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258 pages

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This novel is somewhat unstructured and meanders a bit but is an interesting account of the theme of many African novels -- what happens in traditional village life when the white man arrives. In this particular village, Mpona is the chief.

Sujets

Fiction

Novel

Zambie

Informations

Publié par	maidenbooks
Date de parution	01 janvier 2007
Nombre de lectures	4
EAN13	9789982124966
Langue	Français
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

THETONGUEOFTHEDUMB

DominicMulaisho

©DominicMulaisho-PublishedinZambia-1989byMultimediaPublications

FirstEditionhasbeenreprintedin2007underLicenceby MaidenPublishingHouse CheetahRoad,Showgrounds,Lusaka,Zambia P.O.Box51276,Ridgeway,Lusaka

Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,stored in aretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic, mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutpriorwritten permissionfromthepublisher.

ISBN: 978-9982-12-496-6

MAIDENWRITERSSERIES

UNEASYYOKE Kachinga Sichizya

SOMERAINMUSTFALL GabrielleEllison

THETONGUEOFTHEDUMB Dominic Mulaisho

iii

To my wife Esther Nanda without whose patience and advice this book would not have been written.

To my children Mkando, Nyawa, Kamuvwi, Simukani and Mauwa for neither allowing me a dull moment nor a moment for thought.

All the characters in this book are entirely fictitious and any resem-blance to people either living or dead is entirely fictitious.

Chapter 1

Many years ago, at the turn of the last century, when thepeople of Kaunga were running away from the Chewa in the Eastern Province, they spent a whole year wandering before they finally settled down in the Kaunga Valley. As a result of their nomadic life the people were not used to growing maize, so they forgot to pray to the Rain Spirit and offer sacrifice toit. When they finally settled in the Kaunga Valley, which up to then had been known for its fertility and plentiful rains, the rain did not come. For many years nothing came except a brief drizzle at the beginning of the rainy season and a brief showerat the end of the season. Later on, however, once in every fiveor so years, there was real rain and the crops grew, and the people had enough food to last the next few years. Because of this favour which the spirits were beginning to show to the valley, the people prayed again, hoping that, with the passage of time, the Rain God would forget their sins of omission and give them rain regularly. Nineteen forty-eight was a year in which, if the cycle was repeated, the valley would be full of rain and the crops would grow. Dulani, Lubinda and many others in Mpona’s village and in the other villages of the kingdom were working hard to tend them. Already in this month of December the rainfall had been good, and everywhere one looked there was a mass of green leaf fluttering in the wind. The maize was doing well andvegetable relish was plentiful. Unless something untoward happened (and the whole kingdom had offered enoughsacrifices to prevent this), 1949 would see a bumper harvest. 1

As he tilled the soil to free the maize of the thick under-growth of leafy grass, Lubinda’s thoughts went back fiveyears, to the time when the Chief had been finally reinstatedand cured of his madness. The return of the Chief had been followed by a bumper harvest. Would this year also be the same he asked himself? The hoe kept at its job, weeding outthe grass. He still had a long way to go, but he was not givingup. The future of his many wives and children depended upon his keeping at it. He wondered at the way the people forgotthe past. At one time there had been a lot of talk against him, blaming him for the Chief’s madness; but now all this had died down and, what is more, the Chief himself trusted him and confided in him. He tried to picture the young girl Ngoza, who had been the Chief’s wife. He could see her only vaguely in his mind, but he remembered her challenge to him clearly. He sighed. The whole affair was long past. The midwife had died before she could reveal the secret. Ngoza had fled the kingdom, and people now feared him because he was the real power behind Chief Mpona. Thinking of Ngoza reminded him of Natombi. His pulse quickened. He knew that the child Dulani had had by Natombi was Dulani’s own. But it did him good to tell people, just a few that he trusted, that the child was not Dulani’s, but his. After many years of childless marriage Dulani had approached him for the purpose of ‘employing’ him, but when he hadgone to Natombi and told her why he had come, she had insulted his manhood and clawed him. He remembered how lust had welled up in him, how he had pinned her to the ground with his powerful hands and how she had kicked him back; and yet the following year she had had a child. ‘Good, the child is dumb,’ whispered Lubinda to himself. ‘I am still going to get her. I am Lubinda: I can’t be beaten by a girl from a small village like Cakuwamba. I conquered the Chief’s wife. What is she? What is she? Lizard only, only . . .’ he swore. Then he returned to his work.

The sun was rising high, quickly. The corn was glinting as 2