The Woman Who Kept a Lizard

During those years when we moved from the farm, I was staying with my grandmother, Manungwa Chinzodzi. That was 1946. Most of my time was spent with my grandmother. She loved me very much and I loved her too, because she was my grandmother.

After sadza at night, when we had nothing to do, we would sit down. Some children, they don’t sleep very early. So when she told ngano folktales, she was doing it so that those people who are slow to fall asleep would go to sleep faster. Because some ngano can make you feel weary. You listen, you listen, then you sleep. Then she would tell you, “If you want to sleep, go and sleep.” Then you would stand up, and go and sleep. And there might be two or three other grandchildren left, and then my grandmother would stay with those three. When she was ready to sleep, those three wouldn’t make any trouble; she would simply say, “We’re going to bed.” And they would sleep. So that is what we did long ago. Here is one of her stories:

The Woman who Kept a Lizard

There was a woman who kept a little lizard, which we call totomwe or tutumwe. That small lizard is mottled in color, part brown, and part cream. It scurries very quickly. So, that lizard is called totomwe.

So, this woman, who kept this lizard, she kept it to use it in her fields. So, what she did is, when she arrived at her field, she would be gathering beans. And as she was gathering beans, she would sing:

Tononga nyemba                               We’ll gather beans
Tukutsu tuwaya hondende               Tukutsu tuwaya hondende
Tononga nyemba                               We’ll gather beans
Tukutsu tuwaya hondende               Tukutsu tuwaya hondende
Tukutsu tuwaya                                  Tukusutu waya
Tukutsu tuwaya hondende               Tukutsu tuwaya hondende

So then she fills her basket like this and takes it back home. And the next day again, she returns again. After two or three days, she had finished. Yet everyone else was still in their fields, gathering beans.

Then, other people began saying, “Well, how is she gathering these beans? We are struggling, tired out by all these beans. But she never tires. She spends the whole day singing in her field; let us go and see.” That is when they saw that little lizard gathering the beans for her, and putting them in her basket. Gathering beans, and putting them in her basket, singing, “Tukusutu waya.” Just like that, “Tukusutu waya.”

So, they sought an explanation, and they found it; the little lizard was gathering all the beans together, collecting them all in one place. They said, “Oh, that is what is happening. That woman has a little thing that she is using.” And that is where the story ends.

The meaning of that story, is that people keep things. They do things like zvikwambo, a kind of  spiritual medication. So those people, they have done something like zvikwambo. That is what they are using in the field. So, people used to say that if you see someone who is an excellent farmer, don’t think that it is simply that he is simply working very hard. He is strong, but he also has something else, which you cannot see, which is working for him.

Along these lines, some people have a type of medicine that is called divisi. With that medicine, if someone farms a very small area, a single acre, that acre can give him two, four, or even five tons of maize. Yet you farm five acres, and fail to harvest even one ton. So, what is happening is that he is coming into your fields, and taking your seeds, and causing them to move into his field. That is what people do; that is divisi.