Indaba, my children

Indaba, my children (1964) by Mutwa, Vusamazulu Credo A definitive compendium of African myth and folktale, retold in rich, vibrant prose, Indaba, My Children is a stunning literary and ethnographic achievement.

Quotes

 * Her willpower shattered against the rocks of desire and went flying into a million shards of rainbow-coloured crystal
 * page 99
 * What deadlier betrayer is there than one's own body? What fouler enemy had the human being than desire that flows in his own veins? Marimba was lost.
 * Page 99
 * There is something known as hope, and that something has the habit of shining brightest when a man gets most hopelessly lost in the forest of fear and despair. Hope is a false star shining brightest on the darkest night of one's life.
 * Page 108
 * Give a Masai a stone and he will hit something or somebody with it. Give him any piece of wood and he will turn it into a club with which to brain you.
 * Page 112
 * When one has slandered an innocent man for many days with intent to destroy him one becomes scared when one learns that all one's lies have been exposed and the victim's name cleared of all the slime one hurled at it.
 * 119
 * Lo! is it not said in our Words of Wisdom that 'evil hunts and destroys itself?'
 * 121
 * I, and the rest of my shackled race, led our lives like the beasts of burden we were; it was of no use for us to speculate or to dream, because daydreams make a slave's life more intolerable than the chains around his ankles and neck.
 * 159-160
 * The only purpose of Life is Death. A man is born and before he dies he gets the opportunity to ensure that others after him will also be born and die. You may deceive yourself by thinking that there is more to life than birth, growth, mating, old age and death. But, sooner or later, Naked Truth makes itself apparent.
 * Page 174
 * There were, there are, and always will be, those with feelings for others.
 * Page 190
 * My children, you cannot keep on storing up the wrath of a river without that river sweeping you along.
 * Page 208
 * There is nothing more saddening than a man deliberately blinding himself to the shimmering lake of reality. There is nothing more pathetic than the sight of a man who, on beholding a frowning mountain in the purple distance yonder, still insists that the mountain is not there - a man who, though standing knee-deep in a roaring river, still insists with stubborn conviction that he is standing on a sand dune in the Ka-Lahari.
 * Page 211
 * There is no rascal, however clever, who can be so clever as to lick the small of his own back.
 * Page 235
 * Strong are the Laws of the Tribe, but stronger still the laws of Nature.
 * Page 261
 * Fools are born to be tools of the wise.
 * Page 268
 * The gains of quarrelling fools become food for the monkeys...
 * Page 268
 * The Universe is no place for Perfection and in the eyes of the Great Spirit, Perfection is as bad as Evil. Once a race has reached Ultimate Perfection it automatically loses its purpose - like a runner who stops when he has reached his goal as there is no purpose in continuing. ** Page 297
 * The Universe is no place for Perfection and in the eyes of the Great Spirit, Perfection is as bad as Evil. Once a race has reached Ultimate Perfection it automatically loses its purpose - like a runner who stops when he has reached his goal as there is no purpose in continuing. ** 297
 * Evil harms only those who look for it.
 * Page 298
 * When the bugle of pleasure calls from within the kraal of Life, I shall go in first - but when the drum of death groans from within the kraal, please, Oh Life, would you care to go first.
 * Page 308
 * You are beholding the knot in the Cycle of Life, and it is here that you experience the truth of the philosophy that Life is but Death and Death is but Life. One only lives to die, and dies to live again.
 * Page 309
 * The moment of glory for an evil man is very short indeed.
 * Page 312
 * Oh wanderer, lost in the Valley of Life, remember that nothing is ever what it seems to be, and seeing is not always believing.
 * Page 315
 * Great men, low men, fools and knaves Chiefs or peasants, one and all:Though thou boastest Thou art Thou,Thou and all the rest are toys,Dancing, capering, rising, falling,In the mighty hands of Fate.
 * Page 327-328
 * Do dirty pots bring forth clean food? Do not the mortals say that rotten seed begets evil plants?
 * Page 341
 * Vengeance is the sweetest and the headiest mead in creation. Drink from the Claypot of Revenge and drink deep! Happy ... Happy are they who perish while avenging themselves on a hated foe! Happy is the one who will die first.
 * Page 344
 * So the great Lumukanda loves his own creation! Does a sane potter ever love the pot she has made? Does a wood carver ever love the image he has whittled out of the unfeeling ebony? Tell me, Oh my creator, my god and my husband, what is Love? Love is nothing but a euphemism for animal desire. Love is what a man feels for a woman before he takes her to the love mat. Love is only a form of hunger: a yearning to possess and to keep, and the interdependence of male and female beings.
 * Page 375
 * It is fascinating to see just how differently men feel the night before about their coming ordeal. The words so dear to beggarly story tellers: 'brave and fearless warriors' are but a putrid myth. No mortal is ever truly brave in battle and the picture often etched in our minds of a fearless and cool-headed warrior slaying a thousand of the foe is so much make-believe.
 * Page 387
 * On the eve of a battle a warrior is either as scared as a wet kaross or he is resigned to death, but determined to do as much damage to the enemy as possible before being killed. Very often this strange resignation to death and a raging desire to kill as many of the enemy before being killed, has been mistaken for courage. Once one is resigned to death and ready to receive it with open arms, one can still live to die peacefully in old age.
 * Page 387-388
 * We human beings, we ordinary mortals, should thank the spirits for the fact that one day we shall die. We should be thankful that we are not immortal. Life is a futile, senseless thing. Death is not evil; it is the ultimate relief from the pain and dreariness of life. A mortal man can at least struggle hard in the course of life to win himself fame and renown one way or another, so that when he dies men will at least remember his name, which is the only victory that one can glean from the stark futility which is life. But what does an immortal gain from Life? Nothing at all! Tribal wisdom says that all men should try hard to make their names famous for long after they are dead. I would rather lead a brief life and leave a name behind, than an endless one in lonely obscurity.
 * Page 389
 * An elephant's memory is as long as the Path of Life itself. Its invincible anger lasts for a hundred years at least..
 * Page 487
 * We all eat and enjoy sweet things - like honey and ripe plantains. We enjoy chewing sweet cane, and we know that even sweetness can be revolting if there is too much of it. The same applies to beauty - if carried beyond the limit of its extreme it can be more revolting than ugliness.
 * Page 493
 * A man who lives with his soul and who lets his soul, rather than his brain, guide him, is better equipped to face the mysterious and supernatural things, because the soul understands these things while they bewilder the brain. The brain drags them into the quicksands of materialism.
 * Page 612
 * Where mind is master, Death recedes with all the terrors normally associated with it.
 * Page 617
 * The Wise Ones of our tribes say that the human race is such a troublesome and quarrelsome nuisance on this earth because people are born upside down. If Man were born right side up he would have his feet more firmly planted on the ground and he would have less rubbish in his head. And his head is full of rubbish - foolish notions, desires and motives that bring a trail of sadness, death and disaster.
 * Page 689