Few weeks ago, I lost an uncle. He was my mothers’ brother. He was a loving man, who adored and found time for children. Story-telling was one of his talents.
Tapiwa Gomo
His first attempt to share folk lore with me was not a success for a young boy who then had spent the better part of my time in the city watching television. But a couple years later, I found his storytelling talent invaluable when I visited my maternal grandparents where folklore replaced television. One of the stories he was so fond of telling was of a young man called Karikoga.
Karikoga had a rare combination of characteristics. He was intelligent and crafty, yet extremely patient, unrelenting and unforgiving. As a middle-aged man, Karikoga had painfully witnessed the massacre of his people by the kingdom of Barasa at the dawn of Uhuru. He knew then that he was young and needed more time to build muscle and clout. He went across the rivers for several summers to acquire more wisdom.
On his return, while he still harboured profound grudge and anger against the kingdom, he chose to be a teacher at one of the institutions of knowledge. While there, he imparted dissent and prophecies on the fall of the Barasa Kingdom.
In his first of the wicked chapters, he predicted the rise of the servant movement to challenge the King of Barasa as disenchantment spread across the nation due to mismanagement. That prophecy came to pass and left the king and his kingdom badly brutalized. At some point, the King embarrassingly shared part of his palace with the leadership of the servant movement, though power remained in his hands.
As these developments were unfolding, Karikoga had long offered a second chapter of his prophecy in the form of an advisory. He noted that even though the servants’ movement had shaken the kingdom, the King would not fall unless the throne was attacked from within its inner echelons. Inconceivable, as it seemed given the level of brutality the kingdom meted on its people, by some interesting coincidence, Karikoga had launched his third chapter by jumping on to an offer to sit in the palace and defend the King and his kingdom that was facing mounting dissent from the people.
With the Kings’ power at his disposal, Karikoga’s mission to destroy the kingdom from within began. As a gifted wordsmith, he used his sharp and lethal tongue to unleash vitriol purportedly defending the kingdom. The strategy was simple, defend the king with words the anger the nation. The more Karikoga spoke, the more the King of Barasa was hated. That is how doubled-edged Karikoga was.
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Armed with an unrelenting work ethic, manipulative intellect and charismatic arrogance, Karikoga became the darling of many senior aides in the palace. But there was one major problem in Karikoga’s maneuvers, which is why I am sharing this story today.
He never cared about the people, neither did he speak of the development of the despairing nation nor did he sympathise with wide-spread destitution that befell the people of Barasa nation. His eyes and mind were fixed on retaliation by dethroning the King and his kingdom not matter what it takes. With Karikoga at the helm, the nation plunged into poverty and destitution which he blamed on external forces. There were times when arrogance and confidence colluded into ignorance.
In his fourth chapter, he mistook being a political darling, with political influence to the extent that he connived with some of the close aides to topple the King. The plan botched after some of the senior aides dropped the ball last minute and left him exposed with an egg on the face. He was thrown out of the palace.
But for a kingdom that had suffered defeats severally, the dearth of political aura, ambience and national appeal was telling. The King was not known for producing thinkers, but followers, so Karikoga was once again invited to the palace to revive its fading colours. As a determined man on a mission, Karikoga was gifted with the ability of balancing antithetical projects with utter dexterity and dazzling surreptitiousness.
On his second coming, he launched his chapter six — a campaign supposedly to prop up the image of the kingdom, while concurrently unleashing chapter seven — the tales of Njuga — a platform to decant to the Barasa people the dirty linen in the kingdom. The tales of Njuga became popular with the people, but were a big pain to the kingdom. It chronicled the kingdom’s inner secrets.
As the King pondered and deployed his security to dismantle the tales of Njuga, Karikoga was two steps ahead and getting close to the inner cores of the King. As his chapter eight, he sold a dummy to the first prince into replacing the princess. This is the same prince who had earlier betrayed Karikoga’s bid to plot a coup. For no other reasons other than naiveté and lack of astuteness, the prince gleefully accepted what later turned out to be an unswallowable hot potato, as Karikoga wined and dined with the queen.
With the queen in Karokoga’s political pocket and age taking its toll on the king who would stop him. Chapter nine was abound. Purging of all senior aides from the kingdom began ruthlessly. One by one they left. The former warriors’ council and the singers and dances were also thrown out of the palace.
No one felt safe in the kingdom as it became thinner and weaker with dissent against the aging king mounting. The first prince’s crown was in danger as the second prince was pre-positioning for anointment. That would be Karikoga’s 10th chapter, but the people continued to suffer as he experimented with ideas.
Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa
