Chaka. Thomas Mofolo
side, how to jump, and how to land a blow at the right spot at the right time.
On the day the man had given Chaka a beating, his grandmother was very grieved by the life of suffering which Chaka led as herder of calves. So she withdrew him from that duty and made him a bird-scarer in the sorghum fields where he had to go at the earliest dawn carrying a glowing towane – a grass fire-kindler which burned his fingers even before he arrived where he was going. Besides, he walked through the chilly dew and was so cold by the time he arrived in the fields that he was not even able to scare the birds properly. Even though they did not beat him, the other scarers made fun of him, and spat in disgust whenever they talked with him, and they turned up their noses at him and generally treated him like a halfwit. And even as all these things were happening to him, Chaka did not know what wrong he had done. Truly there never was a child whose growing up was as painful as Chaka’s. For a person to be disowned by his father is a painful thing indeed.
The calf herders now suffered from boredom because they had become accustomed to relieving it by torturing Chaka. Then they decided to go right there to the fields where he was. And as Chaka was sitting contentedly one day, he saw a whole gang of boys suddenly appearing right near him in the middle of the fields and the tall grass, and they surrounded him. In vain did he look this way and that, there was nowhere he could run. Worst of all, even his little stick was far away from him, in the shelter. They caught hold of him and battered and bashed him till he fainted, then they threw him in a ditch in the tall grass, thinking that he was dead. A certain person who had gone to inspect the fields saw them all the time, but was unfortunately too far away, and when he came to where they had thrown Chaka, he realised that the boy was not dead, but had simply fainted. Then he poured water on him and put him in the shade where it was cool, and Chaka quickly recovered. But he was so exhausted that he was unable to stand. The kind-hearted person informed Chaka’s relations and they came and carried him home in an ox-hide.
That day Nandi came to the end of her endurance and she informed Senzangakhona about the hard life that Chaka was leading, but Senzangakhona did not answer. He too was sad in his heart, and it was as if every time he swallowed, his saliva was mixed with blood; yet he realised that if he intervened, he would give his detractors a chance to tell what they knew. When the wives saw the messenger, they told Senzangakhona to stop sending the cattle and sheep which were called Chaka’s food, and even though his heart was truly sore, he stopped sending them, so that his shame would remain concealed. Oh, how bitter is the fruit of sin, for Senzangakhona had now become separated from his wife whom he loved and whom he married with fifty-five head of cattle, and he had become separated also from his child Chaka, through whom he first knew a son, and, to make it worse, he was forced to persecute them.
From then on, the old woman refused to let Chaka herd calves, and she also refused to let him scare away the birds in the fields, and this made him a laughing stock, a stay-at-home.
When Chaka was getting to be a young lad, Nandi took him to that doctor of hers so that he should be strengthened with potent medicines which would protect him from these people who were intent on killing him. The doctor took some medicinal powder, mixed it with other medicines and gave it to them saying: “The day the moon goes into darkness, Chaka must go to the river very early in the morning. When he finishes bathing, he must vaccinate himself with this medicine, and then he must go back to the village, and then smear his head with the one I previously gave you. As a result of that, even if his attackers should surround him in a large group, they will never defeat him, but instead he will scatter them with ease. He will kill rather than be killed. I want to state very firmly again that this child will receive blessings that exceed all expectations. Tell me, have you ever seen anything at the river, while you were bathing?” Chaka said he had not. Then that woman put her hand on a vein in Chaka’s arm and listened, and then said: “The events which will take place around the life of this child are of great importance; they are weighty matters. I shall hurry back from Zwide’s where I am now being summoned, and if it is at all possible, I shall be back here with you on the tenth day from today. If I should be unable to come on that day, you must know that I am held up by work. But in that case I shall send someone to come and find out for me how things are going, especially since I know that tomorrow Chaka will rise early and go to the river, for that is his day.”
When she was already on her way the doctor felt concern lest Chaka was a coward because that would destroy the potency of her medicines. She therefore sent him two kinds of medicine, one for vaccinating and the other for drinking, whose purpose was to turn him into a fierce person, and make him long to fight; he would also have bravery in his liver, and be fearless. Among the ingredients in those medicines were the liver of a lion, the liver of a leopard, and the liver of a man who had been a renowned warrior in his lifetime. She mixed them all together. The medicine for drinking was constantly added to Chaka’s food. She ordered that the vaccination should be done by a woman with a newborn child, who, besides, must be her first child.
The messenger brought the medicines, and Chaka was even vaccinated while he was still there, and then he went back. From that day on, Chaka had an uncontrollable desire to fight, and it had to be a serious fight in which heavy sticks and spears were used. He dreamed about it at night when he was sleeping; he dreamed about it during the day, with his eyes open; and whenever he saw a man carrying a stick or a spear his whole body would at once begin to itch, and he would wish to engage that man in a fight. He would dream that he saw hordes and hordes of enemy warriors come to attack him, and he would see himself putting them to flight all by himself, without being helped by any of his people. He began to love only those conversations that spoke of war. Even before that Chaka was a very brave person, but he had never been the one to provoke a fight, and he was not quarrelsome, but now these medicines spurred him on and he even went to the pastures in defiance of his grandmother’s orders.
The moment he arrived in the pastures the other boys would rush at him all at once, but he would give them terrible gaping wounds with his blows, till they fled. Soon all the herdboys gave up fighting him, and he became their leader. He watered his cattle first in the marshes, and he was the first one to graze where the pastures were rich. Always at the end of a fight he would feel a sense of happiness, and experience a wonderful feeling of relaxation, like a poisonous snake which, after biting a person, lies sick until that person dies, whereupon it casts its skin and begins to move about again. Chaka soon realised that he did not get tired easily even if he fought for a long time, and that by the time he became tired, he had killed or wounded many people. When he fought, his stick struck the defences of his opponent with such force that the opponent fell to the ground, while his enemies’ sticks were so weak when they landed on him that they were no better than the dry maize stalks left standing in the fields by the reapers.
CHAPTER 3
Chaka Kills a Lion
ONE DAY when Chaka was still a young lad, an uncircumcised little bullock, he took the cattle out to the pastures very early in the morning, before they were milked. As day-break approached, he and his herds were in the mountain pass which overlooked several fields which lay huddled together below. Little did he realise as he drove out his herds that a lion had raided one fold in the very village where he lived, taken a young calf and dragged it away. It appeared that, having eaten its fill, it had noticed that it was almost daybreak, and then decided to lie down right where it was, taking advantage of the extremely tall grass. Chaka went with his cattle, not aware that he was walking in the tracks of such a fearsome beast. Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, the cattle turned about and fled all the way back home. He remained there wondering what this portended, or what they had seen. Seeing he had no other alternative, he followed them back to the village.
At that time the sun was about to rise, and the people at home saw the cattle scattering away from him, and they knew that the beasts had seen a lion because the owners of the fold which it had plundered during the night were busy narrating to the others the happenings of that night, at that very moment when the cattle fled. And even as they were talking to each other, they saw the lion moving away from a spot near where the cattle were, and gliding towards the forest, but, since the forest was too far, it lay down again in the tall grass, near a large bush.
Chaka arrived as the men were planning to go after it, and he went with them. They formed a