Mhlakaza, the double Agent

The winter of 1850 was particularly cold and devastating to the crop, and the droughts that came with it hit the regions of Rhini (Grahamstown, Albany) and Qhaqhiwa (Uitenhage, Bethersdal) with tremendous effect such that subsistence farming was not a way of living no more. Food was scarce and the colonial situation in the Cape Province meant that the British monopolized most of the pastoral and grazing lands. In a nutshell, food and water were a point of contestation. I, Mhlakaza found myself in the company of British missionary envoy, Archdeacon Merriman of Grahamstown. I was utilized as an attendant(guide, translator, porter and fire-builder) on many visitation journeys, but soon I’d realize that my purpose was alternate, as we travelled together frequently reading the bible discussing theology and African cultural beliefs as we walked from one parish to the next. We were the local divinely motley crew. After the capture and brutal slaughter of my King, Hintsa the Great, by Colonel George Grey, I was taken a prisoner of war by the British. I was high advisor to the kings’ counsel and also a friend of the paramount lion of the Gcaleka clan. Little did I know that this would make me prime candidate to serve as the “Achilles Heel” of my nation in years to come because of my high ranking credentials traditionally. “Goliath, time has come for you to head back to Gcaleka land. I cannot support having you here as a servant or as a guest. The famine is dictator”, Merriman commanded me as always with conviction that is beyond my query. Where am I to go mlungu wam? “My people have long forgotten me, the kings’ council no longer recognizes me. I am an elderly man waiting to pass on to purgatory “, I pleaded like a wet dog after a storm trying to get inside its masters abode . Nonetheless, I had to migrate back, back to the hidden paths that the wanderers and exiles from the north who settled in Gcaleka land had safely utilised whilst being smuggled by Reverend Ayliff after the kings mauling. He was delivering them to be buffer settlements between colonials and “warlike” inhabitants of the Kaffarian district. Flash Story conversation between John Merriman and Mhlakaza: JM: The primary stages of your instruction have lapsed. Now you must go fulfil your mission. WG: More like I should fulfil my treachery. I should have known that no settler from glacier contoured lands beyond the equator could ever share humanly interactions with a man without having ulterior motives. My people, descendants of Gondo, will prevail. I will never willingly betray iSizwe samaTshawe. JM: Oh, But you will, by will or instinct. See we have been studying every essence of being a savage kaffir. Your pagan beliefs and backward sometimes incestuous manner. We shall infiltrate and erase your customs as you know them. We know you! NOTE:This is a fictional articulation of factual events