By Mvuselelo Ngcoya• 23 September 2021
Zozo's Ark - a vision of South Africa's potential 'rainbow nation'. (Illustration: 2lani)
Every 18th of July, in commemoration of the great-grandfather’s vision, they would come out and repaint the Ark in the colours of the rainbow. But the inevitable rains came. The Ark creaked, the lower deck inundated. All Zozo and Neiba did was paint the deck…
For 350 years, Zozo was held prisoner in a dungeon under his captor’s palatial mansion. Every night he could hear his tormentor’s family supping on the most scrumptious meals. Every night he would calm his heaving chest and pray for deliverance from his chains.
Even in his life of bondage, he reminded his wife and children that they were of royal blood. That this was their ancestral land. That the whole armoury of his tormentor would not dim their golden future. He reminded them that one day they would be free.
For decades, Zozo’s harrowing screams tore through the night.
The tormentor’s neighbours grew weary of the excruciating nightmare beneath. A vast network of people, near and far, old and young, pressured him to end what had become a blazing personal menace.
One glorious summer day, Zozo was suddenly free!
When he emerged from the dungeon, the Tormentor was terrified. Terrified of the certain wrath to come. To his surprise, Zozo the magnanimous said he had suffered enough. He wanted all suffering to end.
He was regal, and his spirit high, the world was his.
His neighbours were in awe — how could one so ruthlessly tormented not seek revenge?
He would frame the next decades as the great age of unity.
He called a meeting of the two families — announcing that he had received a great vision from on high. His great-grandfather had appeared to him in a dream, he claimed. He had seen the calamitous future awaiting them if they didn’t work together. If they didn’t cooperate, there would always be a great bewildering cloud between them and the sun. They would be awash in endless violence and disease.
They had to build an Ark of salvation. He also gave Tormentor a new name, Neiba.
For many years, they undertook the greatest experiment in the history of the land. It was the most intricate, the most fantastic and speculative design. Neiba asked that his family be allowed to keep his house. Zozo insisted he would find the most talented architects in the world to relocate Neiba’s house into the Ark.
Since Zozo’s life was synonymous with the dungeon, he wouldn’t imagine life otherwise. The original dungeon thus formed the lower deck of the Ark.
This would be his home.
Old wood recouped from the old dungeon roof, formed the Ark’s hull and keel. The upper deck would be Neiba’s old mansion. And Neiba’s house rules would govern the Ark. The lower deck and upper deck were accessible through a rugged external rope.
After many years of hard labour the Ark was complete.
It was a remarkable architectural feat.
They coated it with pitch and then painted it the blinding colours of the rainbow.
Zozo travelled the world with Neiba demonstrating how they had built the famous Ark. They shared the plans freely and widely. They received prestigious awards from the World Ark Institute. People the world over named their towns, streets and sons after Zozo. Visitors came from afar to witness this marvel.
Every 18th of July, in commemoration of the great-grandfather’s vision, they would come out and repaint the Ark in the colours of the rainbow.
But the inevitable rains came. The Ark creaked, the lower deck inundated. All Zozo and Neiba did was paint the deck.
For 67 minutes, they would paint.
Whenever they heard a creaking noise from the keel, they would come out holding hands and paint.
The winds howl, they paint.
The deck floods, they paint.
To be continued ….
Prof Mvu Ngcoya teaches in the development studies programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. When he’s not in class, he is an agroecological farmer in the undulating slopes of Richmond.