Ndaba's burden

Ndaba Gaolathe and his fellow Tirelo Sechaba participants, young boys still in their teens, came out. But the old man was wrong, the buffalo was not dead.

Pandemonium. Buffalo charges. Men and boys flee. Boys make for the same tree. At the trunk, a small chaotic knot of boys trying to climb over each other forms. Ndaba must find other means. Leaning branches grabbed and mounted as a short cut. "It got crowded at the tree trunk. Ka palama setlhare ka dikala," recalls Ndaba laughing.