Chaka

by Thomas Mofolo

  Elephant which, on turning its head, devoured the men,

  Elephant which trumpets while yet at miThonjaneni;

  Heaven that thundered and ate up the shields of the maPhela,

  So that the women left the sprouting crops while still short,

  And left their seeds in the deserted villages,

  And expectant women were forced to give birth.

  At Somdombana’s he ate two sugarcanes

  Yet surprisingly only one chewed refuse came out,

  He does not even go to his court, nor to his personal bodyguards,

  He is like Vimba from the place of Mangwekazi.

  Strapping young one whom they bite only to spit out

  As he reminded them of the strong-muscled cubs of lions

  Peerer over precipices, so that the precipices may peer at each other,

  Because he peered into the precipice of his brother.

  Black sorghum of Hlayukana,

  Which the people of Zululand licked before going to consult the doctor.

  My mother’s little one, climb on my back and let us go,

  Some others are already carried on their mother’s backs,

  They are the ones of Mbuzo, the ones of Nsele,

  They are the ones of Sichusa of Dingankomo,

  Locust which was trapped with a spear at Malandela’s,

  Locust which from the very start soared ahead.

  CHAPTER 18

  The Death of Noliwa

  THE NUMBER of months set by Isanusi for Chaka to consider his proposition came to an end and found Chaka’s mind unchanged, as he stood steadfastly by his word of the year before. As we have stated, there was a delay in Chaka’s marriage, since there was no one to receive the bohadi cattle, yet at the same time Noliwa could not simply be taken without bohadi like a homeless vagabond of a woman. Yet in spite of that Chaka continued meeting Noliwa until she became pregnant. During her pregnancy, Noliwa became infatuated with Chaka and would always cry whenever she did not see him.

  Chaka, too, loved Noliwa very much. If Chaka ever loved a woman with true love, we believe that Noliwa was the woman upon whom that love was lavished. All beautiful and worthy things which a true wife might do for her husband, and which Chaka ever experienced, he received from Noliwa. And even as he betrayed her like that and planned her murder, his conscience ate him up and gave him no rest; it told him he had strayed from the straight path of human compassion. Yet, because of his desire for kingship, he suppressed it and pushed ahead, and walked about carrying death on his shoulders.

  The way Ndlebe and Malunga carried out their duties had already begun to convince him that they were truly leading him towards the kingship he wanted, and so, even though it was as hard as swallowing a stone, he pressed on and made his heart strong.

  Malunga told him that the time Isanusi had set had already passed, but that Isanusi had no doubt done this on purpose so that Chaka should let his mind settle on his decision. Then Chaka said: “But this delay of Isanusi’s is beginning to puzzle me because I am all ready to go out to war; we have been sitting for a long time doing nothing, and our spears are going to end up being consumed by rust.”

  Malunga: “But, according to the way I have already worked, you cannot go to war without the blood of the one you love, but that is Isanusi’s responsibility, not mine; even if you have weighed the matter and decided to spare Noliwa, there is nothing that I can do; it is Isanusi alone who can undo what I have already done; it is he who has the knowledge of the going and the coming, of the doing and the undoing.” Chaka heard and understood that there was still time to be merciful and to spare Noliwa, and his feelings were in turmoil.

  On the evening of that same day Isanusi arrived and joined them in the house where they were all by themselves, and he came in already with a question on his lips: “How is it, Chaka? Have you chosen to live with Noliwa as your wife as was decided by Dingiswayo, his nation, and yourself, or have you chosen the kingship?”

  “I, Chaka, do not know how to speak two things with one mouth. What I have spoken I have spoken, Isanusi.” Isanusi was quiet for a long time with his head bowed; at last he lifted his head and said: “Gracious me! Greetings, I beg you, my countrymen. How is it, Malunga? Have you done your work as ordered?”

  “I have done my work and finished, Isanusi, and we are waiting only for you who are the completer and the perfecter.”

  Isanusi: “Have the warriors already been given their medicine without their knowledge?”

