CHAPTER ONE

Shikongo had walked for four days. He was running away from the hell that had just unfolded at home. He knew the way well because he had walked it many times whilst tending to his father's cattle as well as on the few occasions that he had joined his father on his travels.

It was the beginning of the rainy season and although it hadnt rained in a few days, it looked like it would rain tonight.

He had had to tread well in many places and oftentimes he didn't even bother to cross the usual rivers because they seemed too dangerous now, so he would walk and walk along a river bank until he reached an area he could see was safe to cross before crossing over.

He tried his best to steer clear of people unless it became really necessary. Like when he needed food or water.

Once he met an old man tending to his cattle. The man was sitting under the shade of a tree, eating, when

Shikongo stumbled across him. The old mans dog, which had been sleeping next to him, jumped up in surprise and started barking and bearing its teeth at Shikongo. It was old as well but rather vicious, and Shikongo had had to take a step back until the old man, who had also been thoroughly surprised, told the dog to keep quiet. As Shikongo greeted him, the old man had gotten to his feet, and, looking him up and down, saw Shikongo staring hungrily at him and at the food and invited him to eat with him. Shikongo was more than pleased to accept the invitation, offering to help the man and his dog to gather up the cattle at the end of the day before thanking him and going on his way. Sometimes he just ate wild fruit and berries from the trees and bushes, packing some into his bags' side pockets for later. He drank water from the rivers.

He was nearing the border of Angola. He wanted to cross over in order to reach the Ondonga kingdom and his mother's people. He would tell them what had happened and they would decide what would be done because Shikongo's mother hadn't gone into Angola empty handed, no, she had been sent off with an impressive caravan of people, goods and livestock. Indeed people spoke about it for years afterwards that it had been a caravan fit for a queen. There was enough to ensure that she and her children would never suffer in a foreign land should anything bad happen like it had happened now and there had been enough to ensure that she could always afford to return to her people.

It was also another way that her father, Natu had used to ensure that his wealth didn't surpass the kings wealth because that was one of the fastest ways to die for if the king decided that he couldn't compete with any of his subjects, he would either decide to take the cattle or he would order that the subject be killed. Her father, being a member of the Ondonga kingdom, and older half brother to the king, was always a threat to the kings throne because he was supposed to have been made king was it not for a custom that said that no left handed person could be made king of Ondonga and so the king watched his throne very carefully because although it was custom, it was a custom that had been overlooked in the past and there had been left handed kings before even though their reigns didnt last very long.

So, athough they got along, it would thus not have been strange for one to organise an ambush during the still of the night and as such both always remained on their guards. With his daughter Nanghelo well sent off, she provided a refuge should he ever have to leave Ondonga in the event that something should happen. This was the main reason why he had allowed his daughter of royal blood to marry the travelling stranger and become his third wife. A daughter of the royal household very rarely married a stranger and very rarely one that was already married. However, this stranger Hailonga ya Kangoma had also helped him with a little problem that he had had. One that he had searched far and wide for a solution for.

Shikongo had walked for some miles through a dense forest and bush and now he had come across a field. It was nearing sunset and in the distance he saw the rafters of a new mud brick house. Alongside it were other small traditional huts. Before he knew it he was tumbling down a hollow shaft of sorts.

As he landed on the ground, he realised that it was quite a large hole that he had fallen into and that it would be impossible for him to climb out of without help. There was a little bit of water on the ground and he knew that if it rained he would be drenched. He could hear the unwelcome buzz of mosquitos and he thought to himself, I am really in for it now.

He had been too focused on the house to notice the depression in the earth and as he stared around him in terror, the sun started to set.

Might I die here, he thought to himself.

His parents had died days apart. His father had suddenly fallen violently ill one morning and by the evening he was dead. As a young man he had travelled to many kingdoms, learned many languages and had amassed a great amount of wealth and knowledge. His wealth was spoken of far and wide. That night three of his elder brothers arrived and started hurling insults at Shikongo's mother, saying that she had killed her husband and that she must leave and go back to her people or else there would be trouble.

Feeling absolutely helpless, nineteen year old Shikongo stood with two of his younger sisters, 15 year old Mwaala and 17 year old Kashangu and they watched in terror as their uncles shouted at their mother.

His father's older wives who all had their own homesteads alongside the main homestead all came and stood with them. All of them were shocked and some were crying.

A foreigner in the land, and with only her children as her closest relatives who could dare to risk to protect her, now that her beloved was gone forever, his mother, Nanghelo had never felt so alone and, trembling in shock and fear, she ran into her bedroom quarters followed closely by her two year old toddler and last born. None of her older sister wives, who all loved her dearly, for she had always been respectful, kind and generous, dared to enter to comfort her out of fear of being accused as her collaborators by their furious bothers in law. She stayed there the whole night and the whole of the next day screaming and crying while mourners descended upon his father's homestead like a howling swarm of bees.

The next evening, sombody or something set the hut on fire with his mother and his brother inside it. As the mourners tried in vain to distinguish the flames, the flames only grew higher and higher until her screams died out.

That was when Shikongo decided to run. He didn't initially think of where he would go, all he knew was that he had to go far far away from the evil that had arrived in his father's homestead.

He had always been very afraid of his eldest uncle Hitilasha. He had red eyes, bushy hair and everybody feared him. In fact people called him 'omulodhi' meaning dark wizard and Shikongo was pretty much sure that he had had something to do with the undistinguishable flames that killed his mother and his little brother.

He had four older siblings who had all gotten married and left. Two of his older sisters, though, had returned and lived with them with each of their children. One had been widowed when her husband was attacked and killed by a lion and the other one's husband had accused her of jelousy, of plotting against and disrespecting her sister wives and of serving him hot food and she had been forced to return home. His two older brothers had left Angola to live with his mother's people in Ondonga where they had married women in arranged marriages that would ensure a continuity of the family wealth.

He himself was getting ready to leave home and start his own family, having proposed to his sweetheart Nangula. She had said yes and preparations had started. His father had blessed him and told him that he was pleased with his choice because Nangula came from good stock. Her family was also very wealthy and she was known to be very kind as well as hard working.

Now, as

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: Tuya Lenga
Bildmaterialien: Tuya lenga
Cover: Tuya lenga
Lektorat: Joy Daniels
Übersetzung: Tuya Lenga
Satz: Tuya lenga
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 20.02.2019
ISBN: 978-3-7438-9727-4

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Widmung:
This book is dedicated to all those that keep going when the going gets tough, to Tomi Adeyemi and JK Rowling for inspiring me to not give up and to my family.