Hunger Eats a Man by Nkosinathi Sithole

Author:Nkosinathi Sithole
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143531449
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Published: 2013-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

12

Bongani has spent the weeks since his beating by Nomsa as a worried man. His wife has shouted at him before and on many occasions she has burnt his things, but she has never before laid her hands on him. He has always known secretly that, if it came to a full confrontation as it did that Wednesday, he was likely to lose because Nomsa is tall and tough. She is also left-handed. As a young schoolgirl she demonstrated her fighting abilities many times. Every time her fighting talents were spoken about, the fact of her left-handedness featured very strongly as an explanation for her rare but useful talent. Bongani, on the other hand, has always known himself to be a coward.

His main concern now is the fact that it has become too difficult, if not impossible, for him to pursue what he sees as the struggle for his manly right. He begins to construct a way forward. This is the best plan that he can come up with under the circumstances.

It is on a Sunday that Bongani informs his wife about a journey he is about to undertake. He tells her that he is visiting his uncle who lives about two hundred kilometres from them in a small town called Manakanaka. He warns her that he may take a long time to return – perhaps the whole day – since he has not visited his uncle in ages, so she should not expect him home early.

At nine in the morning Bongani arrives at Riverside and fills his tank to the brim before he goes to the restaurant for breakfast. He orders an English breakfast, asking the waiter to include mushrooms and eggs but no bacon. The toast is to be of brown bread and he only wants juice. No tea or coffee. As he eats his delicious food, his mind is far away, in some lonely place he does not know. He thinks of the plan he is carrying out and what it can possibly accomplish. It makes him smile.

Manakanaka is just a long building, and accommodates about seven shops. Across the fence is a railway line, and further down is a display of artwork for sale. Nothing else!

“I wonder what this should be called?” Bongani thinks as he alights from his car. “It certainly isn’t a town.”

Bongani is glad when he sees people sitting on the bench in the corridor of the single building in Manakanaka. On the door they are facing are the words: “Dr S. Ndlovu”. Ndlovu is a popular African doctor in the province. His clients, as well as all those who know him well, call him by his first name, Sgonyela. Next to Sgonyela’s consulting room is a room of glass walls. Inside it are two pythons. Bongani feels himself leaning closer to the old woman who is on his left.

A tall man in a white T-shirt and short jeans arrives with what may be a late breakfast for the two fearsome pythons. The man in short jeans drops a live hare and four rats into the glass room.

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