Cry, The Beloved Country Part 29

The girl was happy in her new home, for she had a dependent and affectionate nature. The small boy played with the other small boys, and had asked after his mother not more than once or twice; with time he would forget her. About Absalom no one asked, and if they talked about it in their huts, they let it make no difference in their respect for the old umfundisi.

One day the small white boy came galloping up, and when k.u.malo came out to greet him, he raised his cap as before, and k.u.malo found himself warm with pleasure to see his small visitor again.

I've come to talk Zulu again, said the boy. He slid down from his horse, and put the reins round the post. He walked over to the house with the a.s.surance of a man, and dusted his feet and took off his cap before entering the house. He sat down at the table and looked round with a pleasure inside him, so that a man felt it was something bright that had come into the house.

Are the accounts finished, umfundisi?

Yes, they are finished, inkosana.

Were they right?

k.u.malo laughed, he could not help himself.

Yes, they were right, he said. But not very good.

Not very good, eh? Are you ready for the Zulu?

k.u.malo laughed again, and sat down in his chair at the other side of the table, and said, Yes, I am ready for the Zulu. When is your grandfather returning?

I don't know, said the small boy. I want him to come back. I like him, he said.

k.u.malo could have laughed again at this, but he thought perhaps it was not a thing to laugh at. But the small boy laughed himself, so k.u.malo laughed also. It was easy to laugh with this small boy, there seemed to be laughter inside him.

When are you going back to Johannesburg, inkosana?

When my grandfather comes back.

And k.u.malo said to him in Zulu, When you go, something bright will go out of Ndotsheni.

What are you saying, umfundisi?

But when k.u.malo would have translated, the small boy cried out, No, don't tell me. Say it again in Zulu. So k.u.malo said it again.

That means when you are gone, said the small boy, and say the rest again.

Something bright will go out of Ndotsheni, said k.u.malo in Zulu.

Something about Ndotsheni. But it's too hard for me. Say it in English, umfundisi.

Something bright will go out of Ndotsheni, said k.u.malo in English.

Yes, I see. When I go, something bright will go out of Ndotsheni.

The small boy laughed with pleasure. I hear you, he said in Zulu.

And k.u.malo clapped his hands in astonishment, and said, Au! Au! You speak Zulu, so that the small boy laughed with still greater pleasure, and k.u.malo clapped his hands again, and made many exclamations. The door opened and his wife came in, and he said to the small boy, this is my wife, and he said to his wife in Zulu, this is the son of the man. The small boy stood up and made a bow to k.u.malo's wife, and she stood and looked at him with fear and sorrow. But he said to her, You have a nice house here, and he laughed. She said to her husband in Zulu, I am overcome, I do not know what to say. And the small boy said in Zulu, I hear you, so that she took a step backwards in fear. But k.u.malo said to her swiftly, He does not understand you, those are only words that he knows, and for the small boy he clapped his hands again in astonishment and said, Au! Au! But you speak Zulu. And the woman went backwards to the door, and opened it and shut it and was gone.

Are you ready for the Zulu, umfundisi?

Indeed I am ready.

Tree is umuti, umfundisi.

That is right, inkosana.

But medicine is also umuti, umfundisi.

And the small boy said this with an air of triumph, and a kind of mock bewilderment, so that they both laughed together.

You see, inkosana, said k.u.malo seriously, our medicines come mostly from trees. That is why the word is the same.

I see, said the small boy, pleased with this explanation. And box is ibokisi.

That is right, inkosana. You see, we had no boxes, and so our word is from your word.

I see. And motor-bike is isitututu.

That is right. That is from the sound that the motorbike makes, so, isi-tu-tu-tu. But inkosana, let us make a sentence. For you are giving me all the words that you know, and so you will not learn anything that is new. Now how do you say, I see a horse?

So the lesson went on, till k.u.malo said to his pupil, It is nearly twelve o'clock, and perhaps it is time you must go.

Yes, I must go, but I'll come back for some more Zulu.

You must come back, inkosana. Soon you will be speaking better than many Zulus. You will be able to speak in the dark, and people will not know it is not a Zulu.

The small boy was pleased, and when they went out he said, Help me up, umfundisi. So k.u.malo helped him up, and the small boy lifted his cap, and went galloping up the road. There was a car going up the road, and the small boy stopped his horse and cried, my grandfather is back. Then he struck at the horse and set out in a wild attempt to catch up with the car.

There was a young man standing outside the church, a young pleasant-faced man of some twenty-five years, and his bags were on the ground. He took off his hat and said in English, You are the umfundisi?

I am.

And I am the new agricultural demonstrator. I have my papers here, umfundisi.

Come into the house, said k.u.malo, excited.

They went into the house, and the young man took out his papers and showed them to k.u.malo. These papers were from parsons and school-inspectors and the like, and said that the bearer, Napoleon Letsitsi, was a young man of sober habits and good conduct, and another paper said that he had pa.s.sed out of a school in the Transkei as an agricultural demonstrator.

I see, said k.u.malo. But you must tell me why you are here. Who sent you to me?

