after day he lay dreaming in the sunshine or, when the sun became too hot for comfort, in the shade of a big tree that grew beside his hut. His fine fields became overgrown with weeds and grass. His sleek and glossy cattle became hollow-eyed and thin for no one drove them to the pastures. The little goats bleated in distress, not knowing where to go.
But Kimwaki did not care, for, with the great stores of food that had been provided by his father’s work and wisdom, he felt he could well afford to sit back and rest. No fear of hunger could touch him.
In a land where it is the rule for each neighbour to help the other, this idle young man helped nobody, so nobody lifted one finger to help him. In this way, all that he had inherited went from bad to worse; no one cared, and he was avoided by all around him.
For many months Kimwaki led this useless life, until the loneliness bored him. Then, one day in the early spring, as he lay drowsing as usual under his tree, he heard excited twitterings from above. He opened his eyes in annoyance1, to see what had disturbed his pleasant sleep and there, up in the tree, was a flock of little weaver birds. They were darting hither and thither, as busy as could be, for it was nesting time.
Spring was in the air, and the males were building homes for their young families when they hatched. Their excited chattering caused him to open his eyes a little wider. He watched as they worked together, until he understood their joy.
Singing and laughing, each bird made his contribution to the weaver colony. One would bring a tiny piece of grass, another a little twig, while yet another a feather to his nest. They worked as though their very lives depended upon their haste and, when evening came, the frames of the little nests were finished.
On the following day the work continued: the birds’ clever, tiny beaks wove the grasses in and out, lining the nests with softest down. Kimwaki watched it all as he lay beneath the big tree. Thunder-clouds were gathering in the sky, and when the second evening came, Kimwaki thought how wise the little birds were to provide shelter for their babies from the coming rain.
Every day now, he watched the feathered workers, until in a short while a whole colony of finished nests hung from the branches of his tree. And, during all this time, the lesson of their co-operation and their hard work had been sinking deeper and deeper into his mind.
Finally Kimwaki said to himself as he listened to their cheerful chatter, ‘I am a strong young man, while they are only tiny birds. I have two big hands with which to work, while each of them has only a little beak. They are safe and sheltered, which I am not. They are the wise ones, and I am not!’
He thought the matter over during the night, and next morning he rose early, took his rusty hoe with him, and went to the field belonging to his nearest neighbour. There he began to dig and clear the weeds and grass away and, when this was done, he hoed the ground. All day long he worked beside the others who had joined him and, when evening came, he found himself singing as he retraced his steps to his broken-down hut. He felt as happy and light-hearted as the little weaver birds!
Day after day he went, first to the field of one neighbour, and then to another, helping where he could, and asking nothing in return. Then one morning, he awoke to hear cheerful chattering and laughter upon his own untidy, overgrown fields. He looked out and saw that his neighbours were as busy as could be, clearing and hoeing his weed-covered lands. He joined them at once, and soon the plot was ready for planting. And, later on, when the rains came, the same neighbours helped him to plant his crops and re-thatch his leaking hut.
The months went by, and as the crops grew – mealies, beans and potatoes – so grew also his own pride. He no longer lazed away the days under the big tree, but continued to help those around him, and looked after his neglected2 flocks. Joyfully he watched the glow of health creep back to the dull coats of his cows and goats.
Before long his crops were ready to be harvested, and willing hands helped him to reap them – returning the help that Kimwaki had so willingly given to them. And when all the grain had been stored away, and his potatoes and beans sold, he found, to his joy, that once more his father’s fields were the richest in the land.
Kimwaki looked up and gave thanks to the little weaver birds for showing him that only through unselfishness and hard work can peace and happiness be found.
Post-reading
1.Name the reasons why Kimwaki does not do any work after his father has died.(2)
2.Summarise the main points of the story, from the moment Kimwaki notices the weaver birds, to the end.(6)
3.Explain how this description links with the main message of the story:
‘Singing and laughing, each bird made his contribution to the weaver colony.’(5)
4.Comment on the value judgement implied in the statement that Kimwaki reached a stage where ‘he understood their joy’.(2)
5.Discuss your response to the story and its moral.(2)
Enrichment activity
How many idiomatic expressions and proverbs do you know that are about work? Work together as a group and make a list of them. Add the meanings as well.
Then, with one of you acting as ‘referee’, have a quiz with groups taking turns to read an item on their list, and another group having to say what it means. The referee allocates 1 mark per correct answer and adds up the totals.
You could also mark the idiomatic expressions that groups mention during the quiz, to see which group had the longest list.
Hearts which are alike
A Venda oral narrative retold by G.P. Lestrade
A note about the story
As in all folk tales, the story line is uncomplicated and easy to follow; the language is simple and straightforward; and the characters are flat. The narrator uses a simple tale to make a point about life and the way we deal with it.
The story is about the effect a famine has on a relationship, in this case between a man and wife. We do not learn much about them, not even what they look or are like: they are flat characters. This, because the focus is on only one circumstance: the famine and, by implication, their hunger and, perhaps also, their sense of insecurity. But the husband and wife do learn something and their relationship and circumstances change for the better. And so we learn what the message of this folktale is.
Note how the writer uses contrast in the first and last paragraphs to bind the story, while establishing its message at the same time.
Pre-reading
•What kind of relationship do you associate with the title?
•Why is the first sentence of this story important?
•Skim the text for names. What do they suggest to you about the characterisation?
During reading
•While reading the story, try to identify two things that influence what the characters do.
•Think about the guinea-fowls:
–the role they play in the story
–the size of such a bird, and what this suggests to you about what the characters are doing.
Hearts
