A tale of chieftainship

Sibongile Ndiweni, Sunday Life Reporter

BEING a writer is both a gift and a passion that some might say one is born with. The journey to being a fully-fledged writer is not an easy one.

After enduring the struggle to locate one’s own voices, style, setting, and language, it is perhaps only one’s passion that encourages them to keep on going and in the end, results in one crafting their masterpiece. It requires a lot of research and artistic agilities that in the end separate the novice writers from those that have staying power, whose audiences are defined with time.

One artiste blessed with this unique blend of passion and talent is, Naison Tfwala, a researcher and cultural heritage consultant who has published his novel “Fractured Tapestry of a Mosaic” which tells the tale of chieftaincy.

The novel depicts the lives of uMaDube Chief Xa’s junior wife in the 1840s as she went out to get firewood with other women. It is set in urban Bulawayo and Harare and also provides a flashback to Malungwana Esigodini. During her odyssey, she receives a purification procedure from Ntethe. The ghost in the Xa closet must be dealt with by Thamu her grandson and wife in the late 20th century, three generations later.

After the passing of his father Chief Dumezweni, Dlabalanda of the senior Xa house decides that he is well established in the diaspora and transfers the chieftainship to the junior Thamu house. The junior house, however, will not be able to occupy the Xa throne due to the damaged mosaic.

Tfwala expresses that the title of his novel explains life in all its complexities in a simple manner. “It is the mosaic that defines a people, the secrets in the annals of their history, the ghosts in their closets and their belief systems all define their mosaic,” he said.

The novel Fractured Tapestry of a Mosaic which took Tfwala a number of years to write, follows his other titles like Akuqaqa Lazizwa Ukunuka and Umfukula Wenhlathu. The novel is a labour of love, as it was an e-book under a different title for 13 years before being printed 15 years later.

“As a cultural heritage consultant and researcher, sharing Indigenous Knowledge Systems relevant to certain pertinent issues is what inspires me the most,” he said.

Tfwala, a production planner by profession, said he was a writer by heart. He has written a number of novels which include Akuqaqa Lazizwa Ukunuka and Study Guide of same title, Umfukula Wenhlathu, On the Brink of Society, Yikudla Lokhu and other works of art in Anthologies, Amazilo Esintu, Writing Without Boundaries, Commerce and Industry.