Chaka

by Thomas Mofolo

  The night relentlessly came to an end, and when the sun rose it revealed Zwide’s men where they lay covering the entire plateau where they had spent the night; there was nothing to see but people, like the rolling shadows of dark clouds, or endless stretches of dense forests. As soon as the sun came out of the soil Chaka got up, looked this way and that, lifted his short-handled spear which had been doctored with snake poisons, and the commanders of the regiments gathered around him. At once, in the twinkling of an eye, a storm began to rage in his countenance even as they watched him: he turned pitch-black, his eyes became red as blood, and from his nose oozed perspiration which was as white as milk, and it stood there in little droplets. He ordered to the attack all the men and the young men not mobilised into regiments; they were the first to fight. As soon as these began to engage Zwide, Chaka attacked with two battalions sending them to the right-hand side of the mountain, and simultaneously with two others on the left-hand side, and all these met at the back of Zwide’s armies, encircling them. The frail old men and the unseasoned young men of Zwide’s, seeing the enemy give battle contrary to their expectations, ran helter-skelter.

  When the flanks of those battalions met, Chaka once again raised his spear pointing it at the enemy, and he stood quiet for a long time, looking in their direction. All he could hear was the sound of the spears as they constantly tore into the flesh of the combatants, as well as the groans of the dying as he watched his people dying and being reduced in number. After what seemed a long time he said: “There is your enemy, the very one that killed Dingiswayo! Go, then, and destroy him!” and then he sent all the remaining regiments into the fray, and he remained only with Isanusi. Chaka had ordered his men on that day not to throw their spears, but to kill spear in hand. The battle now raged most violently, and before an hour had passed, the ground was completely covered with the bodies of the dead; the regiments retreated and then rushed back at each other, and when they retreated a second time, Zwide’s slain were equal to those still alive. How effectively Malunga and Ndlebe worked that day! How efficient the spear that stabbed at close range!

  As the morning advanced and the cattle began to get used to the pastures, Isanusi could not contain himself any longer, and he left Chaka alone on the side of the mountain and ran into the battle. He grabbed his shield by its handle, and even as he joined the battle, people began to fall at an amazing speed; his servants then came and fought on either side of him, and they mowed down the enemy in a frightening manner. Towards midday Chaka ran and joined the battle, and when his warriors saw him their courage rose once more, and they fought like men.

  Zwide escaped by sheer miracle; Chaka pursued him until he crossed back to the other side of the river, and then came back. On the following day he pursued him farther, right into his village at Nongoma. The women at this place had stayed behind gathering piles of firewood in order to cook the meat of the Bathethwa’s cattle when their men returned; but now when they saw Zwide coming back in flight with only a few of his men, they were badly shaken. And then when Chaka’s armies appeared, a great wailing arose at Nongoma, the wailing of the women, the children and the old people pleading not to be left behind when everybody was running away.

  Chaka chased Zwide, continually killing his people, and routed him out of his village, and Zwide fled to Pediland where, shortly after his arrival, he died both from fatigue and from shock at seeing that large nation of his not only scattered, but indeed destroyed, in just one day. Chaka ordered that all of Zwide’s people, men, women and children, be killed, and only the young men be spared. Then when he returned from chasing Zwide, he summoned together all Zwide’s young men who had escaped, and he incorporated them into his armies, rather than kill them.

  When the battle of that day began at sunrise, Zwide’s men were countless in number. Chaka started the day with ten regiments without counting the men and the youths, and Zwide with seventeen regiments without counting the men and the youths. A regiment consisted of two thousand people, yet when the sun set on that day all of Zwide’s regiments had been turned into corpses, and only three of Chaka’s had survived; that is to say that more than forty thousand people died on that day.

  When the sun rose on that day there was no nation greater than Zwide’s in strength and in the number of its people, but when it set that large nation had been wiped off the face of the earth, and its villages had been turned into ruins.

  I do not believe that there was ever a human being whose life was as full of mystery as that of Chaka. Dingiswayo’s life was full of darkness and secrecy, but these could be unravelled and be made intelligible, but Chaka’s life has been cloaked in dark mystery until this very day. Just a few days before he was trembling one evening when he heard the report of the death of Dingiswayo, his protector, and he was afraid he would be assassinated or deprived of the kingship which he had worked so hard to obtain. Yet that same night found him active, going from here to there, surrounded by large armies which had appointed him king and commander, being the only one they considered suitable among all those crowds of people. The following day found him in command of all the armies, commanding them as his own, and not as someone else’s property; and now as today’s sun goes towards its setting, he is a king, a victor who has just scattered a nation greater than his own in strength; as it goes to its setting, he is the king of kings, and the nations tremble before him. To show how other nations trembled in fear of him, Matiwane, on hearing how Chaka had routed Zwide whose nation had been so large, took to his heels and stopped only when he reached the Maloti Mountains.

  CHAPTER 16

  The New National Name

  ISANUSI AND his servants were sitting with Chaka, talking about the past events in his life. Isanusi said: “Things have changed a great deal now, Chaka; you are Chaka the king, you are no longer like Chaka that lonely homeless vagabond whom I picked up under a tree. A few days ago you called me because you were in the grip of anxiety, but today those whom you feared are the ones who live in anxiety, in fear of you!”

