Excerpt from Comrade King by Khulu Radebe and Jeff Kelly Lowenstein: Becoming a King
We took off late at night and drove along the M3 highway. Including Msimango, there were three seers (sangomas) in the car.
INTRODUCTION: Khulu Radebe’s path to becoming a king was far from a straight one, but he did eventually assume the role that had been foretold in a prophecy his mother received while pregnant with him a half-century earlier. The change was gradual as Radebe confronted both internal and external obstacles. Within himself he had to accept that he was a king who received instructions from the ancestors in the form of dreams and visions. He also had to endure a series of trials that included climbing a mountain peak for hours and following instructions given to him by a divine spirit.
TEXT: At this point it was impossible for me to believe anything at all about being a king. ‘I’m a freedom fighter,’ I kept thinking to myself. ‘Who the hell is this guy? This guy does not know me.’
…I agreed to go to Msinga to undergo the ritual that changed my life.
We took off late at night and drove along the M3 highway. Including Msimango, there were three seers (sangomas) in the car.
There is a sacred mountain near Msinga called Langa Mountain, which is a place suited to the performance of sacred rites. We reached the base at about six in the morning. We tried to cover part of the ascent to the top by car. The path was too slippery, though, and we had to leave the car behind and start to climb on foot. It took us from 6 pm until close to midnight to climb to the peak.
As we were climbing, some families came out of their mountain homes and called out to us to say that there were wild animals on the mountain that would eat us. The people in those houses warned us not to go further up because of the danger. We insisted on continuing our trek.
We were climbing, resting for two to three minutes, and climbing again. Suddenly, at some point past the halfway mark, no one in the group was able to identify the path to the top anymore. My companions started to argue among themselves. One man said, ‘No. We’ll get there if we take this route.’ Another said, ‘If you go this way, it will be better.’
Although I had never been to the mountain before, I had no doubts or hesitation about how to navigate to the top. I pointed confidently and said, ‘Guys, whoa. Wait. The easiest and the shortest route is this one.’ (I later took my knowledge of where to go in a place where I had never previously been as a sign that the ancestors had shown me a shortcut.)
The other men all started to fight with me: ‘We brought you here. Who are you to tell us that? You are nobody. You don’t know anything. We brought you here, so just keep quiet. You are confusing us.’
They were against me because they had been to the mountain before, knew it better than me, and didn’t like that I was suggesting a shorter way. Luckily, they started holding a caucus that ended with them asking me, ‘Okay. You were saying. Which way do you think is the right one?’
‘This is the shortest way,’ I answered. ‘Just follow me.’ And indeed, the path soon became clearer and easier. It was not my doing. Clearly, the spirits of the place were showing me the way…
We arrived at the top. It was cloudy, foggy and misty on the peak. Large stones, rising upwards, were the only properly visible things there. They were similar to, but smaller than, the ones you see at Stonehenge in England. I was shortly to learn that some of them were tombs.
The three men then said they were going to the other side of the mountain and left me standing next to the stones. A second later, we lost sight of one another.
This was the first time in history that a Radebe had been sent up the mountain to perform a specific ritual in fulfilment of the journey of becoming a king. I was not yet fully aware of the impact of this trip on my future life.
A voice started speaking to me – the voice of a divine spirit, not a demonic one. ‘These men will want to take the powers you are going to be granted as King,’ it told me. I only realised afterward that the sangomas might have gone so far as to kill me to obtain those powers.
The spirit appeared before me and told me what to do before the men came back. ‘Take the impepho you have brought with you from home. Go to that hole in the rock. Repeat the things the voices tell you to say.’ Impepho is the plant you burn to invoke the spirits and invite
them closer to you.1
I followed the spirit’s instructions. ‘Hide the impepho in the hole,’ the voice said urgently, repeating the earlier warning. ‘Those guys who brought you here must not see it. Do not trust them.’
I repeated the various utterances shared with me, word for word. This was an important moment for me, but I could not savour it for long.
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FOOTNOTE: 1Impepho is an abundant indigenous African plant employed in various rituals and ceremonies by people throughout sub-Saharan Africa. It is used to speak with one’s
ancestors and is also used by traditional healers to communicate with people who have died.
‘Take the impepho with you,’ the voice urged. ‘Hide behind the tomb that is closest to you. Burn the impepho there and say “One, two, three.” Then nobody will touch you. Remember to take a
photograph with your phone as you burn the impepho, as proof that you have performed this sacred act!’
I listened more closely than ever before. I had grown up hearing voices, but – to be honest – had ignored them. I was driven to heed the message and remain safe from the three seers’ dark intent.
‘It is time to speak with your ancestors,’ the voice said. ‘That is their instruction. You have to approach them in the same way you arrived on earth – naked. You must undress so that you can reconnect with them.’
I followed that instruction. The impepho burned for a while and I listened to the ancestors and engaged with them. ‘It is done now,’ I was told before the men came back. ‘Whatever the three planned to do, it won’t succeed. You are now the King because we wanted you
here.’
Excerpt from Comrade King by Khulu Radebe and Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, all rights reserved. Comrade King is published by Jacana Media. The launch event will be streamed live on Tuesday, August 15 at 1800 SAST. The e-book can be purchased by going to: https://rb.gy/aa5hl.