  “They have been made to swallow it, Isanusi.”

  Isanusi: “Have the spears already been beaten afresh and strengthened with medicines in the proper manner, like the spears of the warriors of my country?”

  “They have been beaten and strengthened, Isanusi.”

  “The medicines for churning the potion, are they ready?”

  “They are ready, Isanusi; everything you ordered me to do I have done in accordance with your orders, and I have finished.”

  Isanusi turned towards Ndlebe and said: “Ndlebe, what tasks have you performed since I went away?”

  “I have prepared the people’s minds, those of men and women alike, so that they should feel that every deed performed by Chaka is good for no other reason than that it is performed by Chaka who has been sent by the gods among the people. Furthermore, I have secretly given them the boreba, the medicine that dulls the mind, so that even where they might have had doubts, their minds should react without intelligence, they should be dull, and lack awareness of what is going on; they should look upon Chaka, and even think about him the way they would think about Nkulunkulu.”

  Isanusi smiled and said: “You have worked well, and in a matter of great importance too.” Then Isanusi asked Chaka again the same question he had asked him a while before, and Chaka gave him the same answer as he had done. Isanusi once again kept quiet for a long time, and was troubled like a judge who passes judgement without wishing to pronounce his verdict against someone he loves, but who is compelled by the evidence to do so, and indeed to impose a heavy sentence on him, which is something he would much rather not do.

  After a long time he said: “Think well, Chaka. What has been done by my assistants can be undone, whereas that which I shall do with the blood of your wife, Noliwa, is something that even I cannot undo even if I wish to. That will be the ultimate seal. For this reason it is necessary that a person should understand what he is doing while there is still time, so that he should not afterwards regret when regret is of no further use. The day I left here I told you that today we shall teach you the ultimate in sorcery. And that is true, because we doctors are sorcerers who surpass other sorcerers. If you decide in favour of the kingship, you will be transformed into someone else, you will be like the kings of my country. But, I ask you once again, and do answer me with the truth that is in your heart, having fear of nothing, not even that I shall say that you have troubled me over nothing. What do you choose for yourself, Noliwa or the kingship?”

  Chaka: “The kingship!”

  At once, in the twinkling of an eye, Isanusi’s face lit up and brightened, the trace of unhappiness which had clouded his countenance fled and made way for joy, and he said: “You have answered like a man; I like people of your calibre. I cannot get on with someone whose mind is fickle; I was simply testing you with my questions so that I should know the depth of your feelings; but I can see now that you are a man, for when you have spoken you have spoken. You are a king, and you have answered me like a king. On this day I have learned exactly what kind of person you are, and I shall work for you with a more willing heart than I have done hitherto because I know your true nature. Through Noliwa’s death many things will be revealed to you, and even if you are not aware of them in the beginning, that awareness will come with time; you will even come to know that there is no death, there is no dying.

  “When a person is said to have died, he is not dead, he is merely transformed, the breath of life having left this covering of fle
sh and migrated to another land which shines more gloriously than the sun, and he goes and lives there exactly as he had done before, as you yourself can indeed testify to some extent because you heard for yourself your own father’s voice when he spoke to you, and it was exactly as you had known it. He who has worked hard in this world will reap a rich harvest there; one who has done nothing here will receive nothing there, because everything a person does in this world the sun takes with it when it sets and carries it to that great land of the living whom you regard as dead, and refer to as the dead; and all these things will wait for him there, growing and increasing like cows which calve repeatedly. But the deeds of he who has worked little do not grow, but rather diminish and become less, just as it is with someone who has sown little, for the handful of sorghum which he obtains at harvest time is lost in the soil of the threshing floor, instead of filling large grain bags, and he remains a piteous figure, with his hands grasping nothing but air.

  “At this very moment you are about to be counted among the strong, yea, among the strong whom even now I see where they are sitting covered on all sides by the glory of their works, men whose brows sweated when it was time for sweating, who worked like true men. At this very moment you are about to be counted among those kings who resemble the kings of my home.” Isanusi’s heart was moved so that he fell silent just when he was on the point of revealing to Chaka the secrets of the world beyond the grave. Chaka listened to these matters with his heart’s desires keen and sharpened and goading him on to attain quickly the kind of kingship described to him.

