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TALA AND THE STORY OF A WITCH

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Tala and the story of a witch

By Collins Nyadida

Tala lived in a small village called Kokwanyo with his parents but he stayed mostly with his ageing grandmother whose homestead was just a stone throw away from their home. He helped her with household chores and looked after her goats.

Tala had twin elder brothers who were in upper primary school. They were candidates, expected to sit for their final standard eight national examinations later in the year and they worked hard; waking up very early in the morning to go to school at six, before the villagers woke up to weed their crops.

Everyone in the village knew about the twin brothers and how they performed outstandingly at school. Their parents were very happy with their performance which left no doubt that they would pass their final examinations with flying colours and Tala was reminded every now and then to follow in their footsteps.

Tala did not go back to school in the afternoons because he was in class three and all lower classes did not have after lunch lessons, unlike their counterparts in upper levels. He therefore attended to his grandmother's goats and collected firewood in the grazing fields.

Tala loved his grandmother very much compared to his own parents because the grandmother liked to rescue him whenever his mother threatened to beat him for minor mistakes which did not deserve any beatings. For that reason, Tala spent all his free time with her, assisting here and there with extra chores, like slashing the compound, hoeing and fetching water from his father's well. That was very unlike his twin brothers who only came to their grandmother's house to study and spend the night.

When nightfall came and crickets started chirping merrily, his grandmother would tell them sweet stories, as they watched stars from the sky and waited to retire to sleep.

There was that story of a wizard, which came to pervade Tala's mind since his grandmother narrated it one evening. It was the story of an old woman witch who kidnapped and ate the tender meat of small boys who refused to listen and obey their parents.

That story made him afraid and his suspicion rose over the old woman neighbour who had all the mannerisms of a witch. The woman's name was Herewe and if someone was headed to or coming from the grazing fields, one had to follow the pathway passing near her hut.

At school everyone confessed to Tala, that it was very true that the old woman was a witch. He wanted to ask his grandmother about it but the fear that the knowing eyes of Herewe would find out what he was up to discouraged him.

His mind could not stop thinking that the witch in her grandmother's story was Herewe -the Old woman neighbour and he grew gloomy and loony.

Whenever he passed her hut on his way to the grazing fields, he found himself elating his nose this way and that way, trying to smell any strange stench which could come out from the small hut. There was nothing peculiar though, but he swore to his friends that he felt a strange smell of human flesh boiling under hot water drums.  So many stories with different versions about witches were told and retold among his peers and in the end it left very little doubt not to suspect Herewe of being one of the witches.

"She eats only naughty boys," that was what her grandmother had said in about her in the story. From that day on, Tala tried to behave responsively when looking after his goats, he found himself fearing being perceived or thought of as naughty because in that he would be sought after by a witch who lived very close to them. The idea that he was being watched by Herewe could not get out of his thoughts and he walked suspiciously looking behind his shoulders for any queer creature who might be send to seize him.

When he took his goats to the grazing field he tried to be careful not let them invade someone's crops. His grandmother called him a lousy herdsman and it felt on him like an abuse.

Once in the grazing fields, he played football with his friends until the goats went home on their own without someone to guide them off from branching into other people's farms where they eat fleshy stalks of green maize and succulent leaves of cotton plants.

His grandmother was fed up with complaints brought to her about Tala's carelessness with goats and she would caution him whenever he left home with goats.

"Tala, if you must play football, please, be alert to where the goats are grazing. I don't like quarrelling with my neighbours," said the grandmother almost pleadingly.

It was not fair to blame Tala entirely, he tried the best he could in taking care of the goats, but the goats were cheeky and stubborn too. They sneaked as soon as they realized that Tala buried his head into a game of football.  And Tala would run madly about to search for them in people's farms.

His inability to control the cheeky goats made him fearsome of the prospect that one day a witch would come for his neck on that account.

He could not put the thought and the feeling away, and to him Herewe took every stock of his bad behaviors. If he met her by accident on his way he would hide quickly in the nearest bush not to be seen by her.

2.

Tala and some of his friends seemed to have plausible reasons, to believe that Herewe was a witch.  She lived by herself in a small hut surrounded by trees and fruits of all varieties .The fruits were always ripe and alluring, however no one could dare to come near the plants and eat them. Not even those mangoes whose branches over hanged outside the fence of her homestead. Most passers-by went on their way even without looking or admiring the golden yellow fruits.

