has her sharp knife, and as she holds it in her hands, she feels some unknown force take over her body. She remembers her late abusive husband and recalls that she had held a knife like this when she, with her two daughters, stabbed him to death. That happened many years ago, but right now, as she is holding the knife in her hands, she hungers again for the blood of a man. She calls forcibly for Muntukabani to come out, and when he doesn’t, she breaks open the door and enters. This is not a difficult task since the only locking mechanism is a bent four-inch nail.
MaDuma and Belina are next to MaShundu as she charges to the corner of the room where Muntukabani is standing helplessly with a stick. The three women get to him at the same time and seize him.
“You filthy piece of shit!” Belina says, and hits him on his back with a brick she is carrying.
“Leave me alone!” Muntukabani does not tire of kicking as he is taken outside the gate of his homestead. By now there are more spectators. When he is outside the gates he says something that makes many people laugh, and yet more feel disgusted. “I want to go home to my mother!”
This sounds to MaShandu like saying I want to go and sleep with my mother or I want to have sex with a dog in front of her. She throws him down violently and holds him with her knee. “Take off his trousers,MaDuma! Faster!” MaShandu’s eyes have become frighteningly red. She does her job so sharply and neatly that it is only after she has finished that she thinks about the horror of holding a man’s private parts.
Muntukabani listens for the pain but does not feel it. He is beginning to think that maybe they did not cut him when the agony attacks him with so strong a force that the scream he makes is more of a cry. It looks as if the world has suddenly become dimmer and seems to be upside down.
MaShandu is breathing noisily as she watches the blood ooze out of Muntukabani. The other women are shouting as the man writhes in pain.
“Yes! So that all the men will know how we are when we have administered an enema!”
“Well done. MaShandu, you have made him an in-between. He is neither man nor woman now.”
“I think MaShandu should keep them because she cut him and did it very well at that. Shaka would have offered her a herd of cattle as a reward for her bravery.”
“Yes! Let’s reward her with them.”
It is about half past two in the afternoon when MaDuma finally arrives home. She has a mixture of feelings she cannot describe and is sure that she has never felt like this before. She tells her husband about the events of the day and he responds that he has already heard. Hearing of someone’s testicles being removed frightens Priest so much that he holds his own protectively whenever he thinks about it. But the fact that Muntukabani was having sex with a dog troubles him even more.
“Imagine if she got pregnant,” he says fifteen minutes later.
“Who?” MaDuma asks, puzzled.
“The dog.”
“She would have to find the father and tell him,” MaDuma tries to say it as a joke but there is no humour in her.
12
Bongani has spent the weeks since his beating by Nomsa as a worried man. His wife has shouted at him before and on many occasions she has burnt his things, but she has never before laid her hands on him. He has always known secretly that, if it came to a full confrontation as it did that Wednesday, he was likely to lose because Nomsa is tall and tough. She is also left-handed. As a young schoolgirl she demonstrated her fighting abilities many times. Every time her fighting talents were spoken about, the fact of her left-handedness featured very strongly as an explanation for her rare but useful talent. Bongani, on the other hand, has always known himself to be a coward.
His main concern now is the fact that it has become too difficult, if not impossible, for him to pursue what he sees as the struggle for his manly right. He begins to construct a way forward.
MaDuma and Belina are next to MaShundu as she charges to the corner of the room where Muntukabani is standing helplessly with a stick. The three women get to him at the same time and seize him.
“You filthy piece of shit!” Belina says, and hits him on his back with a brick she is carrying.
“Leave me alone!” Muntukabani does not tire of kicking as he is taken outside the gate of his homestead. By now there are more spectators. When he is outside the gates he says something that makes many people laugh, and yet more feel disgusted. “I want to go home to my mother!”
This sounds to MaShandu like saying I want to go and sleep with my mother or I want to have sex with a dog in front of her. She throws him down violently and holds him with her knee. “Take off his trousers,MaDuma! Faster!” MaShandu’s eyes have become frighteningly red. She does her job so sharply and neatly that it is only after she has finished that she thinks about the horror of holding a man’s private parts.
Muntukabani listens for the pain but does not feel it. He is beginning to think that maybe they did not cut him when the agony attacks him with so strong a force that the scream he makes is more of a cry. It looks as if the world has suddenly become dimmer and seems to be upside down.
MaShandu is breathing noisily as she watches the blood ooze out of Muntukabani. The other women are shouting as the man writhes in pain.
“Yes! So that all the men will know how we are when we have administered an enema!”
“Well done. MaShandu, you have made him an in-between. He is neither man nor woman now.”
“I think MaShandu should keep them because she cut him and did it very well at that. Shaka would have offered her a herd of cattle as a reward for her bravery.”
“Yes! Let’s reward her with them.”
It is about half past two in the afternoon when MaDuma finally arrives home. She has a mixture of feelings she cannot describe and is sure that she has never felt like this before. She tells her husband about the events of the day and he responds that he has already heard. Hearing of someone’s testicles being removed frightens Priest so much that he holds his own protectively whenever he thinks about it. But the fact that Muntukabani was having sex with a dog troubles him even more.
“Imagine if she got pregnant,” he says fifteen minutes later.
“Who?” MaDuma asks, puzzled.
“The dog.”
“She would have to find the father and tell him,” MaDuma tries to say it as a joke but there is no humour in her.
12
Bongani has spent the weeks since his beating by Nomsa as a worried man. His wife has shouted at him before and on many occasions she has burnt his things, but she has never before laid her hands on him. He has always known secretly that, if it came to a full confrontation as it did that Wednesday, he was likely to lose because Nomsa is tall and tough. She is also left-handed. As a young schoolgirl she demonstrated her fighting abilities many times. Every time her fighting talents were spoken about, the fact of her left-handedness featured very strongly as an explanation for her rare but useful talent. Bongani, on the other hand, has always known himself to be a coward.
His main concern now is the fact that it has become too difficult, if not impossible, for him to pursue what he sees as the struggle for his manly right. He begins to construct a way forward.
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