The Tongue Is Fire: South African Storytellers and Apartheid

THE DEADLY PUMPKIN

Emily Ntsobane THE DEADLY PUMPKIN (XHOSA) Emily Ntsobane, a Hlubi woman, performed this story on September 28, 1967, in the late afternoon. The performance took place at the back of a home in Mgugwani, Lusikisiki District, in the Transkei. Mrs. Ntsobane, originally from Matatiele District in the Transkei, was forty years old. The audience consisted of some fifteen children and teenagers. (786; tape 18, side 1) A certain man married. His wife arrived at his home, and she conceived; she bore a child who was a girl. Time passed, and that child grew up. During the time of harvesting, this wife regularly went to the fields with her husband, she went to harvest all day with her husband. And this child grew up. One day, this woman returned from the fields carrying a pumpkin on her head. When she got home, she planned to kindle a fire. But when she was on the upper side of her homestead, the pumpkin fell down, it slipped and dropped from her head. It rolled down to a river, where it disappeared. "This pumpkin! What is this thing that fell from my head?" she wondered . "It rolled all that distance to the river, then it sank!" No one answered her. The wife entered her house, and kindled a fire. Then she put her baby on her back, and told her story to her husband: "Father of Nobani, I was coming back, carrying that pumpkin- you saw it yourself, when I was picking it up. I carried it with me when we returned from the fields. Now, when I was just above the homestead, the pumpkin slipped and fell. And it disappeared in the water of the river. I'm puzzled by this matter. What caused it? What does it mean?" The husband said, "Wife, how were you holding the pumpkin when it fell from your head? How were you holding it when it dropped from your head, when it came to fall?" She said, "I was carrying it the way I have always carried things." "Well then, this is an evil omen! You were carrying something on your head, it slipped and fell, and disappeared in the river. Wqy didn't you catch it? Were you unable to seize the pumpkin as it slipped and fell from your head?" "I was rattled, it was a bewildering situation." "Well, light the fire," he grumbled. "It was my food that you allowed to disappear in the river." 187 "This pumpkin emerged, it grew and grew." Emily Ntsobane, a Xhosa storyteller. 188 The Deadly Pumpkin 189 "You talk as if it's the first time that you've seen food," she said, as she continued to kindle the fire. The husband was silent. He put tobacco into his pipe, and smoked. He was angry because of the loss of the pumpkin. He had hoped to eat some pumpkin porridge. Time passed for them then, and they slept. They got up in the morning, and returned to the fields. They harvested. That child of hers was growing up: finally, breasts appeared and she was prepared to enter womanhood. The father said to his wife, "Mabani, I want to initiate this child of mine into womanhood. I want to initiate her, I want her to enter womanhood now." She said, "Will you take it upon yourself to initiate her?" "Yes, I shall do it. I shall slaughter three oxen and two hogs for the ritual." "All right. When you initiate this child, you must prepare her to grow up in good health." "Yes, I agree with you, my wife." So it was that on a certain day the husband gathered his family to provide the initiation rite for his daughter. The family arrived. They said, "Our brother, are you sure that you will initiate her with a properly elaborate celebration?" He said, "My friends, and you my elder brothers, the celebration will be appropriately large, I swear to it. I shall slaughter three oxen here above the kraal and two gelded hogs-not just little hogs. I am well off, I'm not a starving wretch." "Please, Brother," these men said, "please, our brother, we will watch what you do. Please brew some beer." "I shall brew a great quantity of beer," this man said in connection with his feelings about his child. "I shall brew a great quantity of beer. I shall brew this beer, no...