However there was one and only one Juti, who had eaten Herewe's fruits without anything happening to him. Juti was Tala's best friend and on the said day, Tala and his other friends had waited in abated breath to see if Juti would wake up another day without being hospitalized - but nothing happened to him. In the end he was hailed as a great hero who had done the impossible.

Herewe's homestead was fenced with dried branches of deadly thorns. It was impossible for anyone to break into it without using the gate.  The doors of her hut remained closed all day long. Beside her hut, there was a modern granary and the only one of its kind in the whole of Kokwanyo village. It had a raised wooden floor and could stalk over fifty sacs of dry grains.

It had seemed to Tala and his friends that there were so many secrets within Herewe's homestead. Like all witches they had come across in fairy tales from their books, she had no husband or children anyone knew of.

She climbed on the roof of her small hut and thatched it by herself without getting someone to assist her and that was something very unlikely of women, especially as elderly as she was.

No one in the entire village of Kokwanyo had any idea, when she woke up in the morning. She was always found weeding her crops as early as six when Tala's brothers would be going to school. She would remain working in her farm until dusk when mothers came back from the market.

Her farm was peculiar too; all types of crops could be found grown inside it, beginning with groundnuts, beans, potatoes, vegetables, sorghum and maize.

Unlike her neighbours, she kept no livestock. Instead there was a giant black cat with bluish eye balls. It was so large, in fact, twice as big as an average adult cat. Her meowing too was quite a scare. It was more of a baby crying than a cat meowing.

3.

Then, there came a day when Tala came face to face with Herewe.

It had all started from the football ground where Tala had been playing football with his buddies for hours and hours as usual. The ball was made from collected pieces of used plastic bags and artistically woven into round shape with sisal fibers. The game was at its climax when Tala discovered that his goats were missing. His team was leading by four goals to three and their opponent mounted a spirited pressure on them to concede an equalizer. That was the time Tala suddenly left his goal keeping position to check on his goats.

"Hey I am out... could someone come for goal keeping" Tala shouted at Juti, who captained their team and refereed the match at the same time.

"What is it now Tala?" said Juti angrily. Juti feared defeat and he would do anything within his means to make his team win. In fact, he had refused to concede a goal before then, claiming that it had been scored when the goal keeper was out to check on the goats. All in all, he was still considered fairer and that was why he would be chosen to referee over other contenders.

"My goats...I can't see them anywhere," Tala said frantically.

"You better hurry up and check the closest farm," Juti advised.

Tala knew what Juti meant by that, he was teasing him, because like everyone else, he feared Herewe and did not wish to pick a quarrel with her over such grave issue as goats destroying her crops.

It was her farm which was the nearest to their playing ground and everyone with goats were keen not to let his goats wander away into it.

4.

When Tala arrived at Herewe's shamba, he walked quietly and looked over the hedge if there were goats inside but no goat was within his sight. Instead he came face to face with Herewe. It was as if she had been waiting for his coming.

"Oh you scoundrel eh, your goats...?" the words could not come out clearly from her coarse voice and Tala took off before the last word dropped out.

He simply took off to his heels, like a herd of sheep which had seen a stray dog. He did not even look behind him to find out, if he was being pursued at all but ran as fast as if Herewe was just right behind him, instead.

Those who met him gave way quickly since he was like some wild bull running away from the herd. His manner of running was astounding to look at. He threw his hands in the air and shouted," waai, waai" until he became deaf.

It was not until after he had gone a kilometre away that he decided to stop shouting and look behind him. There was no one coming, only rain clouds gathering in the blue sky beyond. The cumulus nimbus clouds covered the sun and darkness seemed to advance quicker as if it wanted to rain. That only served to increase his fears and he started running homewards again. He could not tell whether the goats had reached home or had been taken by Herewe.

When he reached home, there were no goats anywhere in the compound.

"Oh my god, what will I do," he asked himself as he stood by the gate to decide his next course of action.

"What will I do, if she took them away to her home?" he asked himself several questions without any apparent answers coming to his mind and at last he decided to leave before it became very late or before his grandmother discovered what was happening.

"Tala, is that you, come back here?" shouted his grandmother.

"Yes grandma," quickly answered Tala.

"Where are my goats?" she asked in astonishment. It was very unusual to see Tala without the goats and his grandmother knew that something was a miss already.

"Was just eh, just eh," Tala struggled to explain,

"Eh, what? Have you lost my goats again you rascal?" she inquired angrily.

"I thought they had already arrived here, grandma," Tala tried to sound calmed but his voice shook and trembled.

"Oh Tala my grandchild... When will you start thinking like a grown up?" asked the grandmother.

