The Sword and the Spear
Page 25
Everything always begins with a farewell.
GLOSSARY
Terms from local vernaculars, place names and ethnic groups, and characters based on known historical figures.
CALDAS XAVIER (1852–1896): Portuguese military officer who participated in the campaigns against Ngungunyane.
CAPULANA: A dress worn mainly by women, akin to a sarong.
CHAIMITE: The Portuguese name for Txaimiti, the capital of the State of Gaza.
CHAPUNGU: A bird of good fortune.
CHICOMO: A small town between Inhambane and Manjacaze, in southern Mozambique.
CHILODJO: A royal crown made from animal skin, and worn by the Gaza rulers.
COUNSELOR JOSÉ D’ALMEIDA (1858–1922): Portuguese diplomat and colonial administrator, who held various posts in Mozambique in the 1880s and 1890s. He was married to a woman of the Goan Portuguese nobility.
DIOCLECIANO DAS NEVES (1829–1883): Portuguese customs inspector and game hunter, who traveled widely in southern Mozambique and Transvaal. He knew Muzila, Ngungunyane’s father.
DOKOTELA: A local adaptation of the European word “doctor.”
EDUARDO GALHARDO (1845–1908): Portuguese military officer, colonial administrator, and diplomat.
GEORGES LIENGME (1859–1936): A Swiss doctor and missionary who lived for four years at the court of Ngungunyane.
GODIDO (1876–1911): A son of Ngungunyane, who accompanied his father into exile. Sometimes known as Godide or António da Silva Pratas Godide.
INDUNA: A local African administrator and tax collector.
LANDINS: The generic Portuguese term for native peoples living in southern Mozambique, some of whom were recruited into the colonial army.
LIEUTENANT AYRES DE ORNELAS (1866–1930): Soldier and politician during the final decades of the Portuguese monarchy. Took part in the campaigns against Ngungunyane headed by António Enes, and was later a protégé of Mouzinho de Albuquerque.
LOURENÇO MARQUES: The colonial name for Mozambique’s capital city, now known as Maputo.
MAFEMANE: Ngungunyane’s half brother and heir to the throne of Gaza, because his mother was King Mazila’s principal wife. Reputedly murdered by Ngungunyane, who then became king.
MANDHLAKAZI: Manjacaze in Portuguese, a town and important center of operations for the VaNguni.
MANGOLÊ: Term used to describe Angolans by the VaNguni.
MANICUSSE: The founder of the State of Gaza in the early nineteenth century.
MATONGA: Someone of low status or a slave.
MOUZINHO DE ALBUQUERQUE (1855–1902): Portuguese cavalry officer and leader of the expedition responsible for capturing Ngungunyane.
MUZILA: Father of Ngungunyane and son of Soshangane, the founder of Gaza. Muzila ruled the kingdom of Gaza from 1861 to 1885.
NDAU, VANDAU: An ethnic group in southern central Mozambique.
NGUNGUNYANE: The VaNguni ruler of the State of Gaza, eventually defeated by the Portuguese in 1895. Known in Portuguese as Gungunhane.
NKOSI, NKOSICAZE: Terms of address directed at people of high social status among the VaNguni. In Portuguese orthography, usually spelled Nkossi.
NSALA: The fruit of the spiny or kaffir orange tree.
NSOPE: A type of alcoholic drink.
NTXUVA: A board game played widely in sub-Saharan Africa, probably originating in Egypt.
NWAMULAMBU: A snake-like monster, blamed in local lore for cyclones.
SANCHES DE MIRANDA (1865–1931): Portuguese artillery officer, and later colonial administrator.
TERREIRO: An open area for dancing or performing religious ceremonies.
TIMBISSI: A Zulu word for hyena, but used to describe an elite VaNguni military squad.
TXICHANGANA: The language spoken by the Shangaan, an ethnic group inhabiting southern Mozambique and adjacent areas in South Africa.
TXITXOPE: The language spoken by the VaChopi.
