Ragi The Mountain Boy
pp. 72-73 · Read in the full issue
By Monica Yadiwalya
Once there lived in a dark round house in an isolated mountain village, a boy named Ragi with his poor mother, Sikwa. Sikwa was a widow whose husband was killed during a village fight some years earlier. Every night, and often during the day, Sikwa would light a fire in the house to light up and warm the room. There were no windows in the house because the air at night was too cold, and even during the day it was very cold. In the night, Sikwa often closed the door to keep the room warm so that she and her son could go to sleep.
One night while Ragi and his mother were eating their supper they heard a strange noise outside the house. They were both terrified. Ragi turned to his mother with fear and asked her if she had any idea who was outside. Sikwa turned to Ragi with tears rolling down her cheeks
and said, “Don’t be afraid, Ragi. It might be our distant neighbours want ing some help.”
Then the door was flung wide open and a man stood there with spears in his hands. Ragi was so frightened that he began to cry. The stranger asked Sikwa if she had ever known a man named Kabubu. When she heard the name “Kabubu” she became very excited. The stranger soon realised that Sikwa had been Kabubu’s wife. She began to tell him the story of how Kabubu had been the village chief and her husband, and how he was killed during a vil lage fight, When the stranger heard all this he was very sorry for the boy and his mother, because he was the one who had actually killed Sikwa’s hus band. He had been searching for Kabubu’s relatives for some years as he had realised that he had unjustly
killed Kabubu and wanted to make amends.
After Kabubu’s death Ragi and his mother lost all their possessions, their native money and gardens and event ually had to leave the village which made all the village people very sad, but they could do nothing to help.
Ragi and Sikwa were now very poor and could only grow potatoes on their small piece of land.
After hearing all these details about Kabubu and his family, the stranger returned to his home. He told his clan about the family isolated from the rest of their clan on a desolate mountain side. The people of Mala, the stranger’s village, were very sad when they heard this and gave the stranger food and other good things to take to Ragi and his mother. They were soon very friendly with each other and were accepted into the stranger's tribe. Later, Ragi married a beautiful young girl from this tribe and they lived very happily together.
After his marriage Ragi took the place of his father in the village and eventually became a very important man. Later, his wife, Doka, gave birth to twin sons. One was called Kewala and the other Bunebume after the beautiful birds that lived in the forest.
The parents loved their sons very much but their joy was turned to sorrow when an enemy from the neighbouring village who hated Ragi and his father before him, worked sorcery on the children and they died.
Ragi and his wife were broken hearted, but they did not believe in seeking revenge for the death of their children, so they lived alone for the rest of their lives mourning the death of their sons.