"But grandma...," Tala tried to explain but he was harshly cut off.

"Off you go, you silly rascal, get back here before nightfall with my goats," she shouted behind him as he ran off madly again. He couldn't make his mind immediately and he felt tears streaming down his cheeks.

5.

He was sweating profusely and someone might have thought that he had been rained on severely for the past one hour. The thought of confronting Herewe nagged him to the bone marrow. "No way," he mattered between boughs of coughs.

To ask Herewe about the whereabouts of his goats was something beyond his imagination.

"What if I am caught for an evening meal?" he asked himself quietly.

It was then the thought of his friend Juti. He was the only one who could help him out, the only one who was not terrified of witches. He remembered the incident when Juti ate those mangoes without winking his eyes or complaining over any bitter taste.

~

Tala wounded his pathway to Juti' home eventually. It was not far-off from her grandmother's home - a mere three kilometres away.

He knew that Juti had gone home, by the glance of the setting sun and he would be preparing to milk their cows. Juti was a bit older than Tala. Among boys in their class, he was the only one owning a simba (a small hut for boys), and above all he was well-informed about harvesting honey and universal things. He knew so many stuffs such as, how to avert teachers from whipping him by swallowing a tiny grain of stone after tying a knot to a growing strand of grass. It worked for him but not for others like Tala. He did that daily before he went to school in the morning and returned home at mid-day without being cane by any teacher. If he was cane then, it meant that he had not performed the ritual on the said day. But above all he knew how to keep off evil spirits especially from dreams, although he couldn't be proved wrong or right.

There was that day he explained to everyone at school, how witches were fearful of pig's bones. He had stashed such several pierces under his bed in the little hut to protect himself.

He had been meaning to give Tala a pierce from bones, but his grandmother warned him that God did not like such mind-set from His people.

However on that particular day, he felt like keeping one and he asked Juti about it on their way to Herewe's homestead.

"Are you with those bones you told us about?"

"Yes, but just a pierce for me," said Juti steadily.

"I would have loved to have a pierce, I feel awful," said Tala.

"Don't be worried, one bit is powerful enough for both of us, you shouldn't be nervous," Juti gave him a soothing pat as he explained so. "And be quiet now, we are almost there. "

Tala followed Juti from behind and tugged on his sleeves like a toddler who was seeing a naughty puppy for the first time in his life.

6.

"Is anybody home?" Juti called out as he plunged his right hand into the pocket of his pair of short trousers as if to assure Tala that everything was all right.

There was no answer and Tala's eyes went roaming around the compound, searching for clues to where his goats could have been kept, but nothing suggestive was forthcoming.  Darkness had started setting in, and every tree in the homestead was a shadow of a human being, either standing up straight or squatting.

"Grandma, are you home yet," Juti called out once again. Still no answer came except for the echoes of his voice, which bounced back with a fearsome reverberation which made Tala to writhe inside with dread.  The crying of birds welcoming dusk sounded too depressing to him, as if they were spelling some sort of looming disaster.  Tala's heart beat went thumbing loudly between his ribs and the urge to wet his pants couldn't be resisted and few drops tickled out involuntarily.

"We better go back Juti, before something bad happens."

"No way, not until we are sure where the goats are," Juti protested.

"I doubt, they don't seem to be anywhere here, it is so silent," Tala countered softly fearing even the sound of his voice. The look on him was terrible, like someone under a high fever. He touched his forehead and thick drops of perspirations streamed uncontrollably down his face.

Juti on the other hand was very much relaxed and plucked a fruit from a branch of a tree hanging overhead and ate while Tala hissed fearfully in protest.

"No please Juti, we better keep to what has brought us here."

"You coward! I feel so hungry after that gruelling match we played today," explained Juti.

The black huge cat ensued from nowhere and Tala saw it first and jumped onto Juti's arm.

"Oh my God, look Juti," he whispered.

"I think she is somewhere around here," Juti said and waited for the next thing to happen again. The moments Tala had been avoiding ever since he confirmed that Herewe was a witch arrived without being wished.

It was said that Herewe and her cat were inseparable. Wherever she went, the cat would follow her steps and wherever the cat went, she would follow her steps.

"Is that you grandma?" Juti called out to the pitch darkness, for he could certainly see nobody in the vicinity.

7.

Hardly had the sentences dropped out of Juti's mouth than Herewe came about.  It was meowing of the cat, "Eehaa, eehaa," which jostled their attention at first and it followed with a huge form rolling about like a beetle with a heavy load of cow dung.

