Chapter 1
Set in the late 1800s, the tale starts off with a conflict between the white colonisers and the indigenous black communities. The whites, amongst them settlers, missionaries, miners, and farmers, have hitherto been able to settle in the land because of the power of the gun and the apparent lack of unity amongst the black people. Fearful of the renewed strength and unity of black people, they congregate in their numbers and fight against this renewed threat. As the word of defeat goes around, more and more black people come together to fight. However, in some areas, black defeat is total as black people are forced out of their hideouts, and whole villages are defeated.
The defeat of black people in some areas leads to the complacency of some white people, among them the Wilsons. Living on a piece of fertile ground, the Wilsons do not believe that the black armies and their spears have more power over them. However, early one morning, an ambush occurs at their farmhouse. Before Mr. Wilson can hide his family, he and his servants are killed. A spear also strikes his wife, while she escapes with their child.
Early the next morning, a black man appears at the Wilson farmhouse. He is horrified because of the scene before him. He has never seen the impact of war, neither has he experienced war at its worst. As he realises there are no survivors in the yard, he prepares to retreat. The place is too eerie and frightening for him.
However, before he can leave, he hears a sound that disturbs him. Tentatively, he goes in search of the sound and finds the Wilson’s baby, swaddled and alive among the ruins. Again, before he can leave, another sound startles him. When he goes to investigate, he finds Mrs. Wilson who is looking for her child. Before she can register the horror of another black man in the vicinity, she dies. The man, knowing that nothing holds him to the place any longer, swaddles the baby more tightly against his chest and leaves.
Hours later, a group of white and black men arrive at the farmhouse. The black men have alerted the colonisers of the disaster in the Wilson’s compound. They find the bodies of Mr and Mrs Wilson and prepare to bury them. However, one of them wonders whether there is a child, and where the child’s body is. When one of the black men is asked where the baby is, he cannot answer and despite being beaten and kicked, does not respond. Later in the night, the only man who could have known about the existence of the baby dies. No one follows up on the child.
Chapter 2
After saving the baby from the unknown, Chedu journeys back home. Cradling the baby in the nook of his one arm, he holds the spear in his other hand. He senses danger as he draws closer home, and quickly ducks to hide in the bushes. From there, he spots a band of men, black like him, but warlike in posture and demeanour. Frightened, he remains crouched in his space, but he notices the baby pucker his face, ready to cry. Quickly, he cups his fingers on its mouth and remains in place until the last of the men have gone away.
Certain now that he is no longer in danger, Chedu continues his journey back home. As home draws closer, he feels a sense of peace and tranquillity. He arrives home after the sun has set. He goes straight to his homestead where he finds his wife almost distraught with worry. After hugging him, she tells him that he was away too long and she has almost gone to raise an alert with the elders. However, her eyes fall onto the package in his arms, and Chedu beckons her inside where he relays his story. He shows Tsitsi, his wife, the baby.
She is at first entranced by the smiling bundle in her husband’s hands before she notices the baby’s pigment. Chedu assures her that the baby does not have albinism and that despite her pigment, is similar to their own child. Just then Tendai, their baby, begins to wail, and Tsitsi goes to sit on the floor and breastfeed him. As if on cue, the new baby also begins to cry. Shyly, Chedu offers Tsitsi the baby, and with hesitancy, Tsitsi directs the other baby to her nipple which she immediately latches onto.
The couple however knows that the village will need to be informed of the new arrival and Chedu calls for a meeting. After supper, the couple takes the baby to the village’s meeting place where people congregate. The elder stands and begins to relay information about Chedu’s observations of impending war. He urges the men of Ngara to remain vigilant while imploring the women to run to the caves at the slightest sign of danger. The elder also admonishes Chedu for going into forbidden territory and warns people against going there in case they bring wrath to the village. He then hands over the floor to Chedu to speak.
Chedu explains what he saw before introducing the village to the new arrival. He explains that while the child has a different skin colour, she is no different from any other child. He asks for objections and finding none, informs the villagers that together with his wife, they have decided to adopt the child. The elder stands again and asks for objections. Finding none, the meeting ends.
However, before people can disperse, one man voices that he fears the new arrival will bring misfortune to the village. He asks for the child’s death. There are murmurs of assent. However, the elder stops them and tells them how in the past, a similar case had led to the killing of a disabled child, and then real misfortune befalling the tribe. He tells the people of the sanctity of life and calls for the adjournment of the meeting.
Chapter 3
Life in Ngara continues after Jikinya’s arrival. The village however celebrates a newborn’s life through customary practices with the whole village partaking in welcoming the child.
