All the men were surprised and silent because the Nongogo of former days whom they knew as a tall, handsome young man stood shapeless before them, like something dead.
Chaka: “Where are your men?” He asked this in anger when he realised that Nongogo had come back alive from a mission from which he did not expect him to return. Nongogo told about his journey right up to the end, and then Chaka said: “Take this dog and destroy it! He has killed my people and now he is fabricating a lot of lies here! Besides, I had ordered him to bring enough ore back to make many spears, and now here he is coming back empty-handed.”
When the executioners came close to him, Nongogo spoke again, and this time his voice was clear and could he heard well when he said: “Chaka,” (not “King”), “many people believe that you are not a human being resembling other people, and today I’m convinced this is true. I have carried out your very difficult orders which no other person could have done, yet the reward I receive at your hands is death. But …” He did not finish what he was saying. Chaka, in his anger, stabbed one of Nongogo’s executioners to death and told them they had delayed in carrying out his command. The remaining ones grabbed hold of Nongogo and took him outside, but when they reached the place of execution, they found that all belonged to yesterday.
Some of the men of the king’s court were so overwhelmed and moved when they saw the state Nongogo was in that they forgot to express their admiration of the king’s wisdom and the justness of his verdicts. They too were killed because it was said that their silence meant that they were critical of the king’s action.
That is how Nongogo’s secret mission ended.
While Nongogo was away in the north, Chaka had become suspicious of yet another one of his commanders, called Mnyamana. So he said to him: “There are cattle in Swaziland which are as good as mine; they are just sitting there. Go and bring them. Take your regiment to accompany you. Go!” When Chaka spoke in that manner, the one who was sent knew very well that things were not going well for him.
During his journey there, Mnyamana was trying to think of a way to capture the cattle. When he reached there he hid his people in the forest, and they began to study the forest paths and the Swazi fortresses, and they also observed the grazing grounds of the cattle. By some strange luck, the Swazi armies went on an expedition to the north, and while they were gone Mnyamana captured all the cattle. Messengers were dispatched to carry the alarm to the men, but by the time they arrived Mnyamana had already left their country, with its difficult terrain, its forests and rocky ledges and caverns, and was in the plains where one Zulu warrior was equal to five of the enemy. The Swazi gave up and abandoned their cattle. They were gone for good, but by the time this happened Mnyamana, the commander of the Zulu army, had lost an eye in a skirmish.
When he arrived at the royal city, he was greeted with joy. Chaka, however, was cross because he had already heard that Mnyamana was coming with countless herds of cattle. He wondered how he had obtained them when he, Chaka, had personally failed many times to capture themeven with the backing of all his armies. He said: “So you are back, Mnyamana?”
“Yes, O King.”
“Where are the cattle I sent you to fetch?”
“I have brought them, O King, here they are.”
“Where are your men?”
“They are there, O King, and are tending the cattle.”
Chaka kept quiet for a long time looking for an excuse and then he said: “How did you capture them?”
Mnyamana explained.
“You dog! You stole the cattle of the Swazi whereas I had not commanded you to steal them, but had told you to take them in a fair fight! Execute this thief who is afraid to meet the enemy face to face; he has given me a bad name because other nations will think that I live by stealing, not through skill in war, which is the occupation of men.”
The executioners took him and sent him on to the other world.
That was the reward which Chaka dealt out to his braves and to the commanders of his armies, a bitter reward. These matters of the killing of Nongogo and Mnyamana brought about a bitter feeling of dissatisfaction among the commanders and generals, and even among the regiments themselves, because a commander was killed together with those under his command. The people’s hearts began by slow degrees to feel unhappy about Chaka’s rule when they saw that his spear did not spare even those who had served him so well. Dingana and Mhlangana noticed this spirit among the people from the moment it began to grow, and instead of calming them down, they secretly fanned the spark in order to encourage this incipient jungle fire.
CHAPTER 22
The Death of Nandi
CHAKA SENT a strong contingent of his armies to the north far beyond St Lucia Bay to go and destroy the kings of those places and capture their cattle. But those armies were decimated by a severe disease endemic in that country, and they died in thousands and returned empty-handed and harassed by death all along the way. Then Chaka decided to take some armies near to that place so that they could develop immunity and only attack thereafter; but before he did so, he sent another expedition to the south where the Pondo came upon them unexpectedly and killed them in large numbers so that they returned home with nothing.
When this army reached home, Chaka became very angry, and he caught hold of its commanders and burned their eyes with a red-hot iron, saying that those eyes of theirs were useless, else how did it happen that the Pondo caught them so unawares! The senior commander was burned alive. All these things were done in the presence of the army which had been dispatched to Pondoland. When all this was over, that same army was dispatched to the north on the very day of their return. They thus went on that new mission still tired, without having had a chance to rest, and thus the vicious disease of those northern territories killed them in large numbers. On that occasion it killed approximately thirty thousand people.
