THE TALE OF GALAZI THE WOLF - a Zulu Legend E-Book

Anon E. Mouse

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 457 In this 457th issue of the Baba Indaba’s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the Zulu Legend "The Tale of Galazi the Wolf”. ONCE, UPON A TIME, a long, long time ago and far, far away, in KwaZulu – which means the Home of the Zulu, there lived a man names Umslopogass, which is pronounced just like it is written - Oom-slop-oh-ghass. This tale tells of when Umslopogass was taken by a lion, which bounded away with Umslopogass in her mouth. He feigned death to outwit the lion and presently the world grew dark and he slipped into unconsciousness. A good while later he was surprised to wake up and felt pain in his thigh. There was a lot of shouting and he saw the lioness snorting with rage, ready to spring. In front of her was a lad long and strong, with a grim face, and a wolf’s hide, black and grey, bound about his shoulders in such fashion that the upper jar and teeth of the wolf rested on his head. He stood before the lioness, shouting, and in one hand he held a large war-shield, and in the other he grasped a heavy club shod with iron. What happened next you ask…? Did the lion attack and what happened to the young lad? Did he kill the lion or did the lion kill him? And what, or who, is the Watcher of the Ford? To find the answers to these questions, and others you may have, you will have to download and read this story to find out! INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE BABA INDABA STORIES Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories". Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps. BUY ANY of the 450+ BABA INDABA CHILDREN’S STORIES at https://goo.gl/LXNM 10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. =========== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Baba Indaba, Children’s stories, Childrens, Folklore, Fairy, Folk, Tales, bedtime story, legends, storyteller, fables, moral tales, myths, happiness, laughter, , assegai, shield, baleka, beautiful, blood, bones, Mountain, Nada, Senzangacona, Spear, Umslopogaas, world, Zulu, general, club, Umslopogaas, father, great, cave, forest, stranger, Galazi, wolf, kraal, lioness, Watcher, ghosts, dead, bones, mouth, chief, shield, spear, stone, girl, path, end, mountain, Chaka, death, tale, rose, ran, Amatongo, Halakazi

Leseprobe

THE TALE OF GALAZI THE WOLF

A Zulu Legend

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

Published By

Abela Publishing, London

2018

THE TALE OF GALAZI THE WOLF

Typographical arrangement of this edition

©Abela Publishing 2018

This book may not be reproduced in its current format

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Abela Publishing,

London, United Kingdom

2018

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

ISSN 2397-9607

Issue 457

Email:

[email protected]

Website:

www.AbelaPublishing.com

An Introduction to Baba Indaba

Baba Indaba, pronounced Baaba Indaaba, lived in Africa a long-long time ago. Indeed, this story was first told by Baba Indaba to the British settlers over 250 years ago in a place on the South East Coast of Africa called Zululand, which is now in a country now called South Africa.

In turn the British settlers wrote these stories down and they were brought back to England on sailing ships. From England they were in turn spread to all corners of the old British Empire, and then to the world.

In olden times the Zulu’s did not have computers, or iPhones, or paper, or even pens and pencils. So, someone was assigned to be the Wenxoxi Indaba (Wensosi Indaaba) – the Storyteller. It was his, or her, job to memorise all the tribe’s history, stories and folklore, which had been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. So, from the time he was a young boy, Baba Indaba had been apprenticed to the tribe’s Wenxoxi Indaba to learn the stories. Every day the Wenxoxi Indaba would narrate the stories and Baba Indaba would have to recite the story back to the Wenxoxi Indaba, word for word. In this manner he learned the stories of the Zulu nation.

In time the Wenxoxi Indaba grew old and when he could no longer see or hear, Baba Indaba became the next in a long line of Wenxoxi Indabas. So fond were the children of him that they continued to call him Baba Indaba – the Father of Stories.

When the British arrived in South Africa, he made it his job to also learn their stories. He did this by going to work at the docks at the Point in Port Natal at a place the Zulu people call Ethekwene (Eh-tek-weh-nee). Here he spoke to many sailors and ships captains. Captains of ships that sailed to the far reaches of the British Empire – Canada, Australia, India, Mauritius, the Caribbean and beyond.