A week after the child is born, the child goes outside for the first time and all the villagers bring felicitations while exchanging the child from one hand to the next. After the first ceremony, a feast is prepared for the child. The brewing of beer and the playing of music make the people dance as the village becomes one with the child. However, the guest of honour, the maternal grandmother, sanctions the feast. After Chedu and Tsitsi’s son, Tendai, is born, his maternal grandmother is unable to travel to Ngara as she is taken ill. By the time she gets better, Jikinya has already arrived in the village. The feast is thus held for the two babies. Jikinya thus becomes bound to Ngara through tradition.
After Jikinya has been welcomed into the village life goes on as usual. Season after season passes and the people prepare their fields, plant their crops, and harvest while children continue to grow. Each individual in the village plays their role and participates in building the family and the village. In Chedu’s household, both Tendai and Jikinya feel love and belonging. Jikinya is not treated like an outsider and when she comes face to face with a cobra as a crawling baby both Tsitsi and Chedu risk their lives to save their baby.
Ngara also plays a role in grooming both Jikinya and Tendai about the roles expected of them in adulthood. Tsitsi takes Jikinya to the river to fetch water used to sustain the home. Jikinya takes to these roles naturally and as she too grows she passes the knowledge to her younger sister Rumbai. Tsitsi, however, worries about Jikinya’s strength and what these roles will do for her. She is afraid that the girl might lose hair from frequently carrying jars of water in her head. In the meanwhile Tendai is growing like a boy should. He notices that Jikinya is different from the rest of the children with her straight and light skin. However, this does not diminish his love for his sister.
Jikinya grows up like the other children in the village and forms a strong bond with Maidei, her friend. Together with Tendai, the three children became inseparable. When they play house, Maidei is part of the family, and while Tendai goes with the other ‘men’ to hunt the two girls and all the younger girls are left to gossip and do household chores. One day, after Maidei refuses to be a ‘wife’ to another boy, and chooses to play with Jikinya and Tendai, she is confronted by the boy’s sister. A scuffle follows, and Jikinya receives a slap, and disappears to the mother’s hut before Tendai hits the boys in question in his mouth making the fight bloody.
As the bloodied boy rushes to his mother’s hut, Tendai goes back home. In a short space of time, the victim’s mother has arrived at Tsitsi’s doorstep. She accuses Tsitsi of harboring a ‘beast’, that is Jikinya, and says that this is why the children are not getting along. An argument occurs between the two older women. It is only quelled when the women of the village convene and discuss the story before handing out justice.
With the passage of time and as Jikinya grows, she becomes even more serious about her role as a woman. She takes the time out to help her mother with the domestic chores. She and her friends also begin to revel in male attention. The boys ambush them on their way from their chores and sometimes these ambushes turn physical and nasty.
Meanwhile, Tendai is growing up in the forest where he is herding village flocks. He and other older boys spend the majority of their time in the forest. To pass the time the boys engage in fights, with losers ridiculed as women. At first, Tendai is weak because he is young. Whenever he returns home he has wounds and his mother and sister have to nurse him. Chedu takes him under his wings and teaches him to fight, not wanting his son to be a weakling.
Tendai grows stronger and with time he is fighting with boys older than him and conquering them. One day after winning a fight with Vito, a boy his age, Vito’s brother who is older and warrior-like challenges him to another fight. Even though the rest of the boys fear for Tendai, he accepts the challenge and the battle begins. When he wins this fight, Tendai is revered. He no longer looks after the herd like the younger boys. Instead, as a leader, he eats the best portions of honey and has the best portions of meat.
This reverence extends home where his siblings look up to him in awe. His father, now proud of the man that Tendai has become, carves weapons for him to bolster Tendai’s spirits. At home, he spends time with his father or at the meeting place with other men as he is also becoming a man.
One day, the old man Tichafa, Grandfather, visits Tendai in Chedu’s hut. The old man praises the young boy for his heroic exploits including killing a leopard which had terrorized the whole village and even older men could not kill. However, the old man warns Tendai against the overuse of violence as it can disturb the peace.
The seasons continue to pass in Ngara. As they prepare for yet another rainy season, they prepare a feast with the Changani people. As the people dance and enjoy the festivities, one Ngara man sees a Changani man eyeing Maidei. This provokes the Ngara man into anger. The two pose for a fight, but the villagers separate them and the festivities continue.
Chapter 4
The people of Ngara continue to live peacefully amongst one another. Meanwhile, Jikinya has grown into a young woman who is helpful around the house. One day, after she finishes her chores, she goes into the forest alone to look for firewood. Nature mesmerises her, and in the forest, she and begins to wonder how the earth and the world were formed and who was behind it. She wonders what lurks in the mountains beyond her home. Lost in her thoughts, she almost strays from her path. As soon as she finishes tying up her firewood, she hears the cry of the honey bird, an ominous sound that indicates doom and gloom, and she hurries back home.
As soon as she gets home, she hears a commotion outside. She peers out and sees a procession from the village following a group of men. Most of them are black like the villagers, except one who looks as pale as Jikinya. At the meeting place, where the procession stops, Tichafa welcomes the strangers to the village. Despite the initial language barriers, the newcomers and the village leader discover that the meeting is a friendly one, and the newcomers are given a place to stay among the Ngaras.
