kagablog

Have you dished out the food for Spotty? Malume China asked just after we had finished supper and I was washing the dishes.
“Eish I forgot malume” I said scratching my head in regret.
“oh no mshana, now we have broken the pledge” malume said in a worried tone.
“what pledge? I asked anxiously.

“Mshana, come and sit here, there is a lesson I need to teach you”
I came and sat next to Malume on the sitting room sofa.
Malume opened his mouth to teach “Once upon a time, a long time ago, before the sky was choking from too much smoke, when the rains were still generous, and the word drought was still not known, this was the time when the grass was still greener on all sides, and winter came at the right time. Now that was a long time ago, before this generation and thousands of generations before it could come into being and man still lived in caves and animals could still talk”
“Wow malume, animals could talk? For a moment I felt like I was sitting on the fireplace of storytelling I had read about at school.

“Yes animals could talk once, but not in big words because there was no need to show off then” he paused as if digesting his own words, “anyway that’s a story for another day”. In those days man and animals were all still vegetarians and they would compete for best fruit and vegetables in the best trees of the land. Because this was a struggle for the survival of the fittest, man and animal began to hate each other, they did not only hate each other they began eating other as meat”
I grimaced at this thought of man and animals eating each other.

“now dog was a very intelligent animal, his intellect was second only to that of man. Dog realized that man never starved because he had developed powerful weapons and shields for his hunting missions. And on top of that he had found a brilliant way of making sure his food does not decay. Before the fridge could come into picture, man had found a way of freezing the cold and storing his food there for days so he did not have to hunt everyday. This was like storing winter for summer days. He had found a way of freezing the cold by using the heat from the sun, just imagine that kind of intelligence mshana!”
I found it hard to imagine that kind of intelligence but I wanted Malume to go on with his fascinating story.

“He ate his food warm and soft by cooking it on fire. He also used the fire to protect himself from his enemies by leaving it burning at the mouth of his cave for the whole night. So dog decided to come into an alliance with man. He would be man’s friend and hunting partner in exchange for generous access to his food.
“You have won yourself more than a friend my friend, you have won yourself a king” man announced authoritatively. “But to win something you have to lose something, so you will lose all your freedom and the ability to make decisions, I will think for you and I will domesticate you, while I sleep you will stand guard at the entrance of my cave.

I was glad this story had explained the relationship between Spotty and the family. But I was still not sure of the lesson and I was afraid of the next question.
“Now what was the lesson of the story mshana? Came the question eventually.
“That is why dogs sleep during the day? I ventured.

“Close mshana, but close is not enough. You see there are many important lessons to learn mshana from the story, the other ones will come naturally to you as you grow older, but the most important lesson from the story mshana is that dogs are servants. He paused a bit as if to make sure I digested the lesson. “and to serve you have to lose a little bit of pride. Now there is nothing wrong with serving mshana as long as you are preparing to lead. But dogs do not serve with any ambition of leading one day.
But the point I wanted to make mshana is that man made a promise to dog that he would feed and take care of him as long as dog keeps his promise of watching over him. In return dog asks of us that we never lead him down the valley of the shadow of death. Now by failing to feed Spotty, we have broken our promise to him.

“That is the ecology of life mshana, we can never be full in our stomachs if Spotty is empty in his. That is one lesson the rich have not learnt, we are each other’s keepers. The rich can never be full if the labourers are hungry”

“Ecology of life, I kept saying these words to myself as I fed Spotty outside the door that night. He snuggled on my ear and I could feel the warmth of his fur as he brushed me. I was fascinated by the story malume had told me. I had not been aware man and dog shared such a long history. I had also gained a lot of respect for Spotty. Malume had spoken of him as if he was human. “I am sorry about what happened today Spotty, I promise my stomach will never be full again if yours is empty. Spotty began licking me as a way of saying he forgave me.

When I was busy locking the door I heard the water running in the bathroom and I knew malume was taking his evening shower. He came back to the sitting room barefoot wearing a towel over his waist. His whole body was dripping with water. Mom and grandmother always complained about him not wiping his body but he always argued he wanted to feel the effect of water sinking in. He sat next to me and switched off the television set with a remote control. When I opened my mouth to protest he closed it with his finger and continued to look at the television as if it was still playing.

“Shut up and don’t complain, people who don’t pay the rent should not complain. He looked serious for a moment and suddenly burst out laughing. One thing good about malume was that he could really laugh out well. When he laughed his small eyes closed and tears would stream down his cheeks. His eyes were so small people nicknamed him china. I started laughing too, more at the fact that he was laughing than at the joke itself.

I had heard this joke before. Once malume had come back from university after they had boycotted classes in protest against increased fees. Grandmother had been very angry. She threw anything she could find at him. “you complain about fees, who pays for those fees? What do you know about fees? you don’t even pay the rent in this house” malume and my mother broke out laughing at her outbursts and he had to run out the door still laughing as she threw all sorts of things his way. “you don’t know how it is like to be robbed by the government! She screamed. And now every time malume tried to change channels on tv grandmother would tell him to shut up he did not know how much it cost to pay for a tv license.

After a long time he stopped laughing and looked at me. I stopped and looked back at him too.
“Now lets sit back and reflect, think about what happened today”
First of all I thought about how nice it was when malume was back at home for holidays from university. This time it was just the two of us as my mother and grandmother had gone to the rural areas for the holidays. He was a student in the US and he seldom came home. Malume had been at university for a number of years because he did not want to pay tax, my grandmother said.

