Mbali smiles as she thinks of the sudden changes happening in her life. It all seems like a dream. Hope has tiptoed back into her life. In a few days she will get married to Prince Manqoba, the son of King Bhungane. Her life is working out perfectly, but she is leaving her younger sister Qhamkile behind and that sours her happiness a bit.

Mbali and Qhamkile lost their parents at a young age. They lived with their loving grandmother after their parents died, but that only lasted five years before their grandmother also passed away. The Sthole orphans were passed on from one relative to the next until they settled at their uncle’s home in rural Bhamshela. Their uncle works on the mines in Joburg. He comes home once every two months. For most of the time they live with his wife, MaKheswa, who doesn’t have a heart for raising children. She clicks her tongue when she sees Mbali lying on her belly on the bed.

“Wow! The queen is in bed picking her nails! Is this how you will conduct yourself when you get married to Prince Manqoba? Don’t you dare embarrass us with your laziness at the royal palace!” says MaKheswa.

“I’m sorry, Aunty. I was catching my breath after fetching water. I’m tired, I think I might be coming down with the flu,” says Mbali shyly.

“Don’t tell me you are pregnant already? You need to slow down, girl! Go get firewood. Stop being lazy, otherwise you’ll catch an early death like your mother!”

Mbali takes some rope and heads out to the forest. She can feel tears itching behind her eyes. It hurts to hear people talking bad about her mother, who was the most loving person in her life. It hurts that MaKheswa desecrates her memory every chance she gets.

Mbali is a true African beauty. She is shaped like an hourglass and has fine, spotless, dark skin. She hears twigs crunching behind her as she collects firewood, and turns to the ever smiling face of Prince Manqoba.

“How did you know I was here?” says Mbali.

“I saw you leaving your home. I was coming to see you, so I followed. My wife to be has to be protected in the forest,” says Manqoba.

“I can’t wait for us to get married, Manqoba.”

“I can just see us watching our children play.”

“How many children do you see playing?”

“Ten,” says Manqoba, smiling mischievously.

“What!? No way! Who will give birth to ten children?”

“Who else but you, Mbali?”

“Don’t joke like that. I fear pain.”

“You won’t feel pain because you’ll be doing it for me.”

They both laugh.

Prince Manqoba is King Bhungane and Queen MaNdlovu’s only child. Queen MaNdlovu had almost given up trying to conceive when she got pregnant with Manqoba. King Bhungane was so desperate to have an heir to his kingdom that he had taken a second wife, Queen MaHlongwane.

One day an old woman arrived at the royal palace and asked to see Queen MaNdlovu. The guards, seeing the old woman in dirty clothes, chased her away. Queen MaNdlovu was returning from a shopping spree in Durban and saw the guards chasing the woman away.

“Stop, driver. I want to hear what she has to say,” said Queen MaNdlovu.

“I have been sent by your ancestors, my queen. They came to me in a dream,” said the old woman.

“What did my ancestors say?”

“They said go to the river. Between two rocks under the bridge you will find a tree that is waist high. Pick the leaves of that tree and steam with them. In no time you will give birth to a son.”

Queen MaNdlovu did as told. At the end of the year she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She named the boy Manqoba, the victor.

Tell us: What do you think of the relationship between Mbali and Prince Manqoba?