The trouble began the season the rains came late. The Nzara River shrank to a muddy trickle, and the cattle—the village’s pulse—grew thin. Two families, the Mang’ombe and the Chisenga, quarreled over a watering hole that had been shared for generations. What started as a few harsh words escalated into accusations of sorcery, then theft, then the brandishing of an old hunting spear.
The silence stretched. Then the Mang’ombe elder let out a long breath. “The boy speaks true. I remember my father telling of the cow.” Peter Kalangu Balesa Baluluma
The crowd went silent. No one had ever seen such a record. The trouble began the season the rains came late