  And then after a long while Isanusi finally said: “You are a man of understanding, Chaka; truly there are not many like you for recognising the right moment; for there is a time in the life of a human being which he must seize at once or else forfeit numerous blessings which will never come his way again till he is buried in the cold earth; whereas if he is alert and vigilant, he will receive blessings which will never again slip out of his grasp. Such was the time when I found you sleeping under a tree: If you had not made your choice like a man on that day, where would you be today?” (Chaka said in his heart: “Where, indeed, would I be?”)

  “At a moment such as you are facing today, you knew how to choose the road you would follow, as well as the way you would live in this world. Consequently by the time you die you will not even know the ends of your kingdom. But the most important thing is that, when you reach the land of your fathers, you will find that your renown as well as the glory of your kingship will have been multiplied tenfold, and they will be yours for ever and ever; because there is no dying there, and no death, and the people live for ever, and they live in the manner in which they lived in the present world.” Isanusi was quiet again for a long time. Then he pulled Chaka by the hand and they went outside, and then he looked up and pointed at the stars: “The number of your warriors will surpass in number those stars that you see in the heavens. Among the nations you will shine like the sun when it is not covered by the clouds, at whose rising the stars fade away; so too will all the other nations vanish and cease to be when you come into view, because Noliwa’s blood is going to bring you riches which will be a wonder to behold.”

  The reader can imagine for himself the state of Chaka’s thoughts when so much fame and glory were being predicted for him, and he knew that the one predicting them spoke nothing but the truth in all things. In spite of that, however, things were left as they were for a few more days, waiting for the day Chaka would go for his bathe in the river, for that would be the day on which the work would be done.

  On the following day when Chaka returned from playing games with his armies, he found that Isanusi and his assistants were away, having gone to the fields and the forests to find medicinal herbs. He went into Noliwa’s house and found her alone with her personal attendant. On that day when Chaka looked at Noliwa, he saw that she was a deep brown colour, surpassing even the cannabis seed in ripeness; her complexion was clear, and her beauty overflowing. Her black-and-white eyes were gentle. Her voice when she spoke to Chaka, her beloved, made him forget the war songs and the praises which he had thought were so beautiful; it was clear as crystal, and was soft and full of truth, and without guile or deceit. But above all these things, her eyes! They were eyes which revealed a message which said: “I am yours with all my being, Chaka; I am yours in life and in death.” Her beauty on that day left Chaka dumbfounded, unable to say anything, and he simply stood there in utter confusion. He rubbed his eyes and looked the other way, and when he looked at Noliwa again, it was as if her beauty had kept growing, and was truly like the beauty of a woman who was beloved by Nkulunkulu and was chosen by him to come and demonstrate to the people the very perfection of womanhood. A storm arose in Chaka’s chest, a strange whirlwind which swirled and raised much dust in his heart, and he went out.

  When Isanusi came he spoke even before Chaka said anything, saying: “You are a true man, Chaka: I saw how mixed your feelings were when you saw Noliwa, but you controlled yourself like a man, and a king, because a king ought not to be fickle and change his mind from one day to another.”

  When Chaka’s day drew near, Noliwa suddenly took ill; she did not feel well on account of her heaviness, and that which she was carrying was causing her unease even though she had not grown so “big” that the people would notice her. On the evening preceding the day he would go to the river for his early morning bathe, Chaka went to Noliwa holding a thatching needle, and he found her sitting alone with her personal attendant, in order to keep away from crowds. When he came in the attendant went out. There was a wood fire burning, and its flame lit that little hut quite brightly.

