Mmeli arrives home and goes to his wife’s hut. As is the Zulu custom, the pregnant women stay in separate huts. Mmeli hugs his wife.

“How is he,” Mmeli asks after their unborn child.

“Who said it is a ‘him’? I want a ‘her’,” says Mbali, his ‘flower’.

“I want a strong man to continue my legacy,” Mmeli says.

“Boys are mean and childish, like their fathers,” teases Mbali mischievously.

“I will chase you around this hut like a strong man,” says Mmeli as he starts chasing Mbali around the hut.

Suddenly Gogo, Mmeli’s mother, interrupts their play.

“Mmeli, what is this?” Gogo complains. “You play around with a pregnant woman. It is not our custom,” Gogo reprimands her son. “And you! You lead your husband astray with your nonsense!”

Mmeli tries to bring his mother round with sweet words, but she won’t budge.

“This girl is not right for you, not like the Zwide’s Sinenhlanhla, that beautiful girl.”

Gogo only says Sinenhlanhla is beautiful because she comes from a wealthy family and has status. But Mbali apologizes for her lack of decorum, and Gogo hesitantly accepts.

Lunga, Mmeli’s six-year-old daughter, comes rushing into the hut and grabs her father’s thigh.

“Baba, Baba, Baba! I saw you at the banquet. It was amazing!” She is out of breath and so excited. “I saw you and uncle Manqoba, and the Nkosi, and the dancers…”

Gogo looks disapprovingly at Lunga, then at her parents. “Where was her mother or father?”

“She went with the neighbours. I asked them to take Lunga as I was tired and had cramps,” says Mbali.

Gogo does not want to hear any explanations.

Mmeli cheerily waves goodnight to his wife and daughter when Gogo isn’t looking, and then leads his mother out of the hut and back to hers, so she can sleep.

***

Tell us: Do any of these traditions and beliefs about good behaviour still apply today?