As the armies were leaving home, Chaka asked Malunga what had gone wrong that the Zulu armies came back empty-handed like that. Malunga said: “I believe it is because you who are Zulu himself hardly ever see people die in large numbers, and your hand does not kill as often as it should. You only experience these things indirectly by being told of them. Yet, as you know, a dog which has been given drugs to make it long to bite, if not allowed to hunt, will end up tearing up the goats and the people. And so it is with a person who has been inoculated with such strong medicines as you have! If he does not kill, those medicines will turn against him and kill him instead.”
This was exactly what Chaka wanted to hear, since he was a man who loved to see blood flowing. He collected together all the women who had been captured in the wars, as well as the Zulu widows whose husbands had been killed by the disease of the north and by the wars, and he said: “The doctors say that it is because of the sorcery of these people that the armies come back without anything, and that they succumb so much to disease.” It incensed the Zulus very much to hear that it was because of these foreigners that they carried the shame of not having captured anything, and thus they killed beyond the order and the measure set by Chaka.
Chaka had chosen for himself from within his nation extremely beautiful girls, healthy-looking ones whose youthful blood gave colour to their skins; houses were built for them and they were fed well with meat, and their complexions glowed even more. He continually visited them, picking the fruit of their youth, and then when their breasts fell and they were considered to have lost the bloom of youth, he would pass them on to his councillors. Some of these very ones with whom he had lived in this manner were also killed on that day. As Chaka thus plundered other men’s daughters, he instructed his trusted man, Ndlebe, to see to it that every single child born to those young women should be killed on the very day of its birth, so that no child fathered by him should ever survive. When those women cried for their children, Chaka said: “It is fitting that a woman should cry for her child, and since it is painful to separate a woman from her young child, I will permit you to go where
your child has gone.” And so saying, he would kill them. Then pain in the hearts of the mothers of those children can only be fully understood by other women. Ndlebe’s large ears helped him to perform that task of killing the children begotten by Chaka.
Nandi had already talked a great deal to Chaka suggesting that he should take a wife for himself to bear him children who would be his heirs, and that by doing so he need not deprive himself of that harem of his. But Chaka refused and said that he did not want children. Because of her desire for a grandchild, Nandi abducted one of Chaka’s women, a girl from Qwabe’s village who was pregnant, and hid her until she gave birth. When the woman herself returned to Chaka, the child remained at the place where she had been hidden.
Eventually Nandi could not control herself any more, and wished to see the child fathered by Chaka, and then she fetched him from his hiding place. When he came, he was treated just like a strange child who was visiting his relatives there. Ndlebe soon knew the whole truth, and he told Chaka who then kept a close watch on his mother, and saw that she loved that child very much indeed. One day Chaka came suddenly upon his mother while she was off her guard, playing with the child, and he asked her what made her so interested in that child. Nandi said she was merely holding him. Then he asked her to put him in the centre of the courtyard, and then he came close to the child so that his shadow fell on him, and as soon as this happened that child died immediately. That was how Chaka knew the children he had fathered.
His anger now rose like foam in a boiling pot. That evening he went to his home, and he asked his mother why she persisted in giving him children when he did not want them, and then he killed his mother in the manner in which he had killed Noliwa. When Nandi died, Chaka once more felt as if something was pressing hard on his insides, exactly as on the day he killed Noliwa.
Early next morning people began to hear that Nandi was no more, and then Chaka threw dust over himself and he bawled, saying: “Oh, oh, my mother is dead O! Oh, oh, from other homesteads there is smoke rising, but none is rising from my home O!”
On that day Chaka outdid himself completely. He sent Ndlebe to go around the royal city to spot those who were not mourning with the king, and then he said the fact that they did not cry showed that they were the ones who had bewitched his mother, because a deceased person is not regarded as an animal whose skin is simply pegged out on the ground to dry. Some people, afraid they would be killed, threw snuff and dust in their eyes so that tears should come out, and the spear should pass them by. Chaka sent out people to stand at all the roads leading to the royal city to observe those who were walking slowly in coming to the king’s palace, and those who were not crying as they came. All these were made to stand to one side near a little cliff. He slaughtered cattle in tens, and those who ate the meat or any other kind of food, were also told to stand by that cliff because they continued to enjoy food while the king was mourning. That regiment which had been sent to stop Moselekatse in his flight was fetched, and it was said that all these calamities were happening because of it, because it had failed to carry out the king’s orders; they too were made to stand by that cliff, having first been deprived of their spears.
Chaka commanded that all the relatives of Nongogo should be brought to him because Nongogo had spoken evil words to the king the day he died. By “his relatives” was meant all those who shared the same clan name as he. They too were made to stand near that cliff. Chaka had once been plotted against, and was even wounded with a spear during some festive occasion; and today all those related to the one who had stabbed him were collected together and also made to stand by the cliff. The cliff was now almost full, but he issued one more order, that all of Moselekatse’s relatives be brought, that is to say all those who had been ruled by Zwide. They too were taken to that same cliff.
Now Chaka commanded his regiments to kill all those people who were on that cliff in order to remove the curse from his nation; and when the regiments came near, there arose a sorrowful wailing among those dying or about to die. Some prayed for mercy, pleading that they had been delayed in arriving because they came from far; some died with curses in their mouths, caring nothing any more. As the regiments were killing the condemned, Chaka came to the cliff to witness the slaughter, and the wailing of the dying made him feel good.
