James Athearn Jones - "Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 3)"

G. A. Henty - "Saint Bartholomew's Eve"

Johanna S. Wisthaler - "By Water to the Columbian Exposition"

Mary Hallock Foote - "The Desert and The Sown"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Ghost Kings

H >> H. Rider Haggard >> The Ghost Kings




About midday they halted to eat, and as before Rachel took food in plenty,
for now that her mind was wandering her body seemed to call for
sustenance. When their meal was finished they moved down to the banks of
the Buffalo River, which ran near by, to find that it was in great flood
after the heavy rain and that it was not safe to try the ford. So they
determined to camp there on the banks, murmuring among themselves that all
went ill with them upon this journey, as was to be expected, and that they
would have done better if they had spent the time in hunting down the
people of Mafooti, instead of sitting idle like tired storks upon the
banks of a river. Yet bad as things might seem, they were destined to be
worse, for while some of them were cutting boughs and grass to make a hut
for the Inkosazana, Rachel, who stood watching them with empty eyes, of a
sudden laughed in her mad fashion, and sped like a swallow to the lip of
the foaming ford. Here, before they could come up with her, she threw off
the outer cloak she wore and rushed into the water till the current bore
her from her feet. Then while the whole regiment shouted in dismay, she
began to swim, striking out for the further bank, and being swept
downwards by the stream. Now Tamboosa, who was almost crazed with fear
lest she should drown, called out that where the Inkosazana went, they
must follow, even to their deaths.

"It is so!" answered the soldiers, as each man locking his arms round the
middle of him who stood in front, company by company, they plunged into
the water in a fourfold chain, hoping thus to bridge it from bank to bank.

Meanwhile Rachel swam on in the strength of her madness as a woman has
seldom swum before. Again and again the muddy waters broke over her head
and the soldiers groaned, thinking that she was drowned. But always that
golden hair reappeared above them. A great tree swept down upon her but
she dived beneath it. She was dashed against a tall rock, but she warded
herself away from it with her hands and still swam on, till at length with
a shout of joy the Zulus saw her find her feet and struggle slowly to the
further bank. Yes, and up it till she reached its crest where she stood
and watched them idly as though unconscious of the danger she had passed,
and of the water that ran from her hair and breast.

"Where a woman can go, we can follow," said some, but others answered:

"She is not a woman, but a spirit. Death himself cannot kill her."

Now the fourfold chain was near the centre of the ford, when suddenly
those at the tip of it were lifted from their feet as Rachel had been, nor
could those behind hold on to them. They were torn from their grasp and
swept away, the most of them never to be seen again, for of these men but
few could swim. Thrice this happened until strong swimmers were sent to
the front, and at length these men won across as Rachel had done, and
caught hold of the stones on the further side, thus forming a living chain
from bank to bank, whereof the centre floated and was bent outwards by the
weight of the water as the back of a bow bends when the string is drawn.

By the help of this human rope thus formed the companies began to come
over, supporting themselves against it, till presently the strain and the
push of them and of the angry river overcame its strength, and the chain
burst in the middle so that many were borne down the stream and drowned.
Yet with risk and toil and loss it joined itself together again and held
fast until every man was over, save the sick and some lads who were left
to tend them and the cattle on the further bank. Then that cable of brave
warriors began to struggle forward like a great snake dragging its tail
after it, and, so by degrees drew itself to safety and gasping out foam
and water saluted the Inkosazana where she stood.

Many were drowned, and others were bruised by rocks, but of this they
thought little since she was safe and they had found her again, to have
lost whom would have been a shame from generation to generation. She
watched the captains reckoning up the number of the dead, and when
Tamboosa and some of them came to make report of it to her, a shadow as of
pity floated across her stony eyes.

"Not on my head," she cried, "not on my head! There is blood between the
Inkosazana and her people of the Zulus, and that blood avenges itself in
blood," and she laughed her eerie laugh.

"It is true, it is just, O Queen," answered Tamboosa solemnly; "the nation
must pay for the sin of its children as the wild beast, Ibubesi, has paid
for his sins."

Then as they could travel no further that day, they built a hut, and lit a
great fire by which Rachel sat and dried herself, nor did she take any
harm from the water, for as the Zulus had said, it seemed as though
nothing could harm her now.

The soldiers also lit fires and despatched messengers to neighbouring
kraals commanding them to bring food, and to send maidens to attend on the
Inkosazana, while others went to a mountain to call all this ill-tidings
from hill to hill till it came to the Great Place of the King.



