THE LEGEND OF KIWAKAAZI

Kinwa was lying on the ground. He was badly injured and bleeding from his mouth. His entire body was also covered with cuts and bruises. He held a long sword in his left hand and was clutching his chest with his right hand. There were dead bodies and blood everywhere. Tete was lying far away from him; he could not tell whether he was dead or just unconscious. He looked up and saw his uncle kneeling before a wicked looking man. His eyes looked very dangerous and he had a mean looking face. He was very muscular, tall and bare-chested. He lifted his sword and muttered some words to his uncle while he raised his sword. Kinwa let go off his sword and stretched out his arm in attempt to stop the man. The pain in his chest was unbearable and he could not speak. The sword met his uncle’s neck. It separated Kelu’s head from his body and spilled his blood gruesomely. Kinwa looking on tried calling out to his uncle but had lost his voice. It was as if he was talking from space and no one could hear him.

Suddenly he saw himself standing on the battle field. Everyone and everything had disappeared. He was looking round and wondering what just happened when he heard footsteps. He noticed someone walking directly towards him from a distance. Judging by the way the person moved, he guessed it was a girl. He strained his eyes to have a better look when suddenly she was only a few steps away from him

She wore the usual clothes for women at the time; something to cover the breast and a short skirt. Like many girls, her stomach was flat and she wore a golden belly-button. She got close and stood facing him. She was attractive and for some reason looked happy to meet Kinwa.

He asked for her name but she did not answer. He asked a bunch of other questions and she still remained silent. She looked at him intently in the eyes as if she was trying to find something there. Kinwa felt uncomfortable. He looked away and was about to repeat his questions when she finally said said “I am happy to finally meet you but there is not enough time. There is something I must show you.” She grabbed his right arm and their surroundings changed. They were back in the real world moving among men and women like ghosts.

A group of children between the ages of eight to ten years were running around in circles and were happy doing just that. They played for a while until it was late and they all left for their various homes. The beautiful girl focused on one particular boy in the group. They followed this boy to his home. The boy was clearly not a kaazi. He lived in a big beautiful house with many rooms. They moved away from the boy and entered a big hall where a number of men and women dressed in priestly clothing gathered. Their eyes were closed and each one of them had crossed their legs and had a staff.

Two elderly men and an elderly woman sat on a slightly raised platform. The woman sat between the two men. Their staffs rested on their right sides. The man sitting on the left hand side of the woman had a spiral symbol on his forehead. His staff had an eagle which had spread its wings ready to fly on one end of what looked like a long stick. The man on the right hand side of the woman also had a really long beard and had a circle drawn on his forehead. His staff had on one end the face of a lion carved out of wood on it. The elderly woman had an eye tattooed on her forehead and her staff had a stool on one side.   They were all dressed in the same way; wearing long white robes with evenly distributed black squares. The others sitting in a circle and slightly beneath the top three wore only one type of color; the males wore black robes and the females wore white.

The man with the spiral symbol on his forehead addressed the gathering first. He spoke like a politician trying to convince the electorate to give him their votes. He was eloquent and charismatic. The bottom line of his speech was that, the priests and priestesses gathered should come together. With a united front, they can convince King Goma to pursuit Zakaru’s dream of uniting the world through war. He said “this was the unspoken command of their ancestor to the Hanfus before he died.”

The man with the circle on his forehead insisted that Zakaru’s dream was not world unity but rather world peace. The world Zakaru lived in was filled with conflict. It was like a jungle where the strong bullied and had the weak for breakfast, lunch and supper. To stop all the conflicts and breach the gap, Zakaru decided to unite the world under his rule. He said “we all remember how Zakaru died. He abandoned that goal later. So why should we pursuit it? The world is peaceful now. Please, let us leave it as it is.”

Then the woman in the middle spoke; “she said we have heard both sides so let us take a break now while we decide what to do. I hope we make the best decision.”

However, what happened did not look like a break at all. One priest and one priestess moved from either side. They greeted each other. This was a special greeting which involved the meeting and touching of staffs. Their staffs had solid spheres on one end. They then turned and bowed before the three senior priests and priestess. When they turned to face each other, they became serious and engaged in some priestly spar. Before this, the others stepped back and while holding out their staffs the two in the middle were surrounded by a barrier which was made up of light of different colors.

The sparring was beautiful. When the male priest pointed his staff at the female priest, a green light will be shot at her and the female priest shot blue light at her opponent. This was not all; the female priest could multiply in number and the male priest could harden any part of his body. Thus whiles the female avoided most of his attacks by either disappearing or increasing in number; he hardened and also disappeared within the barrier. After a while, the elderly priestess lifted an arm; the sparring stopped and everyone returned to their seats.

The woman spoke and asked the group to vote either in favor of using their powers to pursuit Zakaru’s dream of uniting the world through war or not. Majority voted and their decision was unanimous; the world is alright the way it is.  No need for wars and violence.

