Lion of Soweto

Chapter 8

"Mama, I've found a wife," Moyo yells at the doorstep of his parents' house, bursting with hysteria. With marriage talks rocking the airwaves in Morningside, he can't wait to share the good news with his people, especially his mom whom he hasn't seen in a while. He'd just parked his car by the unfenced compound on Nyerere Street when he rushed to the doorway of the four-room bungalow apartment.

Moved by anger and joy with an equal degree of passion, Moyo's siblings – Tauya and Tobi – rush out from the sitting room into the corridor to catch a glimpse of the noisemaker.

"What are you doing?" Tauya points a finger, casting derisive eyes at his younger brother whom he hardly gets along with. "You don't have to disturb everyone in the city because of your personal problems."

Surprised he's at home, Moyo casts one long glance at him, wondering if this is the proper way to welcome a long-seen sibling. But then this is Tauya – the ever quarrelsome dude. He then turns towards Tobi whose back leans on the building's unpainted brick-wall, eyes trailing the uneven footprints of loitering cockerels. The youngest of the three seem to be praying silently that another conflict shouldn't break out between his two seniors.

Moyo's radio broadcast is good news, one their mom has been looking forward to for years. But Tauya has been gloomy all day. Rushing out of the sitting-room to confront the visitor means his mood dawdles at the lowest ebb.

Moyo's anxiety melts off as he reads all that off Tobi's face, after which he turns to Tauya. "Sorry, I was carried away." He takes a deep breath, places a hand on the door jamb. "Good day, brother."

"Hmm." Tauya, whose eyes stay fixed to the floor, mumbles, returning to the sitting room.

With Tauya out of sight, Tobi sees the need to greet Moyo properly. He pushes forward for a hug. "Welcome, bra Moyo." It's been a while the two last spoke, either on phone or face-to-face.

"How're you, Tee?"

"I'm okay. You've not been coming around."

"Where's Mama?"

"Mama left for the market about thirty minutes ago. She'll soon return. Papa is at work."

Moyo lingers at the building entrance, reconsidering the need to step into the house. His reluctance isn't about the network of cobwebs threatening to fasten him to the ceilings of the poorly-lit corridor, or about the formidable pot-holes lining the pathway to the sitting room. Tauya is the last person he expects to meet here. And by shouting his mission here, has he not begun this visit on the wrong note already?

Tauya, an unrepentant jealous mind, hardly welcomes any progressive news from Moyo. Countless times in the past, the two always argued. Their on-and-off disputes date back to their high school days when Tauya couldn't understand why Moyo didn't repeat a class.

***

"I'm four years older than him. There should be four years difference in our grade levels!" Tauya shouted one afternoon after returning from school. Then in Grade 11, Moyo was in Grade 10. "I hope he's not trying to overtake me as the eldest in this house. Ask him to fail his exams and show me some respect."

"What's bringing this up, today?" Ma Malvin, their mom, delved into another brotherly squabble. Tauya's complaint had become stale.

"I'm the firstborn. I should be ahead in everything in this house."

"Calm down, Tauya. Life is not the way you make it look." The mother sat him down in the frontage to iron out issues. "You're brothers and there's a future ahead where you can lead him as the senior. But you both need to be guided now."