CHAPTER XVIII

THE CURSE OF THE INKOSAZANA


That night the regiment and Rachel slept upon the bank of the river, and
nothing happened save that lions carried off two soldiers, while two more
who had been injured against the rocks, died. Also others fell sick. On
the following morning food arrived in plenty from the neighbouring kraals,
and with it some girls of high birth to attend upon the Inkosazana.

But with these Rachel would have nothing to do, and when they came near to
her only said:

"Where is Noie, daughter of Seyapi? Lead me to Noie."

So they began their march again, Rachel walking as before in the centre of
a ring of soldiers, and that night slept at a kraal upon a hill. Here
messengers from the King met them charged with many fine words, to which
Rachel listened without understanding them, and then scared them away with
her laughter. Also they brought a beautiful cloak made of the skins of a
rare white monkey, and this she took and wrapped herself in it, for she
seemed to understand that her clothes were ragged.

That day they passed through fertile country, where much corn was grown.
Here they saw a strange sight, for as they went clouds seemed to arise in
the sky from behind them, which presently were seen to be not clouds, but
tens of millions of great winged grasshoppers that lit upon the corn,
devouring it and every other green thing. Within a few hours nothing was
left except the roots and bare branches, while the women of that land ran
to and fro wailing, knowing that next winter they and their children must
starve, and the cattle lowed about them hungrily, for the locusts had
devoured all the grass. Moreover, having eaten everything, these insects
themselves began to die in myriads so that soon the air was poisoned. The
waters were also poisoned with their dead bodies, and at once sickness
came which presently grew into a pestilence.

Now the men of the country sent a deputation to the Inkosazana, praying
her to remove the curse, but when they had spoken she only repeated the
words she had used upon the banks of the Buffalo River.

"Not on my head, not on my head! There is blood between the Inkosazana and
her people of the Zulus. Famine and war and death upon the people of the
Zulus because they have shed the holy blood!"

Then the men grew afraid and went away, and the regiment marched on
accompanied by the myriads of the locusts that wasted all the land through
which they passed.

At length, followed by a wail of misery, they came to the Great Place and
entered it, preceded by the locusts which already were heaped up in the
streets like winter leaves, and for lack of other provender gnawed at the
straw of the huts, and the shields and moochas of the soldiers. It was a
strange sight to see the men trying to stamp them to death, and the women
and children rushing to and fro shrieking and brushing them from their
hair.

Amid such scenes as these they passed through the town of Umgugundhlovu
into which Rachel had been brought in order that the people might see that
their Inkosazana had returned, and on to that kraal upon the hill, where
she had spent all those weary weeks until Richard came. She reached it as
the sun was setting, and although she did not seem to know any of them was
received with joy and adoration by the women who had been her attendants.
Here she slept that night, for they thought that she must be too weary to
see the King at once; moreover, he desired first to receive the reports of
Tamboosa and the captains, and to learn all that had happened in this
strange business.

Next morning, whilst Rachel sat by the pool in which, once she had seen
the vision of Richard, Tamboosa and an escort came to bring her to
Dingaan. When they told her this, she said neither yea nor nay, but,
refusing to enter a litter they had brought, walked at the head of them,
back to the Great Place, and, watched by thousands, through the
locust-strewn streets to the Intunkulu, the House of the King. Here, in
front of his hut, and surrounded by his Council, sat Dingaan and the
indunas who rose to greet her with the royal salute. She advanced towards
them slowly, looking more beautiful than ever she had done, but with wild,
wandering eyes. They set a stool for her, and she sat down on the stool,
staring at the ground. Then as she said nothing, Dingaan, who seemed very
sad and full of fear, commanded Tamboosa to report all that had happened
in the ears of the Council, and he took up his tale.

He told of the journey to the Tugela, and of how the Inkosazana and the
white lord, Dario, had crossed the river alone but a few hours after
Ibubesi, ordering him to follow next day, also alone, with the white ox
that bore her baggage. He told how he had done so, and on reaching Ramah
had found the white Umfundusi and his wife lying dead in their room, and
on the floor of it a Zulu of the men who had been sent with Ibubesi, also
dead, and in the garden of the house a man of the people of Ibubesi,
dying, who, with his last breath narrated to him the story of the taking
of the Inkosazana and the white lord, by Ibubesi. He told of how he had
run to the town of Mafooti, to find out the truth, and of the message that
he had sent by the herd boy to Ibubesi and his people. Lastly he told all
the rest of that story, of how he had come back to Zululand "as though he
had wings," and finding the regiment that had escorted the Inkosazana
still in camp near the river, had returned with them to attack Mafooti,
which they discovered to be deserted by its people.

