Zakes Mda - The Heart of Redness

The chairman is ringing the bell and shouting, “This is a concert, gentlemen. Money talks. If you have anything to say to anybody, you come to the table and buy. You don’t just exchange words among your-selves like that!”

“Just tell this Bhonco to leave me alone,” says Zim. “I have nothing to do with what has happened here. I have nothing to do with the abaThwa taking their dance either, although it serves him right!”

“Money talks! Not just your mouth! Not just empty words! It is money that talks at a concert!” shouts the chairman.

At last there is calm. The concert resumes. The choir from the Blue Flamingo Hotel sings another izitibiri song.

The bell rings. The music stops.

“Tat’uZim is buying, ladies and gentlemen,” announces the chairman. “He says this choir from the hotel washes his heart. Its music is like the music of the angels. But there is something missing somewhere there. Ululation! Such beautiful music must be accompanied by ululation. With his ten rand he buys NoPetticoat to ululate from now right up to the end of the concert.”

This would have been great fun if it had not come from Zim. But now no one takes kindly to it. NoPetticoat has no choice but to ululate. At first she enjoys ululating and prancing about. But by the third song she is exhausted. Bhonco goes to the table and buys with eleven rand that his wife should stop ululating. But Zim buys with twelve rand that NoPetticoat should ululate for the rest of the concert. Bhonco has run out of money, but Xoliswa Ximiya gives him some more. She is furious that her mother has been turned into a “bioscope.”

It seems that Zim has come prepared. His rock-rabbit-skin bag is full of money. He keeps on buying NoPetticoat back on the stage whenever Bhonco buys her off the stage. The stakes have now risen to one hundred rand. The Ximiya family has run out of money and cannot buy anymore. People are exclaiming that the vindictive Zim is finishing all his nkamnkam or old-age-pension money on a concert.

NoPetticoat ululates. Choirs come and go. NoPetticoat ululates for all of them. By the end of the concert her voice is gone. It became hoarse and then disappeared. The villagers are angry that Zim has spoiled the concert, but there is nothing they can do about it. It is only money that talks at a concert.

This does not sit well with Bhonco, son of Ximiya. He challenges Zim to a stick fight. “Let’s see if money will buy you out of a duel,” he says. “You have made a fool of my family and you must pay for it. Uzidla ngemali —money has made you too proud!”

But Dalton, ever the water that extinguishes wildfires, talks them out of the fight. The law has no mercy on people who engage in such foolish activities. They may find themselves in jail, he warns them.

The following days Bhonco plans a different type of vengeance. He tells the gathering of the elders of the Unbelievers, “Since this Believer loves ululation so much, I am going to engage a group of abayiyizeli , the ululants, to ululate for him.”

Abayiyizeli are women who take their ululation seriously. They look forward to those occasions when they are needed to ululate. When Bhonco engages them, they take to their task with gusto. They ululate outside Zim’s homestead during those serious moments when he is resting under his giant wild fig tree, in the company of his amahobohobo weaverbirds. They know that he loves to have a siesta after midday meals. They choose that very moment to pierce his eardrums with the sharpest possible ululation. At first he ignores them. He thinks they will ultimately get tired of it. But they never do. Instead they mobilize more ululants to work in shifts at all hours.

Soon things develop to the extent that the abayiyizeli ululate every time they see Zim. They follow him through the village ululating. Even young girls who were not part of the original group of ululants ululate when they see him. Female passersby stop whatever they are doing to ululate whenever he approaches.

Zim does not know what to do about this. He goes to Chief Xikixa, but the chief is powerless. When the ululants are summoned before him, they claim that they are innocent people who enjoy ululating along village pathways. And this is not against the law in the new and democratic South Africa.

Finally Zim gets his revenge. He sends ing’ang’ane birds, the hadedah ibis, to laugh at Bhonco. They are drab gray, stubby-legged birds with metallic green or purple wings. Three or four birds follow him wherever he goes, emitting their rude laughter. They sit on the roof of his ixande house, and continue laughing.

There is a feeling that things are getting out of hand. There is talk in the village that the war of the Believers and Unbelievers has advanced beyond human prowess. It is rumored that Bhonco is about to enlist the assistance of the uthekwane , the brown hammerhead bird. With its lightning it will destroy Zim’s fields, or perhaps his homestead. But some people laugh the whole matter off. They say it is an empty threat. Bhonco does not know how to talk with birds. Only Zim can talk with birds. Yet others feel that it is a shame that these elders have now stooped to the level of sending such innocent creatures as birds to battle on their behalf.

While these battles are going on, Camagu is hiding in his sea cottage. He is ashamed to show his face in public. Days pass. He cannot even venture to Vulindlela Trading Store. He hears about the quarrel that is threatening to swallow the whole community from NoGiant and MamCirha when they come to work. They tell him of the ululation that happened at the concert, and its consequences. They beg him to go and talk with the elders, to convince them to stop destroying each other this way. The women think that the elders will listen to him. But Camagu does not think so. He believes that after his behavior at the concert he has lost their respect.

One day he gets a surprise visit from John Dalton. He says they need to bury their differences because there are greater things at stake. The developers are coming to hold a public meeting with the villagers, to explain their plans to turn Qolorha-by-Sea into a tourist paradise. Dalton will not be able to attend this imbhizo because he is going to Ficksburg in the Free State on an urgent family matter. He has come to ask Camagu to attend the meeting because it is important that someone should be there who will be able to articulate the view of those villagers who are opposed to the tourist paradise as envisaged by the developers.

“It is good that you want us to bury our differences,” says Camagu. “I never had any differences with you in the first place. I merely expressed a different point of view about the water project. . after you had solicited my opinion.”

“Okay, maybe it was childish of me to take it personally,” admits Dalton, “but let’s talk about this imbhizo. Will you be able to attend?”

“Who will listen to me after what I did at the concert?”

Dalton laughs.

“I don’t know what came over you,” he says. “But this meeting is important. The whole future of the village depends on it. We cannot let your personal problems—”

“Okay, okay, I will go.”

The developers, two bald white men and a young black man, come early on a Saturday morning and insist that the meeting be held at the lagoon so that they can demonstrate their grand plans for the village. The young black man is introduced as Lefa Leballo, the new chief executive officer of the black empowerment company that is going to develop the village into a tourist heaven. He looks very handsome in his navy-blue suit, blue shirt, and colorful tie. The two elderly white men — both in black suits — are Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones. They were chief executive and chairman of the company before they sold the majority shares to black empowerment consortia. Now they act as consultants for the company.