The return of Mgofu

 App link on google Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=muhoozi.mbuga.returnofmgofu

ACT ONE:

Scene One

Messengers  from beyond

The scene is an open air market. The audience comprises of sellers and buyers. It is late afternoon. Strange angelic music as an old man, Thori, enters pushing a woman, Thoriwa, in a wheelchair. The manner of their costumes should be suggestive of the spiritual world. Thori pushes the wheelchair to a convenient place and begins surveying the environment. After sometime, he turns and addresses Thoriwa.

Thori:    Thoriwa. We have  been  here  before… I  think

Thoriwa:    (Straining from the wheelchair) Here?  No, never. What   makes you think we have?

Thori:       The way they are staring at us. I think they know who we are. They have either seen us before or they see themselves in us.

Thoriwa:    (Laughs generously) Seen us before? No, never. Maybe they have heard about us, a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair.

Thori:  Yes, or a woman pushing a man in a wheelchair. (Yawns loudly) I’m dog tired.

Thoriwa:  Tired? Thori, you haven't even pushed me half the distance I've pushed you.

Thori:        That means  we've  overdone  it  today. We need  to  take a  break. The  rabbit saved her life by resting under the paw paw tree.

Thoriwa:    No. We've not overdone anything. One can't overdo a good deed. As messengers of those who went long before us, we can't overdo anything.

Thori:         So you really think we should stop here and talk to them?

Thoriwa:      Talk to whom?

Thori:            These creatures here. They call themselves people (laughs sneeringly).

Thoriwa:        Yes, let's talk to them. We have to. Go right ahead and do the introduction. (Walks slowly forward, surveying the audience with his eyes.) These ones are busy. Don’t you see how serious they look?

Thoriwa: Serious? They are merely acting responsible.

 Thori:   Responsible? Since when?

Thoriwa:    Mind  you,  what  happened   was  not their  fault.  (Pause) Introduce  yourself and   then introduce me.

Thori:          (Introduces himself after some hesitation.) They  call  me  Thori,  seed  of  the  old paw paw tree.

Thoriwa:    They used to, now  they  don't.  They used to call you Thori.

Thori:         (Shrugging his shoulders.) Yes, that's  what they  used to   call   me.  This   woman here was Thoriwa.  We are messengers of  those who         went   before us, our ancestors.

Thoriwa:   Where  we  come from, we are not used to  walking long  distances.   That is   why we are taking  turns   to ride   in this machine. Give  some mechanical advantage, you know.        

Thori:           That's right. (Pause) You could  say that Thoriwa  and I are fused seed of the paw paw tree...

Thoriwa:       (Outburst) Were! You and I were husband and wife. Don’t forget that. Now we are not.

Thori:             (Quite angry.) What did you just say?

Thoriwa:         Comrades in arms.

Thori:               Withdraw it.

Thoriwa:          What? Comrades in arms?

 Thori:                (Appearing agitated) Yes, arms indeed! Arms means weapons. Weapons for breaking into people's  houses  and doing sickening things. Makes me want to lose my memory. Do  you want  me to lose my memory or do  we  go  on with our mission?

Thori:                 I'm sorry.

Thoriwa:            Sorry   never   did   anyone   any  good. These  people  can't  even  say  sorry on behalf of their grandfathers, can they?

Thoriwa:             No, they can't. (addressing the audience) I smell some educated thief here . . . silently training your eyes on my breasts! (Touching breasts) He used to own them. Thori and I were man and wife. But that was before our people lost their heads. Before they began spitting on  the village well so  that no one could  have water. Yes, people who had  co-existed for long  began  pointing  accusing fingers at one another. (Thoriwa and Thoriwa get into a mock struggle). My land ...My cat . . . My maize ... can be heard in the struggle).

Thori:             (Nodding          his   head)  People   who  had performed rituals sang, danced and laughed together. Yes, they farted without parting their buttocks.

Thoriwa:         A pity indeed. People who had even borrowed salt from one another began shaking hands with madness.

Thori:             (Gesticulating) Someone said it: The only thing necessary  for  evil  to  triumph is for  good  people  to  do  nothing.  Yes, they opened their heads. They allowed madness in. Soon they began to warm themselves   with   the   fire of their neighbours'  burning skeletons. Good people did nothing!

Thoriwa:          Thori and myself served in the local shrine then. We had no children of our own. We were good  keepers  of  other people’s children at the shrine though. Oh! how! the children Ioved the stories we told them.

