Granny-next-door (her village nickname is very rude, Mme said we could just call her Granny-next-door) kept telling Mme that the reason Papa was staying alive for so long even when he was in such pain was because our ancestors were still paving the way for him in their land. Apparently there is a special way to be when one arrives in that land. She also said that although we could neither see nor hear Papa talk to them, she was sure it was happening because the ancestors speak in a language we cannot understand. I asked Mistress Maluleke about ancestors. She just said I must wait till I am older: “Understanding ancestors comes with age and maturity, child.” Most old people in my village talk about ancestors a lot, but they don’t want us present when they have these conversations.

Now back to Papa. He passed away six months after the ambulance dropped him off. Many neybars I heard talk to Mme said she was very brave to nurse him until his last day when the hospital could have taken care of him very well. But Mme had one belief; if the hospitals in Johannesburg had sent him home, our hospital in town couldn’t do anything better. It’s the longest time I remember spending with Papa. As a mining man he only came home for the Christmas and Easter holidays. There were years when he did not come during the Easter holidays because he had no money.

One of those years was the year my sister was born. Mme said he had to buy extra food and so many baby clothes that he simply could not afford money to come home. Mme also said this was the life of all mining men in our village. They hardly ever saw their families because there is very little money paid to them. It takes a long time to dig gold, diamonds and coal from the stomach of the earth. Sometimes they could dig for months without finding even the smallest piece. The bosses paid the miners only when they dig enough gold and diamonds.

Mme always prayed that Papa could find a job in a gold or diamond mine because the mining men were better paid in those mines. Papa was in a coal mine that was notorious for paying very little because South Africa did not sell coal to other countries.

I hope I have not bored you with this long beginning, full of recent history. Mistress Maluleke said I must “paint pictures” when I tell this story. Our lives depend on it.

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Tell us: Do you believe in ancestors? If you do, what part do you think they play in people’s lives?