  Chaka came close to Noliwa and started playing with her and kissing her. He asked her where the pain was. Noliwa said: “Chaka, my lord, your face has an unhappy frown, and your voice too has a stabbing, painful sound. What is the matter?” Chaka said there was nothing the matter, except that he had been annoyed by some idiot during the warriors’ games. They kept talking to each other in that manner, and kissing each other, and then suddenly Chaka covered Noliwa’s mouth with his powerful hand, and he stabbed her with the needle in her armpit, and then he turned her over, with the stabbed armpit facing upwards so that the blood flowed back inside the body. Noliwa, when she was about to die, turned her eyes backwards twice or three times, and then said: “Chaka, my beloved, you who are now my father, you who are Jobe, you who are Dingiswayo, you … !” The little flame of her life went out and her pure spirit flowed and went to Dingiswayo in the glory above. When Chaka saw her eyes roll backwards, he was greatly frightened, and he trembled, and then he ran away. As Noliwa died, Chaka felt somewhere inside him, in his chest, something falling down like a heavy stone, and settling heavily on his heart.

  He ran outside, but his vision was blurred, and he could not see; he saw one thing only – Noliwa’s face and her eyes rolling back, when she was about to die. His ears were blocked and he was unable to hear; he heard one thing only – Noliwa’s voice just before she died. And when at last his senses came back, he found himself already with Isanusi in the house, and Isanusi was congratulating him, saying: “At this very moment your name has been entered among those of the kings of my home, and the highest ones, at that.”

  The poor young girl who was with Noliwa when Chaka entered was killed; it was said that she had not reported when Noliwa was seriously ill so that she died without anybody knowing; and Ndlebe spread the rumour that she was the one who had bewitched Noliwa. Isanusi had already taken whatever it was he wanted from Noliwa, which we don’t know, and had used it in a way known to him alone. On the dawn of the following day he went with Chaka to the river, and Malunga and Ndlebe were present also. When they left the river, Isanusi for his part went directly back to his home.

  So it came about, the death of Noliwa, the daughter of Jobe, the sister of Dingiswayo, the wife of Chaka.

  CHAPTER 19

  The Killing of the Cowards

  AFTER NOLIWA’S death
Chaka underwent a frightful change both in his external appearance and also in his inner being, in his very heart; and so did his aims and his deeds. Firstly, the last spark of humanity still remaining in him was utterly and finally extinguished in the terrible darkness of his heart; his ability to distinguish between war and wanton killing or murder vanished without a trace, so that to him all these things were the same, and he regarded them in the same light. Secondly, his human nature died totally and irretrievably, and a beast-like nature took possession of him; because although he had been a cruel person even before this, he had remained a human being, his cruelty but a human weakness. But a man who had spilt the blood of someone like Noliwa would understandably regard the blood of his subjects exactly as if it were no different from that of mere animals which we slaughter at will. This was Chaka’s act of greatest magnitude in preparing himself for the kingship he so much coveted; and with Noliwa’s blood he had branded himself with an indelible mark which resembled that of the kings of Isanusi’s home. We are unable to measure Nandi’s grief when she heard the report of Noliwa’s death, because she loved her very much, and regarded her as no less than her daughter-in-law.

  After such preparations, Chaka attacked Buthelezi’s, and Qwabe’s territories just to try out his own strength, and also to put his untried young warriors to the test and see how they would perform. He went out with armies which were more than twice the strength of Dingiswayo’s. In the whole of Nguniland there was peace and prosperity, and the land was warm and the nations lived in great contentment when Chaka took to the road with his armies to go and bring that peace in the world to an end.

  It is perfectly understandable that in those two battles some ran away, some lost their spears, some threw theirs, and some returned without having captured any from the enemy; that happens among all nations, people kill each other, people capture loot from each other. In these two battles Chaka attacked only with the new regiments and held back the older ones; and among those new regiments there was only one which stood its ground and continued fighting even as the others turned and fled. Even when the enemy was making a concerted assault on them, threatening to wipe them out, they stood firm without giving an inch, until Chaka sent reinforcements to help them push back the enemy. Some few others were in the habit of making a quick retreat when they felt the heat of battle, and then turning back quickly for a fresh assault; but this particular one remained unshaken.