They moved away from that meeting and followed the man with the spiral tattoo on his forehead. He entered a room and was greeted by the boy they had followed earlier. The man hugged him and started playing with the boy like he was a child. He tickled the boy and allowed the boy to tickle him. They did this on the wooden floor of his big hall. They both laughed out loudly and looked cheerful. They continued to play until a woman came in and scolded them both. She commanded them to stop playing and they did. She had a serious face which suddenly changed when she lifted the boy and started the game all over again. The man joined in and they continued to play and laugh – one small happy family.

 Their surroundings changed again. This time they appeared at the royal palace. They saw the same priest with the spiral tattoo on his forehead trying to convince a king and his elders to pursuit the same old Zakaru’s dream. He talked and talked and still the king will not agree to his proposal. He left the meeting looking very angry. He kicked and smashed a few things on his way out of the royal court with his staff.

Their environment changed and they saw the man now performing a ritual. It was horrible; placed in a perfect circle around a big, old tree were twelve bodies – six men and six women. Their necks had been slit and their blood flowed on the ground in a definite path towards the tree. The man was mumbling some words and kept his eyes on the full moon brightening the sky. The ritual was being performed around midnight, deep in the forest. When all the blood from the victims was drained from their bodies, it began to climb the tree. It was as if the tree had veins through which the blood could be seen rising. It was distributed to every part of the tree.

After the blood had been distributed around every part of the tree, he pointed his staff at the tree. The tree started to burn.  The fire was intense and consumed the tree completely in a matter of minutes reducing the ginormous tree to ashes; all this while the man kept on mumbling some words. Then he said “phatu, phatu, lahi”. I think it meant “emerge out of the ashes”. The ground opened and swallowed all the ashes. When it opened again, it regurgitated some very special beads; red, black and grey were the colors that formed these beads. Four of the beads were black, four were red and the remaining four were grey. The beads were arranged such that the colors alternated.

He carried the beads quickly towards his home. When he arrived, he called for his son and placed the beads around the young boy’s waist. Then after repeating some weird words, the beads disappeared. There was loud knocking on his door. At first he did not want to open the door. He commanded the woman from before to take the boy and run using a back door. The woman obeyed and in an instant they left the room and had completely disappeared. He finally opened the door and pointed his staff at the people gathered outside his door.

The elderly priestess from earlier stepped forward. She explained that violence was not necessary. He should come with them and she promises he will not be harmed. The man smiled, pointed his staff and shot a red light at her; she neither moved nor lifted her staff. Before the light hit her, it just disappeared. She looked at him for a while and closed her eyes. The eye on her forehead opened and the man was hit by a red light disintegrating him completely.

The beautiful girl then told Kinwa that what he saw about his uncle was not a dream but a vision of what will happen if they join the war. She explained that the boy in his second vision was Dofa. His father was a high priest of the highest order in Hanfusu. He had a great desire to perpetuate the work of Zakaru. He first tried searching for the sikan nifanum but never found it. He then decided to convince the other priests and priestesses to join him but failed. Without the support of his fellow priests and priestesses, he tried to convince King Goma but that also did not work.

No one really knew why he was so bent on following the same path as Zakaru. But he had clearly gone mad with that desire. To achieve this dream, he created a warrior whom was almost invincible – his own son –  by sacrificing six men and women of the same age at midnight on a night of a full moon using the power of the great old tree. The power that will be released by this sacrifice on such a night will be so great it will not go unnoticed. But the purpose will be unknown because he planned on dying before they got it out of him.

He did not even stop there; he charmed the beads so that they will remain invisible to the human eye until the boy was ready to fulfill his destiny. He identified and hypnotized a Paraka to fall in love with his wife after his death so that Dofa will be raised a Paraka (warlord). Diibe Sinkala and Dofa met and became great friends. Dofa decided to help his friend become King and together, they defeated the royal family.

The beads he created from the lives he sacrificed protect Dofa from any and all forms of weapons fashioned by any man or woman. The girl said “Kinwa, you possess great powers but not even your powers can stop him. You need to find it; a weapon. It is the only thing that can cut through the beads and kill Dofa. Without it, Gamufie will perish and the world will be doomed for the next three ages. This is your destiny and you must fulfill it.”

Kinwa then asked the girl “where do I find this weapon”. She answered “go to the village of Nsoo and look for Nsobuo. When you close your eyes and you cannot open it anymore, then you will find it”. “Where is the meaning of that riddle?!” shouted Kinwa.

“Kinwa…! Kinwa!” shouted Tete. Tete woke his brother up before he could get more information out of his guide. “Are you alright? It seems you were having a bad dream,” said Tete. Kinwa said “no, it was not a dream. It was a vision about Dofa’s secret. We must warn father (Kelu) at once.”

So they tried warning Kelu but he did not listen. He was rather upset and called Kinwa a coward.