I closed my eyes to think about a morning that had started with a dream. I had dreamed that I was flying and later we were playing soccer. Then I asked my teammates to go out for a break so I could take a pee. Then I was peeing but I woke up before I could pee on the bed. I realized it was morning and my penis was hard and full of urine. I rushed to the bathroom and closed my eyes in ecstasy as the urine went out of my system and I was spraying it all over the floor. After wiping the urine off the floor I found malume already in the kitchen singing his favourite song “you make my heart sing, you make everything groovy”.

When he saw me he gave me what he calls his “colgate smile”. “The dream boy is up, what did we dream about last night mshana?
“I dreamed I was flying” I told him.
“A dream about flying is a good dream, it means life, now lets look at our life today, the weather specialists say it is going to be a good day, now we cannot let a good day like that go to waste”
malume checked his diary.
“Now lets see what we have planned for today, first we have breakfast, then we clean and scrub the floors till we can see ourselves on them, then we water the garden and play a little, now that’s very important mshana, work a little, play a little so we can find a balance”
I was impressed, Malume planned everything and even included playing in his diary.

After we had finished the gardening, Malume decided we should trim our hair so we could look nice for the women.
“Now lets see which comb size we will use for trimming your hair, too big, too small, and yes this one is just perfect”
I realized this was an important decision which could not be taken lightly. A man’s head was really important. I took off my t-shirt and sat on a chair in the garage. Malume wrapped a towel around me and his hands and the buzz of the machine felt so good I wanted to sleep.
“Which music do you listen to malume? I asked with my eyes closed.
He counted a lot of different music I did not even know existed.
“I also like kwaito and house, but hip hop is my favourite” I said simply.
“Hip hop is good, but hip hop has also been used as a weapon of mass destruction in the whole world, you must be careful of hip hop mshana, it threatens to wipe out an entire generation”
“And Fifty Cent is my favourite artist” I said not understanding what he was saying about hip hop.
“And Fifty Cent drives a hummer” I added further to impress Malume.
“Now what civillian in his right mind would drive a car that was built for the army, that is a man with a destructive mind, mshana”

After we had finished, I gathered all our hair together and wrapped it on paper.
“Now here is an idea mshana, maybe we can put some chemicals in that hair and sell it so other people can wear it. Just imagine mshana, other people wearing our hair and spirit. You know we must be the only people in the world mshana who buy other people’s hair but do not sell ours to anyone, even fake hair”
I also thought the idea of selling our hair could be good business.

After cleaning the house we had played soccer on the yard with malume soon after cleaning the lunch dishes. He had bumped the ball on his feet for over fifty times without it landing on the ground. Then he had bumped it over his head over twenty times. Then he had bended a bit and allowed the ball to rest on the back of his neck. Then it was on his spine. He said a player called Professor Ngubane used to do these tricks with the ball. Then we had dribbled past each other after which he said he was tired. We had played a bit of casino after that. I realized that it had been too much and I had been too happy

And now he wanted me to read something from the paper out loud. I read some few stories but the one I found most interesting was about the man who ran around the neighbourhood stealing women’s underwear from the line. He corrected me as I made a lot of mistakes with my spelling. Finally he took the paper away from me.
“Its time for you to sleep mshana, you have made enough mistakes for one day”

He came to check after me after I had prayed silently and slipped inside the blankets. I had left the light on because I was afraid of the darkness. Someone always switched the light off after I had fallen asleep. Malume stood at the doorway and smiled at me.
“Did you pray before going to bed? He asked
I nodded my head.
“What God stole your voice?
I prayed, why cant we sleep in the same room malume”
“Because we are lucky enough not to be poor, many people sleep in one shack as a family”
I was surprised other people could be so unlucky. Is that why malume was always complaining about the government? When I looked at him I wished I was as tall and big as him. It was so nice being an adult. You could work for your own money and did not have to go to school or do homework. Adults were tall and could reach for things that were high up in the cupboard. Adults knew everything. They were also not afraid of the dark.
“Are you ever afraid of anything malume? I asked.

He came over to the bed and sat next to me leaning on the pillow. He seemed to think for a minute before speaking.
“of course I am afraid sometimes, I am afraid of failing you”
“How? I asked
“Because you expect so much from me, because you have raised the bar so high for me sometimes I am afraid I will never be able to reach it. I am afraid sometimes you will realize I am not a god but I am only human. I am afraid of the real darkness, the darkness of the spirit”

I felt sorry for malume, I knew his problem perfectly. Grandmother had spoken about it a lot of times. The big books malume had read sometimes made him crazy. That is why he sometimes spoke in a language no one understood.
“Its okay malume” I assured him, I will pray to God that you do not fail me”
“Thank you mshana, that’s really kind of you, you know what I no longer feel afraid already, now can I sleep next to you a bit?. I nodded my head sleepily.
“Now lets close our eyes and dream”

I did dream that I heard voices coming from malume’s bedroom. I woke up in a dark room and malume was not there. He must have woken up to go to his bedroom. Who was he with? I tiptoed to his bedroom door. I heard voices giggling. When I put my ears on the door I could not mistake the voice of the woman. She was madam Madlala my class teacher. What was she doing in Malume’s bedroom at night? Where was her husband? I heard her talking about going to the bathroom and I ran back and slipped into my bed.
I pricked my ears as I listened to the doors opening. I heard the toilet flushing and she went back to the bedroom. I could not sleep anymore, my heart was beating so fast.

The I heard a loud bark from Spotty outside followed by a gunshot. Then there was a violent bang in the front door. I met malume on the passage rushing to the kitchen. He told me to go back to sleep. As I went back I bumped into madam Madlala also rushing into the kitchen. Apparently it was her husband. I could not hear clearly the argument that was going on. Moments later I heard another gunshot. Madam Madlala screamed hysterically. I rushed over to the kitchen stoop to find malume on the floor bleeding, Spotty lay dead beside him. I knelt down to look at him. Malume looked at me with the eyes of a condemned man.