Thori:              They loved the games  too, don't forget that.

Thoriwa:          We lived happily in the three ridges until that night (looking downacast). A deranged  man set a neighbour’s  house on fire. No one bothered to know who had done it and why. No  one ...  Many houses were burnt  to ashes that night. Children, mothers, fathers...everyone ran northwards... others eastwards, while the majority simply    ran around   in circles. Where were they to run to? (Putting his hands on Thoriwa's shoulder.) Thoriwa and I ran to the shrine.  We had the keys. There were many other people in the shrine compound.  We opened the gate to the great cave and let  them in.  All huddled together in unnatural silence.

Thoriwa:             (Almost whispering to herself.) But before we opened the cave,          something, even more unnatural happened  that night. When Thori and I got to the  shrine compound, the first  family  we recognized was that of  Mgofu Ngoda, the old, blind-half seer. A fire was beginning to glow in his half blind eyes. (She gets angry.) What does this portend for us? I remember wondering. We had a saying among our people, "Do not make blind eyes weep; it is the mother of all taboos."

Thori:             (Looking doleful) We asked Mgofu and his family to get into the sacred cave but the old seer simply shook his grey head waved goodbye and said: The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from  the sun. It's the one that stands in  the open  where it is compelled to struggle for existence against the winds and rains and  the scorching sun.

Thoriwa:      Suddenly ... suddenly, Mgofu Ngoda got hold of  the  hand of  his youngest wife, Mora and the two walked off  into the night. Mgofu left the rest of his family right there.

Thori:    (Almost in whisper.) In  the sacred cave those  who  are  given to  whispering whispered and said that Mgofu’s youngest  wife  was  with  child  (Pause) That night...    the dreadful eternal darkness caught up with all of us. To think the sacred cave would be safe was unwise. That same night they followed us  to the shrine.  "Get         out," they shouted. "We  have  come  to protect you…. Those  who  obeyed.  were killed. Those who chose to stay in the cave were burnt to death. Thoriwa and I were among those who chose to obey. Our spirits were among the first ones to escape into the mist. (Pointing at the skies) So you see, we don't belong here. We belong where we have come from.

Thoriwa:     But don't get us wrong, we are not bitter.  The soiled water can  still   be distilled  to  freshness.  We believe   in forgiveness. Forgive  and  you  shall  be forgiven.

Thori:         (Holding Thoriwa's hand and looking at her.) Forget and  you  shall be forgotten.  I can't  forget you dear. (to the  audience) Isn't she something  to  behold? Yes, very forgiving. It’s impossible  to forget the  good  times  we  had  growing   up here  in  the  three  ridges  of Mndika. Mndika! (Nodding his head) The name of the sacred place before the madness.

Thoriwa:    Yes, that  was  the  end  of peoples’ memory. But Thori and I are different. We have failed to forget.  (Lights dim as musical instruments establish the sadness of the moment. Soft singing voices accompanied  the musical instruments.)

Thori:    (After the musical interlude.) When we got to where we now live, those who left before us gave us a new home. The half-blind old  seer  had  arrived  before us. But     his  expectant   wife  was  not there. The old seer had left her behind.

Thoriwa:    Nora,  the  old  seer's  expectant   wife's story  has  been told  and  told          again in  the  three  ridges  of Mndika and beyond. Oh ... how  stories can spread, faster than the wind. How she and her old  husband  walked  and  walked until they reached  the southern  border of Mndika and Nderema.

Thori:            (Pointing at the audience) Prepare yourselves to  be  transported  to Kadesa's shrine in the forest of  ogres in the northern part of Nderema. (Pause) The story of how Kadesa and several other people had   been exiled from   Mndika, their motherland, is well known across the ridges. They crossed the border. Authorities of   Nderema allowed them a thick forest near the border. That had been Mndika’s first madness. By the time  of Mndika’s second madness,  Kadesa  had  grown quite old.

Thoriwa:    (Nodding in agreement.) Yes, old but still strong-willed. It's not  the age of  the dog in the fight, it's the age of the fight in the dog. Kadesa  had established a popular shrine for exiles ID  the northern part of Nderema. She was priestess of the shrine. As your minds proceed to Nderema, Thori and I will move to the next market. (She sits in the chair and addresses Thori). Thori, come. Tired or not, we have a mission on our hands. (Thori walks to the wheelchair and pushes off as lights fade.)