The doctor vaccinated Chaka’s right hand with the medicine made from that tree, mixed with other medicines as well as snake poisons. He had two cuts on the outside of his hand, opposite the middle finger, two more cuts at the wrist joint, and two on the thumb. He did the same thing to the left hand, except that there he did not actually cut, but simply feinted the cuts with his razor, and then he rubbed in the medicine; and the pain that Chaka felt as the medicine was applied where the doctor had simply been feinting with his razor was beyond description, and Chaka felt it in his heart, it even brought tears to his eyes. The doctor mixed the remaining medicine into an ointment and gave it to Chaka, saying that every time he returned from bathing in the river, he must anoint himself with it just as if it were an ordinary lubricating fat, and rub it especially into the areas with the cuts.
Lastly, the doctor went to look for another tree far away yonder by the sea, and cut two branches from it. From one of these he made Chaka a stick which he hollowed out a little at the thick end and put that terrible evil medicine into the hole. From the second branch he made Chaka a spear with a short handle so that it could not be hurled, and once again he stuffed that fearful medicine into a hole at the base, and then bonded the spear with fire, after which he stroked the handle of that spear with that same medicine, at the place where it is fixed to the blade, and then he tied them together securely with the binding skin. The colour of that tree, after the bark is taken off, is very beautiful indeed; it is dark brown and it glitters brightly when the sun shines on it, and has such a high gloss that it almost looks liquid.
When they had finished all those things, they retraced their tracks in order to go to Dingiswayo’s. On the way the doctor advised Chaka very strongly to obey Dingiswayo with true obedience, to work happily for him, because it was through him that he would attain the kingship he wanted. In addition, he told Chaka that, because of his many responsibilities, he would not visit him often. “If something should happen, and you need me quickly, when you go to the river on your appointed day, you must anoint yourself with the medicine I gave you, and then go into the water, and I shall hear at once that I am needed. But if you should need me urgently when that day is still far away, go to the river before the sun comes up, or for that matter at any time when you are confronted with danger, cut a reed from the river, peel off its covering, and then go into the water and bathe, after which you must stroke that reed with that same medicine, partly submerge it in water and call me in a whisper, speaking softly into the reed, saying “Isanusi”, thereafter throw it into the middle of the river. You are to do all these things with your eyes shut. I will hear that I am wanted urgently. In battle, when you are sorely pressed by the enemy, and see that death is at hand, simply strike your forehead, where I have stuffed the medicine, with the base of your spear which also contains the medicine, that is to say that the medicines must strike each other, and then call “Isanusi!”, and help will come to you in the twinkling of an eye, and your enemies will flee when they hear that name.”
“Doctor, we have already been together several days now, talking about one thing, but you have not yet told me your name. Who are you?”
“Neither did you tell me yours, I discovered it for myself with my own intelligence. When you call me, say ‘Isanusi’.”
“But ‘Isanusi’ is not your name, it simply describes what you are, whereas what I am asking is your name.”
“You speak the truth, but I am Isanusi both by name and by deed.”
“I was about to ask you, Isanusi, how many days it would take you to reach me, starting from where you will be when I call you?”
“That will depend on where your call will find me. If it comes to me when I am near, I shall arrive quickly; if it finds me far, it is understandable, of course, that I shall be slightly delayed. But don’t ever fear that I might delay so long that you would be overtaken by danger, that will never happen. Besides, if I am held up, I can send one of my servants to you; as a matter of fact, my thinking is that the day you take over the kingship, one of them should come and live with you, and watch over you for me.”
“But doctor, will they also …”
“You must not say ‘doctor’ when you speak to me, you must say ‘Isanusi’. Be careful not to say ‘doctor’ when you summon me, and thus make it impossible for me to hear your call.”
“But you are a doctor, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am, but the name is Isanusi, and that is the name I use in addressing the dead, and it is by that name that they know me.”
“I was about to ask you, Isanusi, whether those servants of yours will know where I am.”
“With precision.”
“How will they know?”
“How did I know? The way that I knew is exactly the way they too will know. One important matter which I want you to understand well is that the great king who once visited you at the river is a person who loves war; if you do not spill blood, he will not be pleased with you. Also, the medicine with which I have vaccinated you is a medicine of blood; if you do not spill much blood, it will turn against you and kill you instead. Your sole purpose should be to kill without mercy, and thus clear the path that leads to the glory of your kingship.”
“As far as that is concerned, doctor …”
“You must not say ‘doctor’, you must say ‘Isanusi’.”
“I say, as far as that is concerned, Isanusi, you must not worry yourself too much, because I have now thought about my affairs in a different way, for I have seen clearly how the affairs of men are conducted in this world, and I shall direct them in a way that will teach the people to live in a proper manner; indeed, if my spear had not broken the day I was attacked at my home, I would have made for myself a famous name, and people would have talked only of Chaka in the coming years; the old people would have told their grandchildren how I had fought on that day, putting an end to a great multitude all by myself. The youth would have been instructed with the words: ‘You must fight the way Chaka fought.’ My name would have lived after me, and been spoken long after I had turned to dust inside my grave. Oh, people, how that spear spited me!”