The pale man, John, is on a mission to scout the land and find out if it is good enough for farming, mining, and settlement by the white colonialists. As a result, he quickly learns the Ngara language and becomes acquainted with Tichafa and the other villagers. He also notices Jikinya and how her pale skin stands out in a sea of ebony skin. He asks Tichafa about her heritage and learns of her rescue as a baby from an ambushed farmhouse. Jikinya, who has never asked about her heritage, learns of where she comes from. However, she is resolutely tied to her family because of the love they have for each other.
While in Ngara, John manages to assemble a team of Ngara men who will help him in his expedition along the river. One of the team members is Tendai. One afternoon, while on the trip, Tendai disturbs the animals that John intends to shoot, John is angry and wants to retaliate. He, however, remembers a dream that he had that made him question his existence. This helps in thawing his anger.
Once the expedition is over, John and the rest of the team return to Ngara. John begins preparations for his departure. He however understands that he cannot leave without Jikinya. When he approaches Tichafa to ask for Jikinya, Tichafa refuses, telling him that Jikinya is as integral a part of Ngara as anyone else in the village. John goes to Chedu and Tsitsi and they too refuse. When he visits Jikinya to ask her, she tells him that even though she is aware of the difference between her and the rest of the family, Ngara is her home and she has no desire to leave.
John, in the meantime, is experiencing life in Ngara and the villagers anew. He is taken aback by how similar their practices are with those of the “civilised” world from whence he comes. He notices how they all respect their different gods, partake in art and in different activities, and he realises that these activities are not so different from the activities back in Europe.
In Ngara, however, a natural disaster occurs. As the cropping season approaches, Ngara suffers from a dry spell. Every day the people watch the sky but nothing comes except a downpour, followed by even drier days. Dejected, the people of Ngara decide on a rain-making ceremony and make preparations for the festival. On the day of the ceremony, John joins in the festivities curious to understand what happens when the villagers invoke the spirits of the departed. They slaughter a cow and some goats, spill blood for the ancestors, and eat the meat as part of the ceremony. Later that night, after eating, drinking, and dancing, and as they head home, rain falls and the Ngara are happy. Upon waking up the next morning, however, they realise that the rain has only made a few puddles and the relentless sun is back.
As the dry season continues, Ngara’s neighbour, the Changani, visits the Ngara. The lack of rain spells doom for the two tribes. They decide to come together to ask the departed spirits for a solution. A chosen few Ngaras go up the mountain with the delegation from Changani. When they come back, they have the solution. They tell Tichafa that the stranger has to go, and Tichafa is elated as it is an easy solution, as John has already been planning his departure. However, the Changani insist that the stranger is not John but is Jikinya. This breaks Tichafa’s heart. He insists that the Ngara’s have lived with Jikinya for a long time, and she cannot possibly be the enemy. The two tribes disagree and this escalates into war.
When the Changani go back home to prepare for war, Tichafa tells John that he has to leave as commanded by the spirits. Nonplussed, John begins to plan his departure but becomes suspicious when none of the villagers are excited about his departure considering it will bring them good fortune. When Tichafa explains to him that the Changani believe that Jikinya is the stranger, John offers the solution to go with her. However, Tichafa and the Ngaras together with Tsitsi and Chedu are adamant that John will not go anywhere.
John then surreptitiously approaches Jikinya and convinces her to leave with him. She agrees, and they agree to leave at night when no one can see them. However, Tendai ambushes their plan and refuses to let Jikinya go. He tells her that leaving would be an act of selfishness considering that the whole village is preparing to go to war for her.
John therefore devises a plan and runs to the soldiers’ camp to report on the girl who survived the massacre at the farmhouse. The soldiers, hearing that one of their own is staying in Ngara, quickly mount their horses and head off to the village. In the meantime, the Changanis and the Ngaras are ready for battle. They are in the meeting place facing each other waiting for the war signal when the mounted soldiers arrive. Realising the danger they are in, the two armies immediately regroup and become one army. Seeing the massive army before them, the soldiers hesitate. During the moment of hesitation, Jikinya comes into the field crying, trying to stop the war, and immediately, the soldiers raise their guns to fight. The fighting is intense.
Within a few minutes, the captain of the soldiers spots Jikinya amongst the melee of soldiers. As he goes in to attempt saving her, she is shot. Before he can react, an arrow shoots him too. John is also shot, and as the soldiers realise that they are losing manpower and strength, they flee. Tendai arrives at the centre of the battlefield after the last of the skirmishes to find his dead sister’s body lying on the ground. He tries to wake her, but it is too late. He then carries her bloodied, lifeless body home, followed in his wake by a throng of Ngaras. The rain begins to fall.