Oyama: Her Story

CHAPTER 56

We sit on the chairs underneath the Oak tree.
Kea sits down, “Let me get you some Ice for your ribs” she says walking into the house.
I look at him as he takes off his jack slowly, he looks exactly like Lwandle, he just smaller ears then his brothers.
“Your staring at me” he says.
“Sorry” I apologize.
“Don’t worry about it,” he says, “You are very beautiful, you know that”
I’m taken back, “Thank you” I say, “You are not bad looking yourself”
“Really? I mean, I would think because we have always been told that we look the same, you’d say I’m handsome” he says, taking off his shirt, sitting shirtless in the cold.
“Uhm… well, you don’t have big ears, so…”
He starts laughing, “I see why my brother loves you”
“Why is that?” I ask.
“You have a way of making people feel good even at their lowest” he says.
“Thank you” I say.
He looks back, and back at me, causing me to look away, “Why do you hate him?” I ask.
“I don’t hate Qhawe”
“Not Qhawe, your father?” I ask.
He stares into the distance, “My father by far is the most evil and conniving man I know, and I’m a Corporate Lawyer”.
Damn. “I don’t know, your father is really kind and soft, warm too” I say.
“Shit, he has you underneath that charm too” he says, “You wanna know the real Keabetswe Mahlatji?” I nod, “I’ll tell you” he stands up, he points down to the kraal, “You see that over there, all the way over that hill, into that creek” he points over a hill, “All the way that side” he points to the hill starts coming down, “That way” he drags his finger over to where the sun is, “And back here”
I look at him confused, “What about it?”
“Those were all people’s homes, 14 families to be exact, my father used Imminent domain, to buy their lands 10c to the Rand” he says, “Many of them were too uneducated to know the difference between a land worth, R500000 and a land worth R5Million, those who took him to court. Shit, its really hard to win a case against such a man, when the own Premier, owes the man you going to war with” 

I stare at him, stunned by the weight of what he just said.
“Fourteen families?” I whisper, my voice barely audible.
He nods, his expression hardening, “Fourteen. Some of them had lived here for generations. That creek over there”—he gestures again—“Was where they fetched water, where their cattle grazed, where their children played. He erased it all like that,” he snaps his fingers. 
I feel a lump form in my throat, “But… why? For what?”
“Because of my grandmother, you see…you are Xhosa so you’ll understand, Ukuthwala”
“The kidnapping thing in exchange for a wife?” I ask.
“My grandmother was nearly married like that, but she escaped and the people who used to live here, ridiculed her, for breaking tradition, so she left, when she left for Pretoria she came back with 3 boys my father one of them, to show them where she grew up” he says, “She was still ridiculed and insulted, my father didn’t take it lying down, so about 12 years later after the trip he put his plan into action and here we are, on land owned taken from others by same system that took land from our ancestors”
My face frowns, “I’m proud of your father”
“What?” he asks.
“Your father took revenge on the people who hurt his mother, if I was your father I would’ve done the same thing, maybe even worse” I say. Shit, I’m even shocking myself.

Kea narrows his eyes at me, as if trying to gauge whether I’m being sincere or just saying what I think he wants to hear.
“You’re proud of him? You’d have done worse?” He lets out a hollow laugh and shakes his head, “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do,” I say firmly, surprising even myself, “I’m not saying I agree with what he did or how far he went, but I understand why he did it. I understand what it means to carry your family’s pain, to want to protect them, to avenge them. Especially when no one else will.”
He crosses his arms over his chest, his shirtless frame tense in the chilly air.
“It wasn’t just about protecting her, though. My father doesn’t know how to let things go. He doesn’t know how to forgive. He didn’t stop with just those families. He used what happened to my grandmother as an excuse to become… this.”
“This?” I echo, tilting my head.
“This man who sees people as tools. Who uses his power and money to take what he wants, no matter who gets hurt in the process.” Kea’s voice grows quieter, his gaze fixed on the horizon, “At first, I thought it was noble, what he did for my grandmother. But the more I saw, the more I realized it was never just about her. It was about control. About proving he was the one who could decide who wins and who loses.”
I frown, unsure how to respond. There’s a strange mix of bitterness and admiration in Kea’s voice, as if he’s torn between hating his father and secretly wanting to be just like him.
“Maybe he went too far,” I say slowly, “But you are a coward if that’s why you actually left for so long”