Chronicle Editor
Ekasi Stories with Clifford Kalibo
THE year 2023 has been punctuated with a variety of economic woes, financial difficulties, social ills of a varying degree and magnitude. We pay tribute to our dear friends and relatives who fell along the wayside.
May their dear souls continue resting in eternal peace. That being said, we thank the Almighty for keeping us alive to cross over to year 2024.
In spite of all the 2023 trials and tribulations, it has been “life as usual” in our beloved Ekasi, namely Sizinda Township. Times have been magnificent and exhilarating in Sizinda Township during the year 2023.
What with the popular and dynamic local DJ, Carlos Ngozo, who has been spinning and churning out the best sounds in the White House, his music ranging Afro Jazz, Reggae, Amapiano, Rhumba, Mbaqanga”, to name but a few. The White House, is a special drinking enclosure located in Sizinda South Beer Garden.
You should see the happy imbibers in their sweaty and glistened faces as they dance throughout the night to Carlos’ music.
The happy imbibers will gyrate, twist and turn, and do all sorts of dance moves such as ivosho, igwaragwara, “get down”, and other impromptu outlandish dance styles which undoubtedly cannot be performed if one is in a sober state. For real it is true then that “Sizinda has got talent”.
Indeed, it has been life as usual in Sizinda Township, in the year 2023. The people provide the inspiring proof.
One watches avidly the courageous, graceful and good natured display of the Ekasi happiness.
They identify with the true hard core Sizinda residents, the men, women and children whose attentive, eager but happy faces, sometimes crossed with a certain haughtiness and at others creased with a certain degree of intensity, determined faces that seem fearless but not ferocious.
It is so fascinating to admire these genial characters, so ordinary, peaceful people from diverse backgrounds, but who all have one area of common identity, that is being one large Sizinda family. As the saying goes, “ESizinda siyajabula”.
It has become a norm for people to get broke soon after the festive season, and this is popularly known as the “January disease”.
This metaphorical disease is a result of overspending and impulse buying during the festive season.
Those who have been following my articles will know that I and my friends always gather at Sizinda Bottle every morning, particularly during the weekends.
Today, as I make my way to the Bottle Store, I meet up with my uncle, Emboyera. He is looking tired, downcast and forlorn, his shoulders are drooped and sagging. He is dragging and shuffling his feet as if the legs are heavy.
I greet uncle Emboyera excitedly, “Zithini lumez? Ibinjani Xmas?” My uncle mumbles an incoherent reply angrily. I can see that I have touched the wrong nerve!!! I then change the subject as I talk about the weather. “And ilanga liyatshisa, lezulu liyala ukuna.” Uncle Emboyera is clearly in a taciturn and morose mood as he hisses back fiercely, “Manje uthi ngithini nxa lingani izulu? Akungiyekele mina.” (He shuts me off, he does not want to talk about the weather or anything else!!!)
It then dawns on me that this man has been hit hard where it hurts most. Uncle Emboyera, like the rest of us, is a victim of the January disease, only that he just cannot accept the fact that he is broke. It is true that a hungry man is an angry man, but it is even truer to say that a thirsty man is a very dangerous man.
Emboyera did indeed look thirsty and very dangerous at that moment. I then offered to buy uncle Emboyera some beer. “Asifike e bottle store siyonatha i calabash”.
This does the trick, as uncle Emboyera instantly metamorphosises from a broody and sulky mood into a lively and excited mood. No longer is he walking slowly, he has now adopted a springy gait, and he is suddenly fit like a 15-year-old school boy.
I take out a one dollar note from my old and battered wallet which has seen better days, the only money left between me and poverty, and I buy a cold two litre Ingwebu beer, which is better known as “calabash”. Emboyera offers to “shake” the calabash. Ingwebu calabash beer, has to be shaken before drinking, so that it mixes well. He is an “expert shaker”, and when he is done shaking the opaque beer is looking delicious with a creamy froth, known as igwebu. Emboyera gives me the calabash, I open it a take a sip and pass it on to him.
My uncle takes a very long swig from the calabash. The guy is clearly thirsty and he is obeying his thirst, as he takes almost a full minute drinking the beer. He has even closed his eyes!!! After the long drink, Emboyera puts down the calabash, and he sighs deeply, and lets out a loud belch of contentment and he is even smiling.
Just then, Goliath Phiri, a tall and lanky friend of mine appears and joins us. Goliath is in the process of greeting us when the unthinkable happens. Goliath accidentally kicks the calabash of beer and all the contents flow on the ground.
This is a total disaster!!! Unfortunately, Goliath does not have even a single cent in his pocket, so he cannot buy us another calabash of beer.
Emboyera is livid and furious, but without uttering a single word he turns back to return home.
He is now walking slowly and dragging his feet and he is holding his hands behind his back. Uncle Emboyera is looking weary and tired.
Well, I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles. As far as we have come, we have so far to go!
Till we meet again. Enjoy reading as you nurse the January disease.
Feedback: Clifford Kalibo
0783856228 / email: [email protected]
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