‘I will tell you a story,’ Msimanga continued. ‘After the story, I will ask you one question. Just one question. Then, I will let you sleep. First thing in the morning, I will ask you to answer the question, and if you answer it correctly, you can marry my daughter. It is that simple.’

There it was. The catch.

‘If you answer the question incorrectly, Raftopoulos, the Greek travelling salesman, will be here to fetch you first thing in the morning to take you to Krum’s Place, and we will ask you never to come back here under any pretext or pretence. Now, while all those who have come before you have failed, you should not take that to mean you will fail too – even if you did fight for the British in a war that was none of your business,’ Msimanga concluded.

After a hearty repast, everyone in the homestead, both young and old, gathered around the fire to listen to Msimanga’s story, even though it was obvious that they had heard it many times before.

The story went as follows. At around the time that the British were building the nearby dam, which was some twenty-odd years earlier, since it was also the time that Mazibuko, Msimanga’s wife, was expecting the child that would be Loveness, Msimanga’s best friend, Zwakele Mkhize, went to a beer drink one night and was never seen again – alive or dead. The best trackers were employed to look for him, and none of them found a trace that led to anything substantial. Expert help was needed and Msimanga himself sought the services of the best San tracker, but not even he could find any trace of Zwakele Mkhize.

To give context to the story, it had to be known that the Mkhize lineage had been given the chieftaincy by King Mzilikazi himself, but that because of Zwakele’s father’s enthusiastic prohibition of all things British in his village, the British were now looking to change the lineage from the Mkhizes to the Msimangas. It was true that Msimanga’s father had participated in the uprising against the British, but he had been charged with insurrection and had spent five years in prison, which had not only changed him, but converted him to Christianity and all things British. He had even gone so far as to have all his children, boys and girls, educated at the mission school that had been built near Krum’s Place.

The British liked how very … amenable Msimanga’s father had become, and when Chief Mkhize died, they took steps to change the lineage of the chieftaincy. Msimanga’s father, although not altogether averse to the proposal, felt himself too old a man to start learning how to rule a people, and put forward his son’s name in his stead. The British quickly corrected him, reminding him that it was the king in England who ruled the people, and that the headman’s function was merely to guide his people towards being better subjects of the king. Having said that, the British did not mind having Msimanga’s son as headman as long as he proved himself to be very like his father.