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Friends & Friction: When two cultures collide

Jadula joined the mines in the late 1990s. He wanted to be a farmer in the misty valleys, deep in the east of the Eastern Cape, where he grew up. His dream came to an end one fresh morning, just after he had taken out his father’s cattle. His father worked far away at Kashane, to the Nguni speakers, or Kgaswane, to Batswana, in what most of you call Rustenburg.

Young Jadula always woke up before sunrise. It was a condition for living in his father’s household. His mother, who was an avid enforcer of her husband’s wishes, once told them – her words not mine – that “no self-respecting boy should sleep until the sunrays go through the door, open the blankets and tickle his manhood”.

One morning he saw two women accompanied by a man with a stick. He was walking behind them, beating the tall grass to distract himself from the daunting task ahead. In front of the women was a much younger, thinner silhouette, wearing a doek and a shawl around her shoulders. She looked familiar, very familiar, skin-to-skin familiar. Jadula drove the cattle as far as he could that morning.

It didn’t take long before his younger brother came for him, with thin Spotty in tow. He saw him run down the hill and heard him shout his name. It reverberated in the hills as every rock shouted his name back as if in supplication. He replied, but his voice was feeble like Adam hiding in the bush after he had eaten the forbidden fruit. His brother and his dog found him.

“Ya!” he said, pulling sibling rank, “what do you want?”

“Mama is calling you,” his younger brother replied.

Being called by the Lord above would have been better.

“Who is at home?”

“I don’t know,” the younger brother replied. “They said I should take care of the cattle,” the younger one said. It was a good feeling for him, like saying: “I’m in charge now.”

The journey back home was uphill, long, cold and slow. The sun was now rising, and its reflection made the dew look like small diamonds strewn all over the grass. The music of the birds, the beauty of the trees and the silence of the land all meant nothing to the troubled young man who dragged his bare feet uphill on the dirt path.

As he approached the hut, he heard the stranger’s voice say: “Your dog has eaten our eggs. Look at our child, she is beautiful. She was going to be a teacher … a Miss World … look at her … you can’t begin to imagine the number of cattle my family was going to get for her lobola. Now your son, my dear neighbour, has shattered the dish that contained all our dreams…”

Jadula got into the house hoping Spotty was the culprit, and not him. As he entered, he noticed that his maternal uncle was also in the room.

“Sit down,” the uncle ordered Jadula. Then the paternity test started.

“Do you know this girl?”

“Yes, I do, Malume.”

“Okay,” the uncle said, and the paternity test was complete, and the result was positive.

A few weeks later a telegram came from Jadula sr saying: “I will not wear another man’s jacket. It will not fit me. Get job.”

That is how Jadula ended up in Marikana.

Last month, Jadula left the mine for good, long before his pension age. His younger brother was recently appointed supervisor, and as tradition demands, he cannot be his younger brother’s subordinate. Now that their father has passed on, Jadula is head of the family. That is what happens when corporate culture meets African culture.

Kuzwayo is the founder of Ignitive, an advertising agency

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