“I see that you do not crave for kingship only, you also long to be renowned to the very ends of the earth, to gather so much fame that when your deeds are told, they will sound like fairy-tales; that is another thing which you yearn for, just like kingship.”
“Yes, fame is sweet; I would not be happy even though I were to be a great king, if I were not famous. Besides, the fame I want is that which comes when men are gripping their spears, and braves with stout necks fall dead on the ground, and all the fine young men come to their end. I would like my kingship to be one which I will reach out and grab for myself, so that my fame may grow.”
“Chaka, I tell you there is nothing that is too difficult for a man. If you are a man, and you know how to work with your spear, everything will happen the way you want it. It is through the spear that the brave acquire cattle, it is through it that fame is achieved, and it is through it that kings rule, for he who does not know how to use it, is ruled. The diligent cultivator of sorghum is the person who knows the time for working in the fields, who, when the proper month comes, gives up beer parties and feasts, and rises at the crying of the cock to go to his garden, caring nothing about the cold and the fury of the sun, his one aim being that that moment should not pass him by. If you like kingship and fame, you must be like that. You must be a cultivator of kingship: let your spear be your hoe, use it, and use it intelligently. Where necessary, you must reduce everything to total annihilation, sweep it all away, and never let your enemy escape lest he should afterwards rise up against you. Remove the weeds from your garden of kingship with war, and that is how you will achieve your fame. At Dingiswayo’s you will find a place where the spear is put to great use, where braves are greatly loved; and thus, my last word to you, Chaka, is that you must work like a man with that spear of yours, so that the day we meet again you will tell me of the grea
t things which you have done, and of the way in which Dingiswayo regards you.”
When they came close to Dingiswayo’s they parted, Isanusi stating that he did not want to meet Dingiswayo because they hated each other.
CHAPTER 8
Chaka Arrives at Dingiswayo’s – He Kills a Madman: The Battle of Zwide
ABOUT TWO months had passed from the day Chaka ran away from home to the day on which he parted from Isanusi; that is to say that those who were mourning for him had already removed the cord of mourning. Dingiswayo, on the other hand, was still busy calling together doctors and diviners to find out where Chaka was; and that shows us that he loved him very much.
Chaka, the day he left home in flight, left as Chaka, a human being like all other human beings, who had his human failings. Today he comes back greatly changed; it is only his flesh that is coming back, only his outer self; as for his true self, that has remained at the place from which he is returning; he comes back with a completely different spirit and a different personality. Even before this, Chaka was an amazingly persistent person who persevered however difficult a thing might be until he reached the very end of it, till he came to the farthest reaches of the desires of his heart, allowing nothing to stand in his way, to keep him from what he wanted. But in spite of all that he had human feelings, and did not provoke a fight. But now when he saw his own father’s children seeking to kill him for nothing, and his father turning into an enemy, he ran away; and when he was out there in the wilderness, his being died, and today he returns with the thought that says: “I shall simply kill whomever I wish to kill, whether he is guilty or not, because that is the law of this world. I will never have mercy on a person simply because of his pleadings.” Indeed Chaka returns with no human feeling left in him, his sole aim being to kill, resolved that he will settle every dispute and every quarrel with his stick by killing both the accuser and the accused. He returns determined to fight a war that has no end, by means of which he will kill both his enemies and his own people and friends in a clandestine manner. The frightening vengeance of his heart is indeed about to drive him mad.
The sun was already about to touch the tips of the mountains, and the evening shadows lengthened greatly, the cattle already standing in the squares by the folds, and the women already returning with the water from the springs, when Chaka arrived at the gates of Dingiswayo’s royal abode. When he came there he sat down in order to be well rested before going in, thereby ensuring that he would enjoy peace and happiness therein. While he was sitting there he heard the men at the king’s court chanting in unison: “Siyavuma” (We agree), while a doctor who was then in the process of divining was telling how Chaka had disappeared, and that he would never be seen again, and, further, that he had been murdered, which was what most diviners were inclined to assert. But one of the diviners affirmed with an oath, swearing by Dingiswayo himself, that Chaka was alive wherever he was, and that he would indeed come of his own accord to his king one day.
Chaka heard all those things, and when he surveyed the village with his eyes, he saw a small group of women leaving the court, and among them he saw his mother, Nandi, who had grown extremely thin, and had become weak like someone who had been ill for many years. And then, when the sun disappeared completely in the ground, he entered the village, and was walking with a sprightly step, feeling light, as a young man should. He greeted the king’s councillors. To their questions regarding where he came from and where he was going, he answered that he had come from far away in the south, and that he wished to see Dingiswayo in order to speak to him. When they said he should explain why he wanted him, he said: “Tell the king and say: Here is a homeless wanderer who wishes to be taken up and protected by you; he is not a human being, but a hare hunted by the hounds, and those who see him simply attack him without a word, so that he has even become brother to the owl; yet he is a male child who has an arm that knows how to carry his weapons, one who can fight in his wars. If the king is afraid that, through me, he will acquire a burden he will never be able to shake off, will he kindly let me know, so that I may hurry on because the hue and cry following me is frightening.”