She was carrying a heavy bundle of firewood on her head. Tala could not see clearly, the difference between the bundle of firewood and the person carrying it. To him, it was like a whole mass of a body of some ogre and he clanged to Juti even more tightly. The urge to wet his pant came up once again and he released out more drops.

"What are you two rascals doing in my home at this time?" she inquired as she went to pile her load of firewood on top of other bundles already laid down neatly besides her sophisticated granary.

"Oh grandma, we came to see you," Juti tried to sound pleasant and confident after hiding what he had been eating behind him.

"Oh... to see me, eh... or to eat my mangoes?" she taunted cleverly and Tala almost ran away. Anyone could tell that Juti had been munching something by just listening to how words pronounced out of his mouth.

But Tala could not see that and he wondered how Herewe had known that Juti had stolen her mangoes. That could not be possible if she wasn't a witch.

His suspicions increased and he felt trapped in Herewe's nets. He wanted to plead for forgiveness before it became late, but he lacked courage to speak straight to her.

"And who is your friend and  ...Why is he hiding behind you?" Herewe inquired as her terrifying black cat wounded herself on her legs. Tala's hair stood up as if they were combed from inside out. He waited for Juti to say something but Juti kept quiet until he felt his body tensing like a tightened wire of a guitar, ready to twang at any careless least of touch.

"Oh this is my friend Tala. We have come to find out, if you may have seen his goats," Juti explained politely as he held onto Tala.

"Oh it is you again eh," she recognises Tala and said, "Oh waai, waai." Trying to mimick how Tala had cried when he had seen her in that evening and Juti chuckled lightly.

"I would have killed you today," she finally commented.

The word kill made Tala to jerk off from Juti's arm, but Juti held tightly to restrain him from running away.

"Relax Tala, there is nothing to be scared of," coaxed Juti.

Herewe was struggling to open the door by that time and she did not realise the drama which went on behind her back quietly. But ultimately Tala broke out into wailing and all attention turned to him. He was crying frenziedly which made it difficult for Herewe to hear the words he was speaking out.

"Forgive me, I will never play again, I swear I will not, I promise you, I will never play when herding goats," streams of tears welled down his cheeks and those words got muffled up in the commotion.

"Calm down, please calm down," Juti pleaded and Herewe was taken by complete surprise to comprehend what was happening between the two boys.

"What is the matter, what has happened to him?" Herewe asked.

"He lost his goats," responded Juti.

"But I just saw them this evening," explained Herewe." I had barred them from entering my shamba"

"Yes but, they are nowhere to be seen. Not even at their home," Juti explained on his behalf and since he could not talk intelligibly.

"Better check at home again, they couldn't go anywhere, it was late."

She spoke so kindly and respectfully that Tala found himself buoyed off from his fears and he muttered "thank you grandma" without second thoughts.

"We are going back then grandma," Juti informed as he resumed taking bites from his fruit ravenously and without fear.

"No yet, just a minute please," Herewe countered quickly and fumbled with the lock to open the wooden door to her small hut. Tala almost stopped breathing if Juti did not rush to assure him that it was alright.

Herewe, lit a small tin lamp and a dim light flickered about the tiny hut with life. Tala wondered what Herewe was up to, by calling on them to wait.

"You better get in here where I can see your ugly faces." she called out to them and brought out a bunch of ripe bananas from a basket hanged on the wall. She gave each a generous cluster with five pieces of plump fruits.

Tala could not believe his eyes and he took his share undecidedly.

"You can help yourself with these," she offered.

"I will have to visit the market soon or else, my bananas will rot in here," Herewe said almost to herself and sunk her heavy body into an easy chair placed on the opposite end of the house.

The small hut had taken Tala by surprise, he had expected to see water drums filled up with chunks of meats from human being but there was nothing of that sort anywhere.

When he realised that Juti was eating his banana he found a psyche and burrowed his teeth greedily on his share.

He had been stunned when he heard Herewe speaking very coolly without the husky voice he had come to identify with her. A new revelation was setting on him, that Herewe was just like any other granny he knew of in the village of Kokwanyo. All those stories he had heard about Herewe melted slowly as his eyes looked about the room taking account of every single detail therein.

There was a water pot for preserving drinking water at the end next to where her chair was. The floor was smeared with cow dung and decorated smartly just like the floor of his grandmother. Behind the door was her three cooking stones with stubs of firewood which had remained after previous cooking. Black soot hanged inside the roof like any other hut he had seen before.

8.

