Melusi



The sun has now come up, and Melokuhle has changed her clothes and started cleaning even though I had insisted that she sits her beautiful carved ass down and that I will hire a cleaning crew.

By 11 she was done cleaning, and the house smelled clean and fresh when I sat down for my breakfast, Melokuhle didn’t do anything fancy, just soft porridge and some milk drizzled on top.

Soon Lizzy will be here and we will start with the preparations for the ceremony.

I smiled looking at Melokuhle looking like a true makoti. I am not traditional but what I didn’t expect was for her to want to wear a long dress, put a shawl on her shoulders and a doek (head wrap.) saying that she is respecting her in-law’s house and the ancestors of this house.

Just looking at her, I know that I have done a good thing by making her my wife, she is the true definition of a good woman.

*

Lizzie landed at 3 p.m, she started dictating what should happen the minute she walked into the gate putting everyone on the tip of their toes. The yard has now started having visitors, people came to greet me and tell me how I look like my parents and go on about them and how they knew them and that it has been so long since they saw me. 

It feels nice hearing stories about my parents, soon they ask about me and then about my wife. When I point her out amongst the group of many women they all gush over her beauty and I couldn’t agree any less, she has dark chocolate skin and when the sun dances on her skin she glows.

“Have you eaten anything?” Melokuhle came to find me while surrounded by the elder men of the village and pulled me aside. Her wonderful dress has now been dirtied by the fire that she was cooking in, and her fingers have bruises that I am not sure how she even got them.

I smile while looking at her, this place seems to have given her a little bit of peace, she doesn’t look as sad as she was in the past couple of days.

My stomach grumbles at the mention of food, and I shaked my head. “Why didn’t you tell me? I have been up and down feeding other people while my husband is hungry.”

I chuckled and kissed her “I don’t mind.”

She rolled her eyes “Nonsense, wait here.” She came back a few minutes late with a tray full of food accompanied by a kid who seems like she is 14 years of age.

They sort of bow down as they start handing out the food. They start with the elderly when she reaches me she smiles a little, handing me my plate “I am the one who dished up for you.” I nodded with a smile playing on my lips, I could tell with the extra meat on my plate.

“I don’t want you eating food that is not dished by me or Lizzie, you hear me?”

Melokuhle can be scary when she wants to be, I wanted to tell her to stop being dramatic but I might get a hot clap on my cheek so I just nodded.

When she walks away, the man next to me nods in approval “She’s a keeper. She reminds me of my late wife.” He looks down on the ground and smiled sadly “You have married a woman right there.” The old mzn with greying bush hair smiled at me.

I nodded in agreement “I know.” she is a true woman, one that I love whole heartedly, and I hope that she knows that.

When it is time to slaughter the cows, one for my mother and the other for my father. An older man who is filled with knowledge with this kinds of stuff assists me. “See how the cow is calm, it means that the ancestors are agreeing with this ceremony.” He pats me on the back, filling my chest with pride “I can’t believe this is your first time, it is like you have been doing this forever.”

My hands are bloody but the two cows are now being cut open, the skin is going to be hanged so that it can dry up and we can use it as a mat or something else along those lines, the women came to fetch the meat.

Inyongo went into the room that was once my parents’ bedroom, we had dished for them and placed some beers, a snuif and some fruits.

“It’s time,” Lizzy said when I went to wash my hands, I fetched Melokuhle and we went to kneel down emsamo and I started off with the clan names and welcoming Melokuhle into the Xaba family.

I poured her ngenyongo (bile) as a sign that we are now officially welcoming her.

Tomorrow we will be doing a cleansing ceremony of the baby so that she or he can go and rest with the ancestors.

After we were done we went to sit outside, it was already dark and most of the people had left but some were going around the yard feeding those who were just passing by and decided to come in.

“How do you feel?” Melokuhle asks, laying her head on my shoulder.

“Light,” I confessed, it almost feels like everything is just going to be alright like we are no longer going to be filled with pain and tears.

Sitting here with her is the most peaceful I have ever been since the day had begun and I just never want this moment to end.