It was already dusk, so that the people were not able to see each other properly. When Dingiswayo came to Chaka he said: “Where do you come from? Where are you going? Where is your home? What is your name?”
“My king, I have just recently wandered in the plains fleeing from the spear; I have come to you to ask for protection; my home is at Senzangakhona’s; my name is Chaka.” There was complete silence in the court when Chaka began to speak; and when he made that last statement, all the men stood up and crowded around him joyfully when they heard that he was indeed Chaka, the brave after whom their king had been hankering so long. One man among those forming a circle around Chaka and Dingiswayo began to praise the bones of the dead ones that seek after the living; he praised them in very low tones, constantly throwing side glances at Dingiswayo; and it turned out that he was the one who alone had sworn that Chaka was alive where he was, and that he would one day come of his own accord to his king, and this was truly so.
Instead of answering Chaka, Dingiswayo sent someone to fetch Nandi, Chaka’s mother, from her house. And when Nandi came, he asked once again, saying: “Where did you say you come from, young man? Furthermore, where are you going? Where is your home? And what is your name?”
“My king, I have recently wandered in the plains fleeing from the spear” – Nandi strained her ears and listened intently, and she penetrated the darkness with her eyes to see the person who was speaking – “I have come to you to ask for protection.” Nandi cried piercingly several times, and there was pain in her voice, and she fell down senseless. At that very moment a cry was heard over at the house from which she had been summoned; the other women, her agemates, came running and crying, attracted by a voice they knew well, of someone they had already given up as lost, believing that he had been murdered. Someone spoke over there in the midst of the crowd and said: “So-and-so could never be wrong!”, mentioning the name of this very doctor who was praising his divining bones.
There was a madman in the forest near the cliffs of the Mfolozi River who despoiled the people’s property by seizing their goats and cattle. He was like someone possessed by the evil spirits which we hear mentioned in the Scriptures. When the people ran after him to recapture their stock, he would play havoc with them, killing those he could kill, and grabbing one of them, as they fled, and impaling him alive on the branch of a tree, as if he were a butcherbird. For that reason, the people were extremely afraid of him. On the other hand people in Bokone are generally very afraid of madmen, and even brave men run away without any hesitation when they see them.
On the day following Chaka’s arrival, that madman did a lot of damage among Dingiswayo’s cattle, as he made them stampede back and forth on those ugly cliffs, while he tried to pick the one he wanted to slaughter. Many fell down the cliffs. He also killed an ox of a beautiful colour, one which drew much admiration in times of festivities, the very one Dingiswayo had doctored in order to strengthen his cattle fold. When the herdboys came and told him later that day, Dingiswayo was greatly saddened, because a few days before that, that madman had caught and eaten an ox of his with beautiful downward-pointed horns, which was the pride of his herd. He was truly at a loss how to kill that madman, besides, among his regiments and his warriors, there was none brave enough to go and face him.
Chaka was present when the herdboys reported to the king, and when he saw that no one was going, he got up and went. On seeing this, Dingiswayo also went with a large contingent of warriors, and he gave them strict orders that no one must run away, and that the madman must be killed since everybody had had enough of him. His heart still sore from all his sufferings, Chaka was desperate, and he told himself that if he killed that madman, that would be good since that act would create peace for him in this village, and would make the king take notice of him; but at the same time, if the madman should ki
ll him, that would be a matter of no consequence, since he was already as good as dead on account of the bitterness of the life he was leading. He told himself that that madman, by killing him, would release him from his suffering.
When they came to the forest where the madman lived, some soon began to lag behind. As they passed over the cliffs that were his home, he saw them, and he came out already proclaiming his own praises and waving his spears. The people broke rank and all ran away; Chaka hesitated a while, but eventually had to run also. And then when they came out of the forest, he looked back, and he saw how the madman had scattered the men in their flight, and how he kept stabbing them to death as they ran with no one daring to put up a fight against him, since he was reputed to be possessed of an evil spirit. When the madman came close to him, Chaka pretended to run away, and since that madman was already used to the fact that he was feared by all, and that no one would fight him, he came towards him unprepared for a battle, simply ready to stab, but not to parry; besides which, he observed that Chaka had no spears, and that he was but a tender youth. Suddenly Chaka made a sharp turn, and the madman stabbed the ground, and before he had had time to pull his spear out, Chaka dealt him a mortal wound, killing him on the spot.
That madman was the first person Chaka killed with the short spear made for him by Isanusi.
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