Once upon a time, there lived a man in the village of Mpilo, by the name Mbila. Mpilo residents mainly depended on farming, barely dry land cultivation. One year there was a terrible drought in the area. Food was so scarce that the people of Mpilo went begging or trading for food to faraway places.
Mbila, “The Fisherman”, as local people commonly called him, resorted to fishing as an alternative source of food. So one day he went down fishing on a very hot day. It was a good day for fishing and he caught a great deal of fish. Mbila was happy that he had got his family food for the day. He was expecting a lovely welcome from his wife at home.
Before carrying his bag of fish home, Mbila thought of washing himself in the cool water of the lively river. As he was enjoying himself in the cool water, rolling and immersing in the shallow clearing near the reeds. Mbila didn’t notice what was going on behind him.
A man, unnoticed, tiptoed to Mbila’s clothes.
“At last I have got some clothes. This is the chance. No mistake,” he said to himself.
No sooner did he grab Mbila’s clothes than he rolled them into a ball and started running. Mbila only noticed him when he was about halfway up the river bank. Thanks to some instincts that prompted him to throw his eyes where he had left his clothes. The way he was dressed, and of course the fact that he just grabbed somebody’s clothes and started running, left no doubt that he was insane.
The Fisherman was so shocked that he didn’t know what to do. Poor Mbila, in total confusion, quickly threw his fresh harvest of fish onto the sand. He tried to wrap around his lower half the sack but second thoughts told him he was wasting time. The mad man was already at the top of the river bank.
Mbila dropped the empty sack and ran up the bank. He took three, four, five quick steps, stopped briefly, indecisively, and then ran back to grab the empty sack. He ran up the river bank, chasing the already vanished mad man.
Nude as he was born, with the empty sack in his hand. Mbila sped as fast as his muscular legs could allow him and soon had the mad man in sight. When he looked back and saw Mbila fly after him, the mad man fuelled his body and swept the ground as fast as he could.
Glancing behind, over his shoulder, the mad man saw how quickly Mbila was closing the gap between them.
He turned and made for the bushes. Mbila followed suit, his seeming not to touch the ground.
In the jungle, the two seemed like hare and dog. Mbila was jumping over shrubs, logs and other barriers that he came across in an attempt to outrun and catch the fleeing man. Drama at its best; the mad man dodged around trees and shrubs, got caught by the entanglements of the thick bushes but never fell down. At every moment Mbila was trying to scare the mad man so that he could possibly drop the clothes that he had dearly longed to get.
Mbila was breathing right at the back of the mad man’s head, when fortune favoured the fleeing man. Mbila had his foot caught by creeping plants, and failing to get balance, he fell down on the dusty ground of the jungle.
Mbila didn’t lie down; not a moment. “Oh, no, ooh no”, Mbila said as he tried to free his leg quickly enough. He rolled twice, thrice and abruptly jumped to his feet to continue the drama that had an uncertain ending.
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Tell us what you think: Do you think Mbila will get his clothes? What do you think will happen next?