While he described how by the flare of the lightning they saw the
Inkosazana standing on the roof of a hut, how they captured the wild
beast, Ibubesi, how they learned that the Spirit of the Inkosazana was
"wandering," and the dreadful words she said, the burning of Mafooti, and
the fearful death of Ibubesi by fire, all the Council listened in utter
silence. Thus they listened also whilst he showed how evil after evil had
fallen upon the regiment, evil by fire and water and sickness, as evil had
fallen upon the land also by the plague of locusts.

At length Tamboosa's story was finished, and certain men were brought
forward bound, who had been the captains of the band that went with
Ishmael, among them those who had killed, or caused to die, the white
teacher and his wife.

Upon the stern command of the King these men also told their story, saying
that they had not meant to kill the white man and that what they did was
done at the word of Ibubesi, whom they were ordered to obey in all things,
but who, as they now understood, had dared to lay a plot to capture the
Inkosazana for himself. When they had finished the King rose and poured
out his wrath on them, because through their deeds the Spirit of the
Inkosazana had been driven away, and her curse laid upon the land, where
already it was at work. Then he commanded that they should be led thence,
all of them, and put to a terrible death, and with them those captains of
the regiment who had spoken against the following of the people of
Mafooti, who should, he said, have been destroyed, every one.

At his words executioners rushed in to seize these wretched men, and then
it was that Rachel, who all this while had sat as though she heard
nothing, lifted her head and spoke, for the first time.

"Set them free, set them, free!" she commanded. "Vengeance is from Heaven,
and Heaven will pour it out in plenty. Not on my hands, not on my hands
shall be the blood of those who sent the Spirit of the Inkosazana to
wander in the skies. Who was it that bade an impi run to Ramah, and what
did they there in the house of those who gave me birth? When the Master
calls, the dogs must search and kill. Set them free, lest there be more
blood between the Inkosazana and her people of the Zulus."

When he heard these words, spoken in a strange, wailing voice, Dingaan
trembled, for he knew that it was he who had bidden his dogs to run.

"Let them go," he said, "and let the land see them no more for ever."

So those men went thankfully enough, and the land saw them no more. As
they passed the gate other men entered, starved and hungry-looking men,
whose bones almost pierced their skins, and who carried in their hands
remnants of shields that looked as though they had been gnawed by rats.
They saluted the King with feeble voices, and squatted down upon the
ground.

"Who are those skeletons," he asked angrily, "who dare to break in upon my
Council?"

"King," answered their spokesman, "we are captains of the Nobambe, the
Nodwenge, and the Isangu regiments whom thou didst send to destroy the
chief, Madaku and his people, who dwell far away in the swamp land to the
north near where the Great River runs into the sea. King, we could not
come at this chief because he fled away on rafts and in boats, he and his
people, and we lost our path among the reeds where again and again we were
ambushed, and many of us sank in the swamps and were drowned. Also, we
found no food, and were forced to live upon our shields," and he held up a
gnawed fragment in his hand. "So we perished by hundreds, and of all who
went forth but twenty-one times ten remain alive."

When Dingaan heard this he groaned, for his arms had been defeated and
three of his best regiments destroyed. But Rachel laughed aloud, the
terrible laugh at which all who heard it shivered.

"Did I not say," she asked, "that Heaven would pour out its vengeance in
plenty because of the blood that runs between the Spirit of the Inkosazana
and her people of the Zulus?"

"Truly this curse works fast and well," exclaimed Dingaan. Then, turning
to the men, he shouted: "Be gone, you starved rats, you cowards who do not
know how to fight, and be thankful that the Great Elephant (Chaka) is
dead, for surely he would have fed you upon shields until you perished."

So these captains crept away also.

Ere they were well gone a man appeared craving audience, a fat man who
wore a woeful countenance, for tears ran down his bloated cheeks. Dingaan
knew him well, for every week he saw him, and sometimes oftener.

"What is it, Movo, keeper of the kine," he asked anxiously, "that you
break in on me thus at my Council?"