  Chaka: “It was not without reason that I was so afraid; times were bad, and there was much uncertainty when I called you. But tell me, where were you at the time I called you, and how did you manage to arrive on the evening of that same day when your home is so far, far away as you yourself have told me?”

  “When you called me I was already on the way because I had already divined that you would be faced with serious problems this month or, let me say, on that very day.”

  “Who told you since Ndlebe and Malunga, the only people who know where you live, were here with me all the time?”

  “I am Isanusi the Diviner, remember!”

  At that point Chaka simply scratched his head in embarrassment, and then changed the subject, saying that Zwide was a coward to have killed Dingiswayo, because he, Chaka, had sent word that he should not be killed for he would pay his ransom. Isanusi asked: “Where would you have obtained so many cattle since you don’t have any that belong to you?”

  “I would have taken the very ones belonging to Dingiswayo, and paid his ransom with his own cattle; and if they were not enough, the people would have to pay a levy in order to ransom their king.”

  “How did Zwide answer you?”

  “He never answered me to this very day; I arrived there at the royal village to be met with rumours that the king had already been killed, even though I have since heard that he had not yet been killed at that time.”

  Ndlebe and Malunga spoke at the same time, saying: “Your messengers were stopped by us, and it was we who spread the rumour that Dingiswayo had already been killed, even though at that time he had not yet been killed.”

  Chaka was greatly surprised when he heard them confessing this, and he asked their reason, and they said: “You will remember that we are here on your account, we have come here to obtain kingship for you, and we want you to acquire it soon, after which we would like to obtain the cattle for our payment and return home. However, if your messengers
had reached Zwide, perhaps Dingiswayo might not have been killed; which is to say that you would not yet be king. But now you are a king with no one superior to you, while you are the superior of others, even though you have not yet reached kingship of the stature that Isanusi tells us you are craving for. Today, however, we promise ourselves that things are going to be much easier, because the decision is entirely in your own hands.” When Chaka heard these things, he was greatly surprised at the way in which these men had dedicated their lives to serving him.

  Isanusi: “I understand that you are betrothed to Noliwa. Tell me, do you want to marry her?”

  “I love her with all my heart, and I will marry her. But also I am bound to marry her, even if I did not wish to, because I have promised Dingiswayo’s armies that I would.”

  “But if they had not bound you with that promise, what were you going to do?”

  “I would still have wished to marry her because I love her, and, after all, they spoke to me in that manner after I had already become betrothed to her.”

  “If I were you I would not marry. Marriage splits kingdoms apart, because it always leads to quarrels in one’s house. You may remember the quarrels in your own father’s house. The children of one man fight, instead of loving each other, and blood flows as they kill each other. The best thing is that a person, especially a king, should marry when he begins to go grey, so that he will die of old age by the time his sons become young men, thus preventing such incidents as took place among the sons of Jobe, and also in order that there should be only one king, and not many, because if a king has many sons, the kingship of his heir is correspondingly weakened. But these are your own affairs which do not concern us at all, and we were merely making a suggestion.” Isanusi spoke these words like one who was merely jesting, yet they became a seed which began to grow in Chaka’s heart, especially since he had never really been very fond of women.

  Isanusi continued, saying: “Chaka, I shall soon be going away, I don’t have much time because I always have many engagements. You will remain with my servants: trust them and they will trust you, love them and they will love you. Ndlebe’s most important role will be to sniff out the gossip and the secrets for you; there is no evil plot that can be hatched and take root without him knowing about it, even if it were to be discussed in an aardvark’s hole, I swear. Malunga’s main duty will be to prepare your armies with medicines when you are going to war; he has the right medicines for that purpose, and your armies will never suffer defeat, not even on a single day, if they have been doctored by him. But before I depart, I want to ask you only one question, and you must answer me suitably after giving thought to the matter, and without feeling rushed. The day I found you in the wilderness yonder you were crying for the kingship of your father which had slipped out of your grip because of your stepmothers; secondly you wanted fame. I have now obtained those two things for you. Afterwards you said, if I could make you a king of the stature of Dingiswayo, who is not ruled by others, you would be very happy, and then I said to you that if you wished, I could make you a king even greater than Dingiswayo, and now this has happened. My question is this: Are you now satisfied, or do you still want something beyond that?”

  “I understand your first question, Isanusi, and I will answer it in a moment; the one I do not quite understand is the second one, because you ask as if there were still something greater you could obtain for me if I had greater aspirations!”

  “That is so.”

  “Are you saying that you are able to obtain for me blessings greater than the ones I have already received and greater kingship than I already have?” Chaka asked in surprise because a kingship surpassing his was unknown in those days.

  Instead of answering immediately Isanusi showed a disappointed countenance, and he looked at Chaka with sadness and said: “What is painful to me is that it is now several years that I have been working with you, and in that time I have never on a single occasion deceived you by claiming to be able to do something I could not do; yet in spite of all that you still talk like someone who does not know me.”