But of significance was the huge portrait in black and white colour, a portrait of an elderly man clad in military uniform, hanged on the wall besides the basket where Herewe had taken out the bananas. It was the only intriguing item in the small hut.

Tala wondered who the old man was. He wanted to ask Juti but his thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Herewe spoke. She was evidently exhausted from hard work and leaned on the chair as she spoke to Juti. Words came out of her mouth as if they dropped by themselves without her involvement.

"Hey Juti who is milking the cows today, if you are still here at this time?" she enquired.

"Oh am leaving right away grandma," Juti realised suddenly, that a task of milking the cows was still waiting on him back at home.

"You better hurry up and get me my share, I would like to sleep early, I feel strangely exhausted today," she said thoughtfully almost to herself, "and please do remind your mother about our tomorrow's meeting."

Tala could not follow the direction the conversation was taking as it finally occurred to him, that Juti and Herewe knew one another.

"And you young man, tell your grandmother that I will not break my back for the sake of her goats," That was directed to Tala.

"Yes, yes grandmother," he answered mechanically as if driven more by sheer fear than politeness.

When they had left Herewe's compound, Tala insisted that Juti explain things to him at once.

"What is going on Juti?" he stirred the argument, "Why did you not tell me that you are related to her?"

"Of course we are related. She is my grandmother and the portrait you saw hanged on the wall belonged to my grandfather who died long time ago," Juti explained.

"Have you got that bone for driving away bad spirits?" Tala asked and touched Juti's pockets to feel any hard object.

"I never had any bone, to be honest Tala," he replied. "I wanted to take you people for a ride when I realised how you mistook my grandmother for a witch."

Tala could not believe him, he searched and emptied all the content of the three pockets to ascertain for himself but he found nothing like a bone.

He felt very sorry for all the things he had said about Herewe and the thought of apologising to Juti came to his mind.  Yet, he couldn't bring himself to apologise since it was Juti who had himself to blame after all, for having fuelled a false belief about his grandmother to others - that she was a witch.

"I can't believe you, why do you refer to your granny with her name? Tala enquired. "Is that not being disrespectful of you?"

"No it isn't, she is the one who insists to be referred with that name. Herewe is the name of my grandfather whose picture you saw on the wall." Juti explained.

~

Herewe was one unique grandmother in the village of Kokwanyo. She was a very hard working woman and very much reserved. She did not like to socialise with people quite often and instead spent her time working in the shamba to assist her son in bringing up his large family which she was proud of. That was mainly because he was way above his contemporaries by being a husband to three wives at a tender age. Juti was one of her many grandchildren.

Herewe was determined not to allow old age to weigh her down and besides, her only son had a larger family and she felt oblige to assist him occasionally whenever she could.

Whenever the crop yields turn out poorly she would share her grains with her daughters in law and that gave her all the reasons to toil in the shamba day after day for the betterment of her extended family. She was after all, a wife of a soldier who had fought in the Second World War and brought several medallions which spoke of his gallantry. Hard work was the only way to live according to the whim of her beloved husband who had died long time ago before children like Tala and Juti were born.

~

Tala and Juti came to where the pathway split and bid each other good night.

"Should you fail to find your goats at home, do let me know by tomorrow morning, remember it would be Saturday-no school for us!" Juti shouted happily.

9.

When Tala reached home, he found his grandmother waiting for him; she was very much worried about where he had been at such late hour of the evening.

"Where have you been grandson?" she was almost sorry for having sent him away harshly. "The goats arrived long time ago immediately you left and if you can see their distended stomachs! I will not be surprised if someone comes to report tomorrow that his crops had been destroyed."

"No, they didn't destroy someone's shamba, grandma," Tala defended.

"I have sung to you more than once, to be careful with goats nowadays, but you can't heed even a good advice," she said attentively.

~

The day had been long for Tala, but so many good things had eventually turned out in the end and he had every reason to smile and be jovial.

If it was not the joy of finding his goats safely at home then it was the consoling discovery that Harewe was not a witch after all - but a lovely and generous grandmother who had given him sweat bananas and above all she was the grandmother to his friend Juti.

He thought of recounting what had happened that day to his grandmother, but thought otherwise since she might have known about the outlawed football playing which went on in the fields when they went grazing.

When the story time came that night, they did not, as usual, sit around the fireside to watch the stars in the blue sky above but they bundled themselves inside the small hut, because it had drizzled outside. And they listened to grandmother's stories. Once again the story of a witch who abducted stubborn boys and fed on their tender meat was retold and that time round the narrative was far much different and Tala realised that the witch in the story could not have been Herewe by all means.

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