"O King," answered the fat man, "pardon me, but, O King, my tidings are so
sad that I availed myself of my privilege, and pushed past the guards at
the gate."

"Those who bear ill news ever run quickly," grunted the King. "Stop that
weeping and out with it, Movo."

"Shaker of the Earth! Eater up of Enemies!" said Movo, "thou thyself art
eaten up, or at least thy cattle are, the cattle that I love. A sore
sickness has fallen on the great herd, the royal herd, the white herd with
the twisted horns, and," here he paused to sob, "a thousand of them are
dead, and many more are sick. Soon there will be no herd left," and he
wept outright.

Now Dingaan leapt up in his wrath and struck the man so sharply with the
shaft of the spear he held that it broke upon his head.

"Fat fool that you are," he exclaimed. "What have you done to my cattle?
Speak, or you shall be slain for an evil-doer who has bewitched them."

"Is it a crime to be fat, O King," answered the indignant Movo, rubbing
his skull, "when others are so much fatter?" and he looked reproachfully
at Dingaan's enormous person. "Can I help it if a thousand of thy oxen are
now but hides for shields?"

"Will you answer, or will you taste the other end of the spear?" asked
Dingaan, grasping the broken shaft just above the blade. "What have you
done to my cattle?"

"O King, I have done nothing to them. Can I help it if those accursed
beasts choose to eat dead locusts instead of grass, and foam at the mouth
and choke? Can the cattle help it if all the grass has become locusts so
that there is nothing else for them to eat? I am not to blame, and the
cattle are not to blame. Blame the Heavens above, to whom thou, or
rather," he added hastily, "some wicked wizard must have given offence,
for no such thing as this has been known before in Zululand."

Again Rachel broke in with her wild laughter, and said:

"Did I not tell thee that vengeance would be poured down in plenty, poured
down like the rain, O Dingaan? Vengeance on the King, vengeance on the
people, vengeance on the soldiers, vengeance on the corn, vengeance on the
kine, vengeance on the whole land, because blood runs between the Spirit
of the Inkosazana and the race of the Amazulu, whom once she loved!"

"It is true, it is true, White One, but why dost thou say it so often?"
groaned the maddened Dingaan. "Why show the whip to those who must feel
the blow? Now, you Movo, have you done?"

"Not quite, O King," answered the melancholy Movo, still rubbing his head.
"The cattle of all the kraals around are dying of this same sickness, and
the crops are quite eaten, so that next winter everyone must perish of
famine."

"Is that all, O Movo?"

"Not quite, O King, since messengers have come to me, as head keeper of
the kine, to say that all the other royal herds within two days' journey
are also stricken, although if I understand them right, of some other
pest. Also, which I forgot to add--"

"Hunt out this bearer of ill-tidings," roared Dingaan, "hunt him out, and
send orders that his own cattle be taken to fill up the holes in my
blanket."

Now some attendants sprang on the luckless Movo and began to beat him with
their sticks. Still, before he reached the gates he succeeded in turning
round weeping in good earnest and shouted:

"It is quite useless, O King, all my cattle are dead, too. They will find
nothing but the horns and the hoofs, for I have sold the hides to the
shield-makers."

Then they thrust him forth.

He was gone, and for a while there was silence, for despair filled the
hearts of the King and his Councillors, as they gazed at Rachel dismayed,
wondering within themselves how they might be rid of her and of the evils
which she had brought upon them because of the blood of her people which
lay at her doors.

Whilst they still stared thus in silence yet another messenger came
running through the gate like one in great haste.

"Now I am minded to order this fellow to be killed before he opens his
mouth," said Dingaan, "for of a surety he also is a bearer of
ill-tidings."

"Nay, O King," cried out the man in alarm, "my news is only that an
embassy awaits without."

"From whom?" asked Dingaan anxiously. "The white Amaboona?"

"Nay, O King, from the queen of the Ghost-people to whom thou didst
dispatch Noie, daughter of Seyapi, a while ago."

Hearing the name Noie, Rachel lifted her head, and for the first time her
face grew human.

"I remember," said Dingaan. "Admit the embassy."

