King Dabulamanzi, the overall ruler of the kingdom, was conspicuously absent from the event. Deputy King Ncengani stood in for him. He rose from his couch to deliver the keynote address. He cleared his throat and motioned for silence as he began to address the large crowd.

Deputy King Ncengani spoke in a highly charged, polished and emotional voice: “My people, people of Gezi, this is it: the moment we have all been waiting for. We are gathered here to mark a very momentous occasion: to savour the moment of victory for one of our own gallant sons of the soil who has not only distinguished himself in battle but has also done us proud. Today I am proud to have the privilege to stand before you to celebrate a very rare and brilliant moment of courage in the history of our lives.”

At these words, the crowd erupted into wild scenes of singing and cheering.

King Ncengani then took the crowd down memory lane: “My people, you know better than I do how for time immemorial the monster lying dead in this bag has wrecked havoc in the lives of the villagers of this closely knit village community.”

King Ncengani stroked the haversack with his walking stick. The crowd craned their necks to stare curiously at the bag.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this creature was so wicked that it was like a loose cannon with no boundaries! It preyed on our people and our livestock!” King Ncengani exclaimed, while twisting his facial features into a fierce grimace, like a woman in labour.

“What is painful and even more disgusting is the fact that the creature was a sexual predator that raped our women!” King Ncengani shouted, as he reminded the crowd about how the notorious creature was believed to have sneaked into bedrooms undetected.

It had been rumoured that the beast had used the cover of darkness to lock into sexual congress with unsuspecting married women in their sleep, without them or their husbands knowing it. The power of witchcraft had been at play.
Now King Ncengani completely broke down as his voice was overcome with emotion. Tears poured out freely from his eyes and splashed onto the ground. He wiped his eyes and then continued speaking after regaining his composure: “My people! You also know as much as I do that most of the children gathered here are not our own blood. They have been fathered by this monster!”

The prostrated rank of pygmies gathered at the far end of the village grounds stirred as he pointed at them. It was widely held by the villagers that the beast was responsible for fathering strange, stout children of white pigmentation found in virtually every household. This had resulted in a high divorce rate, further fuelling anger and widening the gulf of tension that already ran high amongst married couples.

King Ncengani now spoke slowly with a guarded tone: “In my entire waking life, I’ve never seen a creature with such an unbelievable lust for sex. My people, you will recall vividly the sad journey of challenges that we have travelled through in our quest for justice. You will also recall the resolutions we adopted to address the problem we were facing.”

He then reminded the villagers that, during the monster’s reign of terror, a council of elders had met to deliberate on the passing of a resolution. A huge bounty had been offered to anyone that succeeded in capturing or killing the monster. It was required that the monster’s body be displayed in front of the gathered villagers, dead or alive. The head in particular was to be paraded and hung as a trophy in front of the village gates in order for all community members to witness the evidence of the killing with their own eyes.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m happy to say that we’ve reached a milestone, and that the trophy we’ve been hunting for has finally found a place in our cabinet,” chuckled King Ncengani. “It took the gallant exploits of this one man here with the heart of a lion to realise our dream!”

The Deputy King proudly ran his fingers down the length of Bwenjili’s head, fondling his hair. The crowd roared with a spontaneous, cheerful applause.

Meanwhile, not everyone was pleased with Bwenjili’s success story and instant rise to fame. Relaxed in his opulent palace, King Dabulamanzi – the overall ruler of the kingdom – received the news of the monster’s death with the greatest trepidation.

He was furious at how quickly Bwenjili was becoming famous. He was also jealous and unsettled by a succession plan that a council of elders was drawing up. The plan would see Deputy King Ncengani replacing him as overall King in the event that he did not attend the momentous celebration ceremony that was currently being held in honour of Bwenjili.

“Someone is crossing the line,” he muttered to himself.

There was a closely guarded secret about the beast that King Dabulamanzi had carefully kept hidden for years. The beast’s death left him completely exposed.

***

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