Chaka

Through Dutton’s translation, not only Europe became aware of, and benefited from, Mofolo’s masterpiece, but indeed Africa itself. We often lose sight of the fact that translations of this nature facilitate communication within Africa as well

When a person is said to have died, he is not dead, he is merely transformed, the breath of life having left this covering of flesh and migrated to another land which shines more gloriously than the sun, and he goes and lives there exactly as he had done before, as you yourself can indeed testify to some extent because you heard for yourself your own father’s voice when he spoke to you, and it was exactly as you had known it. He who has worked hard in this world will reap a rich harvest there; one who has done nothing here will receive nothing there, because everything a person does in this world the sun takes with it when it sets and carries it to that great land of the living whom you regard as dead, and refer to as the dead; and all these things will wait for him there, growing and increasing like cows which calve repeatedly. But the deeds of he who has worked little do not grow, but rather diminish and become less, just as it is with someone who has sown little, for the handful of sorghum which he obtains at harvest time is lost in the soil of the threshin

Bayede means he who stands between God and man,

Bayede means he who stands between God and man, it means the junior god through whom the great God rules the kings of the earth and their nations.

Chaka remained a bachelor till the day of his death.

That was Chaka’s third act of great significance.

­mands.

“The greeting I have been told to teach you is BAYEDE

spear also helped to confirm that belief because its handle had been made from timber that had been fortified with medicines of witchcraft, and was thus full of evil power, and it performed wonders.

mber that among all the things that are held in high regard by the black peoples, there is none held dearer than marriage; very often when other things are being evaluated, marriage is kept apart from them, for marriage is life itself.

that?” “MaZulu! It is because I am big, I am like that same cloud that just rumbled, before which no one can stand. Likewise, when I look upon other nations, they tremble, and the one upon whom I pounce is wiped out, like Zwide. Zulu! MaZulu!

Zulu! MaZulu!” (The Sky! People of the Sky!)