VUSI AND THE TOKOLOSHE

Sun, 20 Aug 2017 09:34:26 +0000

Batuke Mwanza

NELISIWE Dlamini Khumalo was getting concerned with her son Vusi. The boy’s attitude, social and academic lifestyle was changing for the worst. His school teachers and his head master had called Mrs. Khumalo to their offices on three occasions in a space of two weeks, complaining to her about her son’s behavior at school.

When she received a call one Monday afternoon from her son’s school headmaster, asking her to report to his office as soon as possible, she knew there was a problem. She drove to  her son’s school and went to the headmaster’s office. Mr. Mofokeng the head master was in a very bad mood and raising his voice when complaining to Mrs. Khumalo.

“Madam, I don’t mean to sound rude to you because I know raising teenage kids came be hard especially for you, in your case as a single mother, but I think you are not doing your duty very well when it comes to discipline your son Vusi.

“We have sent many warnings and complaints to you but he is not showing any sign of change. He came drank and insulted one of the teacher’s before leaving.

“Now we have decided it’s time he goes for good, we are expelling him” thundered Mr. Mofokeng. Mrs. Khumalo pleaded with the headmaster to give her son one last chance as she had already involved some counselors to help Vusi with counseling.

“Its too late now, we have already decided, enough is enough” said Mr. Mofokeng.

After trying in vain to reason with the school authorities, Mrs. Khumalo knew there is nothing she can do now to make them change their minds. She must now deal with her son alone. She had talked to her relatives to help her now wayward son, but he was showing no signs of change.

When she went home in the evening, she found him still drunk as reported at his school. “Vusi my son, kingi? (what’s happening?) she asked him “why are you doing this to me, and yourself” she asked almost crying. Vusi just smiled and said, “ma ki tokoloshe” (mum it’s the tokoloshe its been telling me to do certain things.”

“We always meet at night in my bedroom and it tells what to do.

“Sometimes at night, we go to the graveyard for a walk and tell stories before I come back to sleep” said  Vusi. Mrs. Khumalo could not believe what she was hearing from her son. She was now wondering whether he was now getting mad or was now on serious drugs like heroin, marijuana or cocaine. This was now becoming threateningly serious and something needed to be done urgently.

Nelisiwe Dlamini, a 38 year old Swati native of Swaziland settled in South Africa’s Mpumalanga Province in Nelspruit after she married Dingani Khumalo a South African Agriculture Officer in 2001. She came to South from Swaziland in January 2000 for work as a shop assistant when she met Mr. Khumalo. The two started going out and two years later got married but Mr. Khumalo died in 2014 in a traffic accident, leaving behind his wife nelisiwe with two children a son Vusi and daughter Nokuthula.

Three years after her husband’s death Mrs. Khumalo was facing a challenge dealing with her 14 year old teenage son Vusi. She had no problem with his sister Nokuthula who was doing fine at school. Vusi used to be a bright pupil too but suddenly changed.

Mrs. Khumalo had always been a good mother and with her job as a secretary at a good paying company she had no problem providing for her two children. She drove a good car, lived in a nice 3 bedroomed house in Hazyview, so what was disturbing her son’s mind was a mystery to her. She didn’t expect her husband’s death would be the reason because Vusi was just fine even after his father’s death as he was young by then. His behavior just changed when he was in his seventh grade. Drugs and alcohol at only 14? Mrs. Khumalo wondered who would give alcohol or drugs to a 14 year old minor. Bad company?

It was possible that he was in a bad company, anything was possible in South Africa but strange enough, Vusi was never seen with any friend. He had become a loner but someone was giving him alcohol or drugs. And Mrs. Khumalo was ‘dying’ to know who.

When Vusi told her that it’s a tokoloshe she couldn’t believe it. Vusi was taken to a mental asylum to check his mental condition but doctors did not find anything wrong with his mental condition.

One Sunday morning when Mrs. Khumalo went to check on her son in his bedroom, he wasn’t in. she panicked and called her relatives. Around 5 a.m. in the morning where would he go? She asked her neighbours around who also expressed their ignorance. It was around 07am in the morning when one of her neighbours called her and told her that he had seen someone on the roof. They took a ladder to investigate only to find Vusi fast asleep.

When they woke him up, all he said was that the Tokoloshe was the one who took him up the roof and they drunk drinks and beer with the Tokoloshe. That’s when neighbours strongly advised her to see a Sangoma (Traditional healer) because it was a sign of witch craft. They then went to pinary compound to see a renowned Sangoma.

Sangoma Hlazo was then called to hazyview were Vusi was. After talking to the boy and the mother, Sangoma Hlazo then told them that Vusi was under the spell of the Tokoloshe. A Tokoloshe is a small spook or deity with supernatural powers to haunt, harm or cause any havoc. They are used by witches or wizards to sometimes steal money or food in neighbourhoods.

“In your son’s case, one of your relatives does not want your son to be educated”. “Whoever is doing this wants your son to either go mad or lose interest in education and if he or she has got a farm, to use your son to work for him or her” explained Sangoma Hlazo to Mrs. Khumalo. He told Mrs. Khumalo that they must check Vusi’s bedroom to see anything that was left by the Tokoloshe. They found a bottle of reddish liquid in a bottle of fanta and a string of traditional beards. Sangoma Khumalo explained that the stuff was human blood mixed with charms which was given to the boy to make him drunk.

“You are lucky madam, had you not come to me earlier, it was going to be too late”. “This was the final phase of the ritual by the owner of the Tokoloshe, to make the boy mad or become a slave at a farm somewhere. He then got the bottle and the beads and asked Mrs. Khumalo and Vusi to accompany him back to his house in pinary compound so that  they destroy the Tokoloshe.

When they went back to Sangoma Hlazo’s house in pinary compound, Sangoma Hlazo then asked Vusi to throw the bottle in a fire he light in a big metal can. After Vusi did as told, a few minutes later, a horsy voice screamed from the fire which terrified Mrs. Khumalo and Vusi but the sangoma calmed them down.

“It’s over now madam, your boy is now fine and back to normal, you will pay me later after tomorrow, for now the truth will be revealed said the sangoma. The following day news headlines shocked the residents of Nespruit. Sizwe Dlamini, Mrs. Khumalo’s elder brother and farmer was found naked in his farm yard in Kanyamazane compound looking confused. He confessed being behind his nephew Vusi’s trauma and when the police were called and searched his house they found the then

Powerless Tokoloshe among some charms and Vusi came to identify it as the one which was giving him drinks and taking him at night. It was a horrible shock for Mrs. Khumalo to learn that her own brother could harm her own son.

(BASED ON A TRUE STORY)