The Preparations Are on the Way
The bellowing and bleating sounds overwhelmed the conversation by Seth’s father and his three guests. Never before had they seen such conglomerate spectrum of different animals with different colors, shapes and sizes all in one place, all in one house! As you can imagine this intrigued the little lad who saw wonder even in the tiniest of things and who very much knew that all that livestock was his to inherit as his father always made it a point to tell and reaffirm it to him. “Seth my child me and your mother are old now and there cometh a day that you shall be lord over this house after me and all these field and livestock shall be yours to own. Seth my son make it a point that you never forget how me and your mother raised you to fear and honor your God. Please, therefore, my son never be likened unto Solomon who inherited the Kingdom of God and that of his father but chose to follow foreign gods but be true and bare the Cross lest God takes all that He has blessed me and your mother with, for all these years.”
As always when Seth saw the cattle coming in for the night or grazing in the field he would always ask his father, father what is the name of that cow there? Most of the cows were named in English after places and politicians that Seth’s father worked in and his fellow comrades of the revolution back in exile. There were names such as Nelson, named after Nelson Mandela; Helen after Helen Suzman, Samora after the first democratically elected President of Mozambique Samora Machel and list was very long as you could imagine, but Seth knew most of them.
This Seth’s father did in order to teach his son the history of his people and the adventures he had as an exiled freedom fighter. Seth also knew that whenever he spoke to his father he had to speak English and there was no other way about it. Even if there were visitors, which was very rare, or even when he did not know how to express certain words or feelings, he had to speak English or run to his mom and seek the answer. Today was no exception, Seth conversed radical political ideologies with unparalleled zeal and sophistication; that is for an 8-year-old. Like an educated Englishman Seth went on telling his dad Walter Sisulu was… This astonished and puzzled all the men round-about the fire because Seth was not only an 8-year-old kid but never even knew the doorstep of a school classroom let alone see a person of English descent of which he immaculately sounded like. This was odd even for the shepherds, they had heard trivial rumors about it but who could entertain such a thought. Yes everyone knew that like his brothers before him they all had funny names just like their cattle.
They knew that Seth was born to parents who were of severe age which was new and unheard of, even in the neighboring villages. It was said that the parents loved the boy so much that they always kept a close leash on him and never sent him too far, let alone cross the river to play with other children. This is one of the reasons Seth was never allowed to go to school because of young children, boys and girls have to cross many rivers and thick forests where decapitated bodies and limbs would often be found. Children and adults disappeared never to be found while the rivers were often full with narrow crossings and to top that off they were infested with crocodiles which could be seen daily, yawning and tanning on the river banks.
To be continued...
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