Why, the white man who brought me.

uJarvis, was that the name?

I do not know the name, umfundisi, but it is the white man who has just gone.

Yes, that is uJarvis. Now tell me all.

I am come here to teach farming, umfundisi.

To us, in Ndotsheni?

Yes, umfundisi.

k.u.malo's face lighted up, and he sat there with his eyes shining. You are an angel from G.o.d, he said. He stood up and walked about the room, hitting one hand against the other, which the young man watched in amazement. k.u.malo saw him and laughed at him, and said again, You are an angel from G.o.d. He sat down again and said to the young demonstrator, Where did the white man find you?

He came to my home in Krugersdorp. I was teaching there at a school. He asked me if I would do a great work, and he told me about this place Ndotsheni. So I felt I would come here.

And what about your teaching?

I am not really a teacher, so they did not pay me well. And the white man said they would pay me ten pounds a month here, so I came. But I did not come only for the money. It was a small work there in the school.

k.u.malo felt a pang of jealousy, for he had never earned ten pounds a month in all his sixty years. But he put it from him.

The white man asked if I could speak Zulu, and I said no, but I could speak Xosa as well as I spoke my own language, for my mother was a Xosa. And he said that would do for Xosa and Zulu are almost the same.

k.u.malo's wife opened the door again, and said, It is time for food. k.u.malo said in Zulu, My wife, this is Mr. Letsitsi, who has come to teach our people farming. And he said to Letsitsi, You will eat with us.

They went to eat, and Letsitsi was introduced to the girl and the small boy. After k.u.malo had asked a blessing, they sat down, and k.u.malo said in Zulu, When did you arrive in Pietermaritzburg?

This morning, umfundisi. And then we came with the motor-car to this place.

And what did you think of the white man?

He is very silent, umfundisi. He did not speak much to me.

That is his nature.

We stopped there on the road, overlooking a valley. And he said, What could you do in such a valley? Those were the first words we spoke on the journey.

And did you tell him?

I told him, umfundisi.

And what did he say?

He said nothing, umfundisi. He made a noise in his throat, that was all.

And then?

He did not speak till we got here. He said to me, Go to the umfundisi, and ask him to find lodgings for you. Tell him I am sorry I cannot come, but I am anxious to get to my home.

k.u.malo looked at his wife, and she at him.

Our rooms are small, and this is a parson's house, said k.u.malo, but you may stay here if you wish.

My people are also of the church, umfundisi. I should be glad to stay here.

And what will you do in this valley?

The young demonstrator laughed. I must look at it first, he said.

But what would you have done in that other valley?

So the young man told them all he would have done in the other valley, how the people must stop burning the dung and must put it back into the land, how they must gather the weeds together and treat them and not leave them to wither away in the sun, how they must stop ploughing up and down the hills, how they must plant trees for fuel, trees that grow quickly like wattles, in some place where they could not plough at all, on the steep sides of streams so that the water did not rush away in the storms. But these were hard things to do, because the people must learn that it is harmful for each man to wrest a living from his own little piece of ground. Some must give up their ground for trees, and some for pastures. And hardest of all would be the custom of lobola, by which a man pays for his wife in cattle, for people kept too many cattle for this purpose, and counted all their wealth in cattle, so that the gra.s.s had no chance to recover.

And is there to be a dam? asked k.u.malo.

Yes, there is to be a dam, said the young man, so that the cattle always have water to drink. And the water from the dam can be let out through a gate, and can water this land and that, and can water the pastures that are planted.

But where is the water to come from?

It will come by a pipe from a river, said the young demonstrator. That is what the white man said.

That will be his river, said k.u.malo. And can all these things you have been saying, can they all be done in Ndotsheni?

I must first see the valley, said the demonstrator laughing.

But you came down through it, said k.u.malo eagerly.

Yes, I saw it. But I must see it slowly. Yet I think all these things can be done.

They all sat round the table, their faces excited and eager, for this young man could paint a picture before your eyes. And k.u.malo looked round at them and said, I told this young man he was an angel from G.o.d. He got up in his excitement and walked round the room. Are you impatient to begin? he said.

The young man laughed with embarra.s.sment. I am impatient, he said.

What is your first step that you take?

I must first go to the chief, umfundisi.

Yes, that is the first thing you must do.

Then outside he heard the sounds of a horse, and he got up and went out, wondering if it could be the small boy again, and back so quickly. And indeed it was, but the boy did not climb down, he talked to k.u.malo from his horse. He talked excitedly and earnestly, as though it were a serious matter.

That was a close shave, he said.

A shave, asked k.u.malo. A close shave?

That's slang, said the small boy. But he did not laugh, he was too serious. It means a narrow escape, he said. You see, if my grandfather hadn't come back so early, I couldn't have come to say goodbye.

You are going then, inkosana?

But the boy did not answer his question. He saw that k.u.malo was puzzled, and he was anxious to explain.

You see, if my grandfather had come back later, then perhaps it would have been too late for me to ride down here again. But because he came early, there was time.

That means you are going tomorrow, inkosana.

Yes, tomorrow. On the narrow gauge train, you know, the small train.