Then followed a long pause. At length the gate opened and through it
appeared Noie herself, clad in a garb of spotless white, and somewhat
travel-worn, but beautiful as ever. She was escorted by four gigantic men
who were naked except for their moochas, but wore copper ornaments on
their wrists and ankles, and great rings of copper in their ears. After
her came three litters whereof the grass curtains were tightly drawn,
carried by bearers of the same size and race, and after these a bodyguard
of fifty soldiers of a like stature. This strange and barbarous-looking
company advanced slowly, whilst the Council stared at them wondering, for
never before had they seen people so huge, and arriving in front of the
King set down the litters, staring back in answer with their great round
eyes.

As they came Rachel rose from her stool and turned slowly so that she and
Noie, who walked in front of the embassy, stood face to face. For a moment
they gazed at each other, then Noie, running forward, knelt before Rachel
and kissed the hem of her robe, but Rachel bent down and lifted her up in
her strong arms, embracing her as a mother embraces a child.

"Where hast thou been, Sister?" she asked. "I have sought thee long."

"Surely on thy business, Zoola," answered Noie, scanning her curiously.
"Dost thou not remember?"

"Nay, I remember naught, Noie, save that I have sought thee long. My
Spirit wanders, Noie."

"Lady," she said, "my people told me that it was so. They told me many
terrible things, they who can see afar, they for whom distance has no
gates, but I did not believe them. Now I see with my own eyes. Be at
peace, Lady, my people will give thee back thy Spirit, though perchance
thou must travel to find it, for in their land all spirits dwell. Be at
peace and listen."

"With thee, Noie, I am at peace," replied Rachel, and still holding her
hand, she reseated herself upon the stool.

"Where are the messengers?" asked Dingaan. "I see none."

"King," answered Noie, "they shall appear."

Then she made signs to the escort of giants, some of whom came forward and
drew the curtains of the litters, whilst others opened huge umbrellas of
split cane which they carried in their hands.

"Now what weapons are these?" asked Dingaan. "Daughter of Seyapi, you know
that none may appear before the King armed."

"Weapons against the sun, O King, which my people hate."

"And who are the wizards that hate the sun?" queried Dingaan again in an
astonished voice. Then he was silent, for out of the first litter came a
little man, pale as the shoot from a bulb that has grown in darkness, with
large, soft eyes like the eyes of an owl, that blinked in the light, and
long hair out of which all the colour seemed to have faded.

As the man, who, like Noie, was dressed in a white robe, and in size
measured no more than a twelve-year-old child, set his sandalled feet upon
the ground, one of the huge guards sprang forward to shield him with the
umbrella, but being awkward, struck his leg against the pole of the litter
and stumbled against him, nearly knocking him to the ground, and in his
efforts to save himself, letting fall the umbrella. The little man turned
on him furiously, and holding one hand above his head as though to shield
himself from the sun, with the other pointed at him, speaking in a low
sibilant voice that sounded like the hiss of a snake. Thereon the guard
fell to his knees, and bending down with outstretched arms, beat his
forehead on the earth as though in prayer for mercy. The sight of this
giant making supplication to one whom he could have killed with a blow,
was so strange that Dingaan, unable to restrain his curiosity, asked Noie
if the dwarf was ordering the other to be killed.

"Nay, King," answered Noie, "for blood is hateful to these people. He is
saying that the soldier has offended many times. Therefore he curses him
and tells him that he shall wither like a plucked leaf and die without
seeing his home again."

"And will he die?" asked Dingaan.

"Certainly, King; those upon whom the Ghost-people lay their curse must
obey the curse. Moreover, this man deserves his doom, for on the journey
he killed another to take his food."

"Of a truth a terrible people!" said Dingaan uneasily. "Bid them lay no
curse on me lest they should see more blood than they wish for."

"It is foolish to threaten the Great Ones of the Ghost-folk, King, for
they hear even what they seem not to understand," answered Noie quietly.

"Wow!" exclaimed the King; "let my words be forgotten. I am sorry that I
troubled them to come so far to visit me."

Meanwhile the offender had crept back upon his hands and knees, looking
like a great beaten dog, whilst another soldier, taking his umbrella, held
it over the angry dwarf. Also from the other litters two more dwarfs had
descended, so like to the first that it was difficult to tell them apart,
and were in the same fashion sheltered by guards with umbrellas. Mats were
brought for them also, and on these they sat themselves down at right
angles to Dingaan, and to Rachel, whose stool was set in front of the
King, whilst behind them stood three of their escort, each holding an
umbrella over the head of one of them with the left hand, while with the
right they fanned them with small branches upon which the leaves, although
they were dead, remained green and shining.

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