"Kwathi ke kaloku ngantsomi..."

On Sunday night I was introduced for the first time to the tradition of “iintsomi.” “Iintsomi” are basically stories, but form part of an ancient Xhosa folklore tradition. An “intsomi” (singular) can be an old story or one that is just made up by the teller on the spot. The purpose of “iintsomi” is obviously night-time entertainment (I read that children are told that one can grow horns if they tell “iintsomi” during the day- I suppose a clever way of deterring kids from pestering for stories during working hours. I don’t know if this is so common anymore as the next day, whilst walking to the shop, little Lutho recounted the previous night’s intsomi in broad daylight); but also seems to often have a moral or life lesson built into it or an explanation for perhaps why a certain animal is the way it is.

My favourite one was an old, well-known “intsomi” about ‘Sinyologondwana’ (not 100% sure of the spelling of that), which from what I gathered is a fictional animal; and a small cheeky child called Nomvulazana. I’ve asked Thembie to write it up for me so I hope to put it up here soon.  It had some beautiful parts that were sung and involved little Nomvulazana being swallowed by a frog (don’t worry, she was later regurgitated at her parents’ home)!

Most “iintsomi” start with a standard opening line, the one I heard most often was  “Kwathi ke kaloku ngantsomi” and then the narrative unfolds to end too in a standard ending “Phela, phela ngantsomi.” I liked this template of an opening and conclusion. Not only does it frame the story well (and save the teller from an awkward “ahem...that’s the end”); but it invites the listener into the “iintsomi” world for a while. Silence fell as those magical words that every child longs to hear are uttered “Kwathi ke kaloku ngantsomi...” and the story begins, audience captivated as if spell bound, to be released by only upon hearing the next magical phrase: “phela, phela ngantsomi.”

All round, it was a pretty special evening. After the first “intsomi,” 8-year-old Lutho asked me to tell an intsomi that I knew so I began a fairly dodgy rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (which became Xhosified and little-boy-ified to sound something like: “Gaw-dee-loks”). He loved it, despite my poor story-telling skills and massive improvisation halfway through (Goldilocks visiting the bedroom twice because I forgot that she had to be found sleeping AFTER she’d eating the porridge, oops...).

Last night we began another “iintsomi” session. This time mama was home and she told a long and lovely one. I was fascinated by how captivated everyone was,and how quickly we all huddled round, even the twins (who are 15 year old  teenage boys) and not a word was uttered the entire length of the story, except for sporadic group efforts to explain certain words to me. Sihle, one of the twins, succeeded mama’s “intsomi” with some progressively silly “iintsomi” that he concocted (typical for his mischievous sense of humour), primarily to goad his 2 younger brother’s. In the one, Buntu got cheated into receiving a bag full of snakes. The twins and I thought they were very funny but mama, Thembie and the little boys weren’t terribly impressed  My dad once told me of a book about “Shadows” and their place in a traditional African homestead. I’m not sure the details of the book or what it said about shadows but I did think of the idea last night as we sat together telling and hearing stories, lit only by a single paraffin lamp. I thought as I looked at Sihle’s face, only the side silhouette of his mischievous smile fully visible, that shadows were so integral to the story-teller. Even in my attempt to tell an “intsomi,” I felt somewhat protected by the semi-darkness and in this felt more free to tell my story and not be shy or embarrassed.  Shadows are an important characteristic of night-time communication. The dynamic is different when you can’t fully see the other person or people, when their face, body and even words are softened by the slide and settle of shadows.

Phela, phela ngantsomi...