PodCastle 780: The Captive River

* Author : Chido Muchemwa

* Narrator : Shingai Njeri Kagunda

* Host : Matt Dovey

* Audio Producer : Devin Martin

*

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Previously published by Augur Issue 4.2

Rated PG-13

The Captive River

By C.T. Muchemwa

It was Siba’s eighteenth birthday, but instead of having a party to celebrate, she was standing by the Zambezi River in a thin, white, cotton slip, shivering despite the hot October sun. It was Commitment Day, the day she would be given to Nyami Nyami, the River God, to be his concubine.

Nearby stood four Basilwizi singing a doleful song, their voices shrill in the still, stifling air. The women looked sinister in their long white robes and headscarves. Around their necks, they wore wooden statues of Nyami Nyami, the signs that they were the chief servants of the River God. Basilwizi oversaw all religious ceremonies of the BaTonga people, including today’s. Every year, in the peak of the dry season, they took a girl to the River God’s lair to appease him before the rainy season. They had done so since the dam wall was completed in 1957, separating Nyami Nyami from his wife, Mweembe; if they didn’t, Nyami Nyami would abduct girls. It was better to sacrifice them willingly than to have the people of Kariba investigating their disappearance. This was the fate that life had given Siba when she was named one of the Chosen as a baby, to die after serving as Nyami Nyami’s concubine.

But the bold will find a way to subvert their fate.

Basilwizi did not know that Siba was more than one of the Chosen. She was Basilwizi like them with her own magical powers, powers she would use to carry out her Banene’s plan. Buried in the dam wall was one of Nyami Nyami’s discarded fangs, placed there by Basilwizi when the wall was built after bargaining with the Rhodesians. Its magic strengthened the wall so that Nyami Nyami couldn’t bring it down. Siba was to remove the fang and help Nyami Nyami bring down the wall. And the BaTonga could finally return to live by the River that gives life.

Chief Basilwizi Chibuno raised her right hand and said, “It is time.” She was a tall, thin woman with a permanent scowl that made you self-consciously straighten your clothes. Basilwizi rubbed white powder that sparkled in the light all over Siba’s body, the crushed remains of one of Nyami Nyami’s fangs. Its magic would allow her to breathe underwater.

Chief Basilwizi Chibuno turned to Siba and said, “This is not the fate you would have chosen for yourself, but the Almighty gives as much as He takes. You must swear by the Almighty and by the Zambezi that gives life that you will be brave and that you will do all you can to protect the River.”

In a whisper, Siba pushed the words beyond the growing lump in her throat. “I swear by the Almighty and by the Zambezi that gives life that I will always protect the River.”

Then Basilwizi and Siba walked into the water until it was around their waists and dove in.

In the past, when Siba dove into the River with Basilwizi, her skin would erupt in goosebumps because the water was so cold. But today, the water was warm. Too warm. They pulled deeper and deeper into the dark waters of the River, and Basilwizi kept Siba surrounded. In front of her, Chief Basilwizi Chibuno led the way, her rod-thin body surging forward. To Siba’s right was Basilwizi Mayaba. It was Mayaba who came to Siba’s grandmother’s house when she was seven to begin preparations for h...