CHAPTER SIX

When darkness had thickened and the village was quiet, Makwati walked furtively to Sekai's hut. In going there so soon after the birth of the child, he was breaking custom ; but had she not done worse? When he entered Sekai was sitting on her mat by the fire feeding the baby. Makwati squatted two paces from them, but said nothing. As his eyes adjusted to the subdued light, he shivered although he was not cold. As if in a pantomime, Sekai slowly exposed the baby to Makwati's gaze. He took a glance and quickly raised his right hand to cover his eyes as if to ward of an evil vision. Although Ambuya Tukai as well as Sekai had indicated to him the colour of the child, Makwati had not grasped their meaning and was not quite prepared for what he saw. He had never seen a European and rumours of them which had filtered through to his village had been too vague to conjure up a clear picture in his mind. And no 'sope' child had ever been allowed to survive before. He had expected to see a child light in completion, lighter than any he had ever seen, but no this...this. He could not find words to fit his thoughts.

Conflicting emotions and thoughts flitted through Makwati's head and confused his thinking. At last he found his voice:

"What have you done to my son, Sekai? What have you been doing? Answer me, woman!"

He spoke forcefully buy quietly so that his voice could not be heard outside the hut. Sekai's only answer was a gush of tears which spilled down her cheeks and splashed on the baby.

"Tell me, woman, were you sharing your mat with some other man? And is this the punishment?"

The accusation wrung a pained response from Sekai. "Your words kill me, my husband; they eat into my bones. You know how much your love means to me; how all these years I want to be the first to give you a son. You would have heard if I had another man".

"Sekai, you know how much I want a son....especially from you. You know how long I've waited, how my hopes rose with each pregnancy and how great was my disappointment at the birth of each female child. All this you know. But at least all these children were unmistakably of our people. But this time...this...'thing'? Is he one of us?"

Sekai wa deeply hurt by the accusation and the scorn in Makwati's voice as well as by his words. She continued to weep but her reply was firm:

"This is our son, yours and mine; but if you do not want him, cannot bear the sight of him, I cannot compel you to be a father to him. You are a man; I am a woman and his mother. He came out of my body and I will love him and care for him no matter what he looks like. "

"Woman, you know it is not for us to decide whether this child lives or dies. He should have been sent back to the ancestors before he saw the light of day. Since you would not allow Ambuya Tukai to do so, now the elders will have to decide. This they must do, perhaps tomorrow but certainly before the day of naming. " Makwati paused and a sadness came over him, softening his features and his voice. He continued :

"But oh, Sekai, if the judgment goes against his life, you also will die for defying the ancient rule!"

Sekai did not respond ; there was nothing more to say. Makwati Rose from his sqatting position and without a word, quietly walked away. Sekai had never felt more abandoned and afraid. Makwati's last words had frightened her. For the first time since the birth of the child, she the peril was so close to her and her baby. Previously she had relied on the belief that her appearance before the elders would simply be a matter of telling them of her great longing and her deep motherly feelings. Now she realised that even if some of the old men sympathised with her, none of them would go against tradition.

In that moment of realisation, Sekai knew that there were only two choices open to her...death in a manner to be decided by the elders, and voluntary exile from her people. The first choice required great courage and if she did not have a baby to consider, Sekai would most likely have accepted that course. On the other hand, the second option demamded greater courage as well as resourcefulness. It held the possibility of survival and new life, new beginnings for herself but especially for her son. She and her baby must escape and take their chances among wild animals and strangers. It was full of dangers, but death was not a certainty.

Sekai loved Makwati..he had always loved him. And now he was abandoning her to the judgement of the elders because she failed to give him the kind of son he wanted. Was Makwati really indispensable to her well-being? Did he cook for her. Had he ever fetched water for her? Did he cultivate her fields or reap for her? In the days he was mostly with the other men at at nights she had to share his love and companionship with his other wives. No, Makwati was her love, but now she realised that she had, in fact, been doing very well without much help from him. Life without his people to support her ould probably be more difficult than life without him. Makwati did not need her, but her son, this helpless being that owed its life to her, needed her if he was to survive. In this village, among Makwati's people, it had no chance.

Sekai arrived at a decision: she had to leave the following morning. She who had never acted without the sanction of her man or of tradition (except this once) made up her mind with the positiveness and calmness which she never knew she possessed. She wrapped the sleeping child in it's 'gudza' and put him on the mat. Then she arose and began the preparation of her unscheduled journey into the unknown. She slipped out of her hut. There she stirred the embers of the fire so that in it's glows she could see and select the items she thought she would need. She took a spear and a knobkerry which Makwati had put there as well as some dried meat which she wrapped in a piece of dark cloth. Next she selected her largest gourd which had water in it and carefully stoppered it. Then she went back to her hut and the baby who was still sleeping peacefully.

As this was early April, the weather was still warm and dry. Inside her hut, Sekai tied a number of 'gudzas' together. These were for protecting her son from scratches as well as to keep him warm in the chill of the early morning. After making these preparations Sekai curled up on her sleeping mat, cuddled her son, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The strident crowing of the boss rooster of the compound awakened Sekai. Gently, so as not to awaken the baby, she released him and went to the door to view the sky. From the position of the stars and the moon she reckoned that daylight was not far away. It was time to go. Sekai feed the baby while she ate 'mbambaira' (sweet potato) left over from her meal the previous night. Then she sat and told he 'mudzimu' (ancestors/spirits through whom one communicates with God) her problems and asked for their protection from both men and beasts as she set out on her dangerous journey. While she was communing with the spirits, a name slowly surfaced in her mind - TAKADINI. It was not a name she had known or heard of either from Makwati's people or her own. However, TAKADINI - "what have we done" adequately summed up the circumstances of her baby's birth and her present predicament.