FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT AMONG THE ZULUS.
By Charles N. Ransom
[Rev. Charles N. Ransom, in Gospel in All Lands.] MANY a boy or girl in Zululand might say, “Konamanje (just now), I was in darkness, but I saw a great light.” Mantonti, a girl from our station at Ifafa, sixty miles south of Durban, might say so. Her home is a native kraal. Her father was an Induna, or officer of the local chief. Besides her own mother are several other mothers, or wives of her father, and a score or more of brothers and sisters, with nephews and nieces like a flock. The darkness was moral and spiritual, not physical. Sunny is the hillside where the kraal is built. Not far away are the blue waters of the Indian Ocean. In sight is the beautifully cultivated tea estate of a white man. As a foil to the sunlight are the dark woods, in whose recesses the monkeys climb and chatter, and the antelopes perpetuate the graceful athletics of their African ancestors. Around the kraal smile fields of corn and beans, pumpkins and “elephants’ ears,” at the very time when this country is pinched by the “long and dreary winter.”13 What fun for Mantonti to munch the ears of roasted corn fresh from the little fire of sticks in the middle of the hut! What fun to go with the big girls to the brook to bathe, and come back carrying a jug of water on the head without touching it with the hands! What fun to make clay dolls and dress them up with bead work! What fun to go to the seashore and bring back mussels, a welcome change from porridge! What fun to watch the hunters returning with antelope meat, and to stir up the fire for a roast! What fun to go to a wedding and dance and sing, eat meat and drink beer, and sit up all night! What fun to go to town and see the wonderful railroad, or to a sugar estate and bring home a pot of cheap molasses! But on the other hand, how tiresome to carry a baby on your back all day long, or to hoe in the garden, or to look for fuel, or to drive away birds and monkeys and the terrible locusts from the ripening grain! How shameful to have all your little brothers and sisters stark naked! How terrible to hear all the vile stories of the older ones while sitting around the fire! Superstitions, like black clouds, darken every day. She is horribly afraid of the Us-welaboya, “the hairless one,” a terrible monster who, it is said, hides in lonely places, ready to catch you, and cut you in pieces, and use parts of you for witches’ drugs. There are scores of signs, such as a dog jumping up on the roof, or a cock crowing at the wrong time, which bring fear of sickness or death. There are dark days when the witch-doctor comes and raps on the ground and talks with the spirits, and sacrifices an ox or goat and flings suspicion on some innocent neighbor, pointing him out as having caused the trouble in this kraal. There are darker days when death comes to the kraal—double darkness, for it is dark here, and over the future falls no ray of light. Wails rend the air, and the poor body, instead of being laid in a grassy cradle in God’s-acre, is rudely shoved into a hole, perhaps under the manure of the cattle-yard. But the day is breaking for poor Mantonti. We made a special effort at Ifafa to bring into school the kraal children. Mantonti came, among others. She made wonderful progress, but before long stopped coming. Like many other heathen, her father hated to have his girl learn. Was she not to be married before many years? Was she not worth at least ten head of cattle, and would not an education spoil the sale? No! she must stop going to school. But a faithful visit from Gardiner and a wise talk broke down the opposition, and she resumed her place in school. Who can measure the blessings of these station schools, or of the boarding schools where such a Christian training is given that the station schools become in turn almost a “children’s church”? After a time the light touched not only Mantonti’s head but her heart. We were holding service in the kraal hut. What a church! The roof black with smoke; on one side a pen for the calves or kids; dogs and chickens running in and out! But when Jesus through His Word and messenger said, “Follow me,” Mantonti rose and followed Him. This act meant separation from father, mother, brothers, sisters, friends, and from customs more clinging than the next of kin. It meant that her companions would sneer and jeer, and that perhaps she would be beaten and persecuted, as so many young Christians have been. But she did not falter. Nor has she up to the present looked backward or grown discouraged by the narrowness of the way. We were accustomed to have service at her kraal every Sunday morning, before our own breakfast. Sometimes when we arrived the men were killing a pig or dressing a skin; the women busy at some menial task. Mantonti would sweep out the hut, and then let her voice ring out like a church bell to summon the people from the neighboring hills. She wears a neat dress, while her sisters wear beads, brass rings, and a greasy blanket,—or nothing. She brings Testament and hymn-book, and joins heartily in the singing. After I have spoken she testifies simply, pleads earnestly with her people, and prays fervently. These girls become the Lord’s watchers in the Dark Continent, and heralds of the dawn. Gardiner, the teacher we have referred to, afterward became the preacher at Ifafa, and a noble witness of the truth. He speaks excellent English, and grows in grit and grace. His home is on a high hill, two miles from the chapel. It was in the heart of the woods, where monkeys, snakes, and antelopes abound. He has cut down the trees, planted corn, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, and pineapples; built an upright house and furnished it neatly. His home life and work are sermons as well as his earnest words on Sunday. Some Greek traders came to Ifafa and heard, on one Sunday, this Zulu preacher proclaim with power the wisdom which was to the old Athenians’ foolishness, and they expressed to me their pleasure in that sermon. I am still praying that their hearts may say, “Sir, we would see Jesus, whom we heard faithfully preached that day.”