On that day the vultures ate till they could do no more than just stare at the food; the hyena ate till it just lay down; but it was not even noticeable that they had eaten anything. The smell of decay grew, and the stench was beyond description. The little fountain which was near that cliff had to be abandoned. The corpses were thrown in the chasms of that cliff, into a ravine called uDonga lukaTatiyana.
After that Chaka said that his mother ought now to be satisfied where she was because he had sent her off with a large escort of people with whom he had made a mat for her, and that there were numerous people to make fire for her. On the other hand, Chaka was already tired of his mother’s interventions on many occasions when he wanted to kill people.
Chaka filled this place, uDonga lukaTatiyana, twice with the people he killed, that is to say, on two separate occasions.
This incredible amount of killing, which even made the wild carnivorous animals get accustomed to staying close to the villages, frightened the Zulu people as well as the regiments when they saw the spear laying waste to the home people instead of the enemy. The people’s hearts turned away from Chaka altogether, and his commanders were also complaining a lot. He was indeed proving himself to be unlike any ordinary human being as Nongogo had said.
A few days after these happenings, Isanusi came to Chaka. He had not taken this journey specifically to visit Chaka, but was on his way elsewhere and decided to stop briefly. Chaka told Isanusi how his kingdom had grown, and that there was now only one king in the world, and that was he, Chaka; and also that his warriors were now as numerous as the stars. Isanusi said he was very pleased to hear that kind of report. He told Chaka to stand firm and carry on with his efforts, and then he added: “I have made it possible for you to obtain all the wishes of your heart. Be prepared then, so that the day I return from where I am going, you should be ready to give me those few heifers to reward me and my assistants for our services.” Chaka asked when he would return from where he was going, and he said: “I am not able to tell you exactly because one can never predict the duration of a doctor’s visit, sometimes he is delayed much longer than he had planned because of the people’s demands for his services. However, I shall try to come back soon.”
When he parted from Isanusi Chaka began to inspect his cattle and to pick out the ones he would give to Isanusi, and they were greater in number than any ever paid in fee to any doctor. He kept them to one side, and they waited for their new owner to come.
CHAPTER 23
The Unquenchable Thirst
THE EVENTS in Chaka’s life were overwhelming because they were so numerous and of such tremendous import; they were like great mysteries which were beyond the people’s understanding. But since it is not our purpose to recount all the affairs of his life, we have chosen only one part which suits our present purpose. And now, as we draw our narrative to a close, we shall first remind the reader of some things which have already been told.
With the spear made for him by Isanusi Chaka killed without mercy, thus winning himself instant fame as well as great kingship. With the armies of his great empire he invaded the south, and he laid everything to waste without pity or compunction, yet those who fled from him far surpassed him in the numbers they killed. And so it was too with his invasion of the north and in all the wars that he fought. When we count the people killed by Matiwane when he was fleeing from Chaka, those killed by the Batlokwa of Sekonyela, those killed by Moselekatse, as well as those killed by Chaka at home in Zululand, together with the infants who were killed at his bidding, we find that the number is overwhelming indeed. And when we add to it the deaths of Noliwa, Nongogo and Mnyamana, and of Nandi and Chaka’s women, we find tha
t the greatness of that number is now frightening. In order to comprehend this fully, we should use the example that the number of people killed by him in the ways we have described is equal to the number of the Basotho, counting every man, woman and child, multiplied three- or fourfold. Imagine them all being killed!
It was through Chaka that the difaqane came into existence, the time when people ate each other, and stole or took by force what belonged to others; it was also the time of the homeless wanderer, something that had not been known before. It was through him that cannibalism first came into being, this thing which is uglier and more despicable than all others, when people hunted each other like animals for the sole purpose of eating each other.
In those days, that is to say when King Chaka was in the very middle of the years of a man’s life, the time when life is most enjoyable, when he who has been working begins to taste the fruit of his labours, when he sees the cattle and the goats he has earned beginning to multiply, and the people enjoying their milk; the time when he watches with satisfaction as the children of his loins are running around and playing; at that very time in his life King Chaka began to suffer untold pain in his soul. He suffered even though he was a king, instead of enjoying his large kingdom and enormous wealth which were the longings of his heart. Chaka was a king of kings, and the renowned of the earth paid tribute to him, and came to him crawling on their knees or on their stomachs, their heads bowed low. Where he sat, there was always a young warrior shading him with his shield, and his courtiers were continually declaiming his praises, acclaiming him and greeting him with salutations which were greatly flattering, which were spoken with much respect. Yet, in the middle of all that adulation, he began to suffer extreme pain in his soul.
The number of his warriors was equal to the stars in the sky, and no king before him had ever had so many; but even more important, they were invincible, and they fought against the winds and the storms till they conquered them, to say nothing about other human beings. He ought therefore to have been happy in the knowledge that all these things had come into being, and were of the nature they were, because of him. And yet, in the midst of all that wealth and all that glory he began to suffer pain and a gnawing sense of discontent in his soul.
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