  “Forgive me if I have offended you, I spoke those words purely out of surprise. And now therefore I say, work, master, and take me to the very limits of your wisdom and your strength.”

  “Are you, then, still seeking kingship and fame greater than those you now have?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very well then, I have heard you; but you realise, of course, that the payment due to me is also getting bigger: for a kingship such as your father had, and which you have inherited, you owe me a full fee for my professional services as a doctor; for a kingship of the stature you have now obtained, that fee is doubled; for greater kingship than this, it is three times that fee. It is a high fee, even though to a king it is but nothing.”

  “Payment is nothing to me, there is nothing I would spare as long as you take me to the things I desire.”

  “I shall leave instructions with my servants to arrange these matters for you. I, for my part, will tell you the entire truth, and that is that there is a sense in which it is quite difficult to obtain the kingship you want, such as will give you territory so big that, if a man started from here where you are, as a young man going to the ends of your empire, he would walk until he grew old before he returned. It is quite difficult, because the medicine for obtaining that must come from you, not from me; and perhaps you might be unable to procure such medicine and place it in the hands of us, the doctors. If you are afraid, there is, of course, nothing I can do.”

  “What sort of medicine is that which I, Chaka, would be afraid to give you if I knew where to find it?”

  “I say that it is difficult because if you want such a kingship, every time you go to meet the enemy, your warriors must eat food mixed with medicines containing the blood of someone you love most dearly, one who is constantly in your thoughts, who is in your heart day and night, whom you love more than all the people in this entire world. It is by means of the blood of such a person that you can obtain the kind of kingship I have just described: I know no other way besides that one. I know of one king in my country who strengthened his royal city with the blood of his first-born son when he was seeking a kingship of this nature, and he fortified the city gates with the blood of his last-born son, which meant that he was left without children. Now you may ponder over this matter, and then tell me what is your wish.”

  Chaka tried to answer, but Isanusi stopped him with a wave of his hand, and insisted that he should think seriously first and not be in a hurry. Then he moved away from him, and returned after a while, and said: “Have you given this matter your most serious consideration?” Chaka agreed. Then Isanusi said: “Speak then, so that we may hear what you have decided.”

  “I, Chaka, do not ponder long over a problem. I have decided in favour of the kingship you have just described; I only regret that I do not have any children, I do not know whether the blood of my mother or of my brothers would be suitable. If it is suitable, I shall let you have it so that you may mix those medicines of yours.”

  “But among these whom you have mentioned there is none whom you love with the love I have just described, that one you have left out. Please think of that one, and then tell us your truest wish.”

  “Apart from those, the one whom I love is Noliwa …”

  “Very well then. Think well and decide which you will choose: the kingship you now have which you may enjoy in the company of Noliwa, or the one which surpasses it, but without Noliwa. To make this quite clear to you let me tell you that there is a kingship which surpasses what you have by far, but you cannot obtain it without killing Noliwa, you, Chaka, with your own hand.” Isanusi laughed and said: “Today, Chaka, we are teaching you witchcraft, how sorcerers kill their own children or their parents in order to ensure that they shall be efficient in their sorcery.” Isanusi once more laughed like one who was joking, and then he said once again to Chaka that he must think about the matter for that whole day and give hi
m an answer in the evening.

  Chaka, when he was all by himself and thought about Noliwa, and about the kingship just described, found that Noliwa was as nothing, and he further told himself that in a kingdom so big he would, without a doubt, find many beautiful girls, or even one more beautiful by far than Noliwa. For that reason he decided to make her the most efficacious component of his medicines. As soon as they met that evening Chaka said: “To tell you the truth, in this world there isn’t anything I love other than kingship, war, and commanding armies. Therefore I give you Noliwa in order to remove any stumbling block from the path leading to my kingship. I have considered this matter and concluded: the medicines will be mixed with Noliwa’s blood.”

  Isanusi and his servants were quiet until Chaka finished speaking. Only then did Isanusi say: “I believe, Chaka, that you heard me when I said I am not binding you to do anything, but am leaving the decision entirely up to you, because we doctors simply give a person the medicine he wants, even though it may be one that kills. We are mere barterers, accepting no responsibility; we are mere traders, we want cattle for our medicines, and it is the person we serve who must choose the medicine he wants. You must understand that there is neither force nor compulsion; you are to act according to the wishes of your own heart.”

  “I have heard you well, you have told me the price of that kingship, and now I am deciding on my own to buy it myself, because I like it.”

  But in spite of that, Isanusi refused to have the work begun immediately, saying that Chaka had not yet weighed the matter carefully enough; and then he gave him a full year in which to let his thoughts settle, so that he should not change his mind when the work had already been done, when it would be of no further use. But Chaka pleaded, saying that that time was too long and should be shortened, so they agreed on nine months.

  When Isanusi was on the point of leaving he said: “Here is a little matter which I nearly forgot to mention: since the name of your nation is so ugly why don’t you abandon it, Chaka, and find yourself a beautiful one with a pleasing sound, one suitable for a king like you and a nation such as yours?”