ULTIMATUM: The Ultimatum of 1890, in which Great Britain demanded that Portugal drop its claims to Central Southern Africa, areas now corresponding to Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia.
VACHOPI: Known in Portuguese as Chope, an ethnic group in southeastern Mozambique, here in uneasy alliance with the Portuguese.
VANGUNI: An ethnic group originating in South Africa, which migrated up into southern and central Mozambique in the first half of the nineteenth century, bringing many other ethnicities under its political control.
VÁTUA: Portuguese term for the VaNguni.
XIGODJO: A fortified VaNguni village.
XINDAU: The language spoken by the Ndau or VaNdau.
XIPERENYANE: A VaChopi military leader, who rebelled against Ngungunyane’s rule. Sometimes known as Xipenenyana.
ALSO BY MIA COUTO
Woman of the Ashes
Rain: And Other Stories
Confession of the Lioness
Pensativities: Essays and Provocations
The Tuner of Silences
The Blind Fisherman
A River Called Time
Sleepwalking Land
The Last Flight of the Flamingo
Under the Frangipani
Every Man Is a Race
Voices Made Night
A Note About the Author
Mia Couto, born in Beira, Mozambique, in 1955, is one of the most prominent writers in Portuguese-speaking Africa. After studying medicine and biology in Maputo, he worked as a journalist and headed several Mozambican national newspapers and magazines. The author of Woman of the Ashes, Confession of the Lioness, The Tuner of Silences, and Sleepwalking Land, among other books, Couto has been awarded the Camões Prize for Literature and the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature, among other awards. He was also short-listed for the 2017 International DUBLIN Literary Award and was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015. He lives in Maputo, where he works as a biologist. You can sign up for email updates here.
A Note About the Translator
David Brookshaw is an emeritus professor at the School of Modern Languages at the University of Bristol. He has translated several other books by Mia Couto, including Woman of the Ashes, Confession of the Lioness, The Tuner of Silences, A River Called Time, and Sleepwalking Land. You can sign up for email updates here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
Introductory Note
1. Murky Waters
2. First Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
3. One Church Under Another Church
4. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s First Letter
5. Gods That Dance
6. Second Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
7. The Luminous Fruits of a Nocturnal Tree
8. Third Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
9. An Age Without Time
10. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Second Letter
11. The Theft of a Metal Word
12. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Third Letter
13. Between Bullets and Arrows
14. Fourth Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
15. Women-Men, Husbands-Wives
16. Fifth Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
17. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Fourth Letter
18. A Mass Without a Verb
19. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Fifth Letter
20. The Wandering Shadows of Santiago Mata
21. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Sixth Letter
22. A Locust Decapitated
23. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Seventh Letter
24. One Tear, Double Sadness
25. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Eighth Letter
26. A Liquid Grave
27. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Ninth Letter
28. The Divine Disencou
nter
29. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Tenth Letter
30. Sixth Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
31. A Hospital in a Sick World
32. Seventh Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
33. Imperial Fevers
34. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Eleventh Letter
35. The Vulture and the Swallows
36. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Twelfth Letter
37. A Bride in Waiting
38. Eighth Letter from Lieutenant Ayres de Ornelas
39. A Roof Collapsing Upon the World
40. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Thirteenth Letter
41. Four Women Facing the End of the World
42. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Fourteenth Letter
43. All that Fits Inside a Belly
44. Sergeant Germano de Melo’s Fifteenth Letter
45. The Last River
Glossary
Also by Mia Couto
A Note About the Author and Translator
Copyright
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
120 Broadway, New York 10271
Copyright © 2016 by Editorial Caminho
Translation copyright © 2020 by David Brookshaw
All rights reserved
Originally published in Portuguese in 2016 by Editorial Caminho, Portugal, as
A espada e azagaia
English translation published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2020
E-book ISBN: 978-0-374-71970-8
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
www.fsgbooks.com
www.twitter.com/fsgbooks • www.facebook.com/fsgbooks