He has been contaminated with an infectious disease, for instance, yaws.
Yasi nanu. A Njoh (a leopard) had been devouring goats in the village. After it had eaten two goats that belonged to Motongo mo Nganga Singe, Motongo vowed:
“If the Njoh ventures to come inside this my compound again, I will confront it. If the Njoh fails to kill me I will kill it”.
(“e-Njoh e-jeli fete anu tena ama ewoka,
yetena esano-wi te;
imba ne yo-nwa”).
Motongo then loaded his gun. There was bright moonlight when the Njoh came in again. After the Njoh had climbed up to the top of the fence that surrounded part of Motongo’s house and when the Njoh was about to jump inside the fence to seize a goat, Motongo fired at the Njoh, “tuum”.
The target was the Njoh’s chest. The Njoh roared and groaned. As it continued to groan, inhabitants of the village shouted joyfully:
“enge Njoh yu-mweli” !
(“A bullet has certainly struck that Njoh”).
The Njoh ran into the bush, leaving blood along the track In the morning when inhabitants of the village had seen the quantity of blood that had come out from the Njoh’s body, all of them held the same opinion, that:
“Yes, bullets have indeed struck the Njoh;
The Njoh will not survive.
It cannot survive”
(“eee ! enge Njoh yu- mwele, joka lu-mwe-ya !
esa kasowa !
esa-tane e-kasowa”).
No one was surprised when the Njoh was found lying on the ground dead. Several bullets had indeed hit the Njoh, and penetrated into the Njoh's chest.
Later and soon after that incident when in the course of a wrestling contest Namanga had a strangle hold on the reigning champion, Elove-love a Njie, supporters of Namanga seeing that the defeat of Elove-love a Njie was imminent composed a song on the spot and sang:
“au-mweli ekenge !
Elove-love a Njie !
au-mweli ee !
hey - ee !
hey – hey- hey- hey – hey !.
au-mweli ee !
Exciting sounds from the “seeva” (horn) followed:
“hom, hom ! hom-hom, hom”!
Comments followed: “Elove-love a Njie asa kaso-wa” ! (“Elove-love a Njie cannot survive. He will not survive.
“a-ku o-teni” ! (“He is completely finished”).
Spectators bustled along the edges of the pitch to see the end of the contest. And, as was expected Elove-love a Njie was soon seeing lying on the ground defeated and devastated.
“au-mweli” has since then become an idiom as well as a popular song at wrestling contests and a mosoko mo veleke at legal contests in traditional village courts.
“au-mweli”
Literally:
(i). He has been punctured and cannot therefore survive the legal or the ethics battle that faces him now.
(ii). He is involved. Following tradition/he is required or expected to bear some of the burden of the event, for instance funeral expenses.
Lexicon:
njoh/e-njoh = a leopard.
u-mwa = to puncture using a pointed tool such as a splint, an arrow.
veleke = cultural animation.
mosoko = a song; plural, mesoko.
mosoko mo veleke = a cultural animation song.
seeva = sound produced by blowing the horn of an animal.
Oma Nanu
Imba Thomas Mbua Ndoko
Chicago ILL, USA
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