He became so well known that ship’s crew would bring him a story every time they visited Port Natal. If they couldn’t, they would arrange to have someone bring it to him. This way his library of stories grew and grew until he was known far and wide as the keeper of stories – a true Wenxoxi Indaba of the world.

Baba Indaba believes the tale he is about to tell in this little book, and all the others he has learned, are the common property of Umntwana (Children) of every nation in the world - and so they are and have been ever since men and women began telling stories, thousands and thousands of years ago.

Location of KwaZulu-Natal (shaded in red)

Where in the World? Look it Up!

This next story was told to him by a traveller who went to Delagoa Bay to trade but who also traded a little further South at eNkovukeni. Can you find eNkovukeni or Delagoa Bay on a map? What countries are they in?

THE TALE OF GALAZI THE WOLF

A Zulu Legend

A story, a storyLet it come, let it goA story, a storyFrom long, long ago!Umntwana Izwa! Children Listen!

Umntwana, children, these are stories from a long, long time ago and far, far away, from an ancient African land which is closer to Antarctica than it is to London. In ancient times the magnificent empire of Monomotapa and the great stone city of Zimbabwe guarded it’s Northern borders assisted by the natural defences of the ancient Gariep river which flows westwards across the Savannah and the desert, while the Diphororo tša Meetse flows Eastwards through a more tropical landscape.

Far away to the West lies the ancient Æthiopian Ocean and to the East lies the equally ancient Mer de Zanguebar. To the South the land terminates in a cape when it meets the Mer de Cafres.

Its land mass contains the oldest desert in the world which stretches from the Moçâmedes Desert in the North, and runs South through the Sand Sea until it meets the Kalahari Desert. From there it stretches East until it reaches the Great Escarpment. Beyond that, further to the east the landscape climbs from open Savannah and the plains of the Highveld to the 2.2 mile-high / 11,616 feet, Maluti mountains, home to the Basotho and Amaswazi, before it descends to the tropical jungle and the Eastern coast. At its Southern-most point you will see all that remains of the now submerged Plains of Agulhas. Today we know this land as South Africa.

NOW, MY FATHER, I will go back a little, for my tale is long and winds in and out like a river in a plain, and tell of the fate of Umslopogaas (Oom-slop-oh-ghass) when the lion had taken him, as he told it to me in the after years.

The lioness bounded away, and in her mouth was Umslopogaas. Once he struggled, but she bit him hard, so he lay quiet in her mouth, and looking back he saw the face of Nada as she ran from the fence of thorns, crying “Save him!” He saw her face, he heard her words, then he saw and heard little more, for the world grew dark to him and he passed, as it were, into a deep sleep. Presently Umslopogaas awoke again, feeling pain in his thigh, where the lioness had bitten him, and heard a sound of shouting. He looked up; near to him stood the lioness that had loosed him from her jaws. She was snorting with rage, and in front of her was a lad long and strong, with a grim face, and a wolf’s hide, black and grey, bound about his shoulders in such fashion that the upper jar and teeth of the wolf rested on his head. He stood before the lioness, shouting, and in one hand he held a large war-shield, and in the other he grasped a heavy club shod with iron.

Now the lioness crouched herself to spring, growling terribly, but the lad with the club did not wait for her onset. He ran in upon her and struck her on the head with the club. He smote hard and well, but this did not kill her, for she reared herself upon her hind legs and struck at him heavily. He caught the blow upon his shield, but the shield was driven against his breast so strongly that he fell backwards beneath it, and lay there howling like a wolf in pain. Then the lioness sprang upon him and worried him. Still, because of the shield, as yet she could not come at him to slay him; but Umslopogaas saw that this might not endure, for presently the shield would be torn aside and the stranger must be killed. Now in the breast of the lioness still stood the half of Umslopogaas’s broken spear, and its blade was a span deep in her breast. Then this thought came into the mind of Umslopogaas, that he would drive the spear home or die. So he rose swiftly, for strength came back to him in his need, and ran to where the lioness worried at him who lay beneath the shield. She did not heed him, so he flung himself upon his knees before her, and, seizing the haft of the broken spear, drove it deep into her and wrenched it round. Now she saw Umslopogaas and turned roaring, and clawed at him, tearing his breast and arms.