Chaka. Thomas Mofolo
in clapping hands and carolling for the young men as they danced. Nandi stood tall and erect, had a well-rounded face and a light brown complexion like a cannabis seed. She had an impressive presence, and a dignity to which many people said she owed her beauty.
The dancing and the games ended, and the people now indulged in beer drinking. Then a group of young men left the others drinking and went to the young girls and asked them to play the choose-a-lover game called ho kana. When Senzangakhona saw this, he hurried to join them so that he should be there when the game was played. By then Nandi had already noticed that Senzangakhona had intentions towards her, and that he wanted to be chosen by her. The kana is similar to the sedia-dia girls’ dance among the Basotho, but it goes beyond the sedia-dia because in one sense the kana resembles ho iketa whereby a girl offers herself to a young man for marriage without waiting to be asked. Since Nandi herself loved Senzangakhona, she did in fact choose him, and Senzangakhona was greatly pleased that he had been chosen by the one he loved.
The festivities being over, it was now time to disperse. But the young people, for their part, spent the night at Senzangakhona’s continuing with their games, and going home only on the following day. Senzangakhona told the young girls from Ncube’s to wait for him in the fields in the valley just below his village. That day Senzangakhona used strong arguments to persuade Nandi that the two of them should do an ugly deed that was against the law of nature and of man. Nandi had to walk away from him right there in the fields, greatly disappointed when she realised that the one she had chosen as her lover did not love her with pure love, and when she came to the other maidens, she told them what Senzangakhona had said.
In those days in Bokone, if a girl became pregnant before she was married, she was killed. So, indeed, were all her age-mates, both the young men and the young women, that is to say, all those who slept in the young people’s quarters. It was said that the fact that one of their own peer group had done such a deed was a clear indication that they too were now familiar with the little path she had taken, and would therefore defile the nation, that is to say the young generation, by setting them a bad example. Those young girls were also greatly disappointed when they heard about Senzangakhona’s evil scheme, but in spite of that they were afraid to report him because a king, among the black people, is above the law. Yet the proper thing to do is that such a young man should be reported at once, so that he alone should be killed, and the others should live. Senzangakhona easily convinced them with a lot of deceitful talk and with the promise that he would marry Nandi, till at last she bowed her head and Senzangakhona accomplished the evil design of his heart.
When Nandi missed her monthly period, she informed Senzangakhona and he, being afraid of the scandal, made hurried arrangements to marry her. He gave Nandi’s parents fifty-five cattle, and quickly took her in marriage so that the people should not notice that she was already damaged. But in spite of all that Nandi went to Senzangakhona with her pregnancy already having advanced somewhat. When her time of delivery came, Senzangakhona sent her back to her people, and she gave birth to a boy child, for whom Senzangakhona had long been yearning, who occupied his thoughts night and day, and his joy was full to overflowing. When the messenger came to Senzangakhona he said, “There has been born to you a boy, an ox of the vultures”, and indeed there never was a child for whom these words were more fitting. He was a male child, and he was also an ox of the vultures, as the reader will see afterwards.
On that very day Senzangakhona sent a messenger to inform his overlord, Jobe, that on that day he had obtained a herdboy who would watch his herds, who would fight his wars, who would succeed him in the kingship. These words of Senzangakhona’s too foretold great events which we shall see later. When the messenger arrived at Jobe’s, the latter’s sons were present also. He told the message of his errand in their hearing, and when he finished, Jobe said: “Go and say to your master that I am thankful for his sake, and that I wish that the child should grow to become both a human being and a man of worth. There is the news, Godongwana. This person who is described by your subject will fight your wars, not mine, because as for me, I am now old, and he will reach the state of manhood when I am already gone.” Jobe too spoke like one who knew what this child was going to become in the world, and he did the proper thing too by placing the matter in the hands of his sons.
That child was given the name Chaka by his father, and when he reached the month of kuruetso,1 Senzangakhona asked Nandi to bring him to him for a while so that he should see him and get acquainted with him. After that Nandi returned once again to her own home with her infant Chaka, to keep him away from witchcraft, since it was rumoured that Senzangakhona’s wives had been bewitched so that they would not carry male children.
1In the second month of a child’s life certain rites, collectively known as kuruetso, were performed upon the child. We here summarise a description of these rites by Azariele Sekese in Mekgwa le Maele a Basotho (The Customs and Proverbs of the Basotho). At the time of the first appearance of the new moon, if the child is a boy, other boys in the community are invited to play certain games, during which the following words are said to the infant: “Kururu, kururu, there is your agemate over there”, while the child’s face is turned towards the moon.
Secondly, the child is given its first taste of meat from the hand of a man (if the child is a boy) or a woman (if a girl) who is well known for good character and exemplary behaviour, in the expectation that the child will grow up to be like the one who gave him/her the meat.
Thirdly, the child, whether a boy or a girl, is given milk milked by a young man who has not yet known a woman, from a cow which has not been covered by a bull since it bore the calf responsible for its present lactation. The young milker must, besides, be known for his exemplary behaviour and general good character.
Fourthly, the child, who has hitherto not been exposed to rain for fear that, if touched by rain prior to this time, he/she will be given to stealing, is now deliberately exposed to rain. On the first rainy day during or after the second month (up to the third or fourth month) the child is laid down in the courtyard, face upwards; and as it cries the adults laugh mockingly and say: “Haiaha, you thief! There’s a thief for you!” Thereafter they remove it from the rain.
CHAPTER 2
Senzangakhona Disowns Nandi
AS AN infant, Chaka was a lovable, bouncing little fellow with chubby cheeks who did not cry even when he fell. Even when he was chastised he did not often cry, or he might cry only once and then keep quiet. Children generally squall when they are given a beating, and they beg for mercy, at the same time telling how repentant they are; or else they run away. All those were things which Chaka never did. He said that pleading for mercy gave satisfaction to the inflictor of the punishment. As for running away, he said that that was cowardice, for when a person is chastised for a wrong he has committed, he must endure the punishment that arises from his wrong-doing. Chaka was, nonetheless, a peaceful little lad who did not trouble his mother with anything. Those who knew him as a child told how, even as he played with other children, any person whose eyes met his, even without having known him before, could tell at once that he was of royal blood, and not the child of a commoner; they said that all who saw him described him with the words: “He is the cub of a lion; he is the nurseling of a wild beast; he is a newborn little lion.” The people all acclaimed him in the same way.
Chaka, after his father saw him, returned to Ncube’s; and even on the occasion of his weaning, only Nandi went to Senzangakhona’s while Chaka remained behind, and was continually being sent cattle and goats which were called his food.
There was a woman doctor at Bungane’s who was very famous for her knowledge of charms to make one popular, charms that brought good fortune, and charms that caused a king to be loved greatly by his people and by other kings. It happened that on the day Chaka was to be strengthened with potent medicines in accordance with the customs of his own people, this woman was fetched so that she should be the one to give him his first taste of meat. On arriving there, she said that Chaka was still too small, and was not yet ready for the strong medicines of kingship. Nevertheless she fortified him with medicines that brought good luck so that he should be successful in all his undertakings. To do that she took the bile of a yellow snake found in Bokone,