once invaded Thaba-Bosiu. There were also the Maqwabe, the Mafuze, the Bathembu, the Makhuze, the Mahlubi, the BakwaMachibisa, the Mathuli (where the city of Durban now stands). The reader must understand that we are describing how the nations were situated long ago, when the people were still settled upon the land.
Many small and weak nations who inhabited the area along the banks of the Mfolozi-Mhlophe used to flee to Jobe, king of the Bathethwa, to beg him for asylum, since he was very kind to all people; and among these was the Fenu-lwenja (later to be called the MaZulu). In those days the MaZulu were weaker than most other little nations, and they survived only because of the kindness and wisdom of the Great King Jobe. They were mostly famous for their trade in tobacco, carved wooden basins, and other artefacts.
There is no place in the entire world where wars are unknown. There comes a time when the nations hunger for each other and continually fight each other, sometimes over many years. But in the end peace returns once more, and the land is warm again. Sometimes while the nations are living in a state of peace, none bothering the other, a male child arises among one of them and he, even though but one individual, creates so much unrest that peace is banished from the earth and much blood is spilt. But the sufferings which were occasioned by the difaqane were unknown in the olden days when the people were still settled upon the land. The nations were living in peace, each one in its own original territory where it had been from the day that Nkulunkulu, the Great-Great One, caused the people to emerge from a bed of reeds. In the midst of so much peace and prosperity no one thought, even for one moment, that the affairs of their lives were about to change, and that they would wander in the wilderness having no fixed home, and would be killed by the spear, by exhaustion, and by hunger.
The tiny nation of MaZulu was ruled at that time by Senzangakhona, a very young man who had three wives, or maybe four. However, he had no male child in any of his houses. He had girls only. For that reason he was dissatisfied and he lacked peace in his heart, fearing that his estate would be without an heir. Besides, for a king it was more painful not to have a male child than it was for a commoner, because a king was concerned not only about the wealth of his own personal household and his livestock which would have no one to inherit them, but also about the estate of kingship, which involved the land and the people.
That being the case, Senzangakhona decided to marry again so that he might obtain male children through his younger wives. He therefore organised a large feast where there was much dancing, and during the festivities he secretly kept his eye open for any young woman he might find attractive. Among the young women who had come to the feast, he was attracted to Nandi, a girl from Langeni who lived at Ncube’s village in Senzangakhona’s territory. Nandi