Tofi's Fire Dance

By Pusch Commey

Nii, a young boy from the West Coast of Africa, stows away on a ship to the land of dreams, America. He is thrown away to sharks for breakfast. Protected by a mysterious rainbow fish, he washes up on the shores of the South Coast of the Zulu Kingdom. After a misunderstanding over language and culture he is accepted into the cattle herding community. He teaches them how to fish because "sea never dry." They teach him about cows because ' cattle is wealth. " When Nii has to go back home Tofi, the little girl who saved Nii, fights for his return. She is compelled to go on a pulsating search for the magical rainbow fish, and has to dance in fire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pusch Commey
• Release date: Oct 2, 2021

Pusch Commey

Ghanaian-born Pusch Komiete Commey is an award-winning Author, Advocate (Lawyer) of the High Court of South Africa, and a former Associate Editor of the UK- based New African Magazine. An expert on Africa and its histories, he has made several contributions to Radio, TV, and Newspapers around the world. Pusch, as he is popularly known, lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and still finds time to battle an AI in his favourite game – Chess.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Many years ago, there was a small village called Esilengeni. It was a simple community in the kingdom of the Zulus.

The people of Esilengeni were very good with cows. They lived on the meat and milk of cows. When a man got married he used cows to pay lobola. The richest man in the village was the one who had the most cows and the most wives.

Then something happened that changed everything. From a village of cattle herders, Esilengeni became a big fishing town with many modern factories.

Some owners of cattle became owners of fishing factories that exported fish to the whole world for cash. Others became owners of beautiful shops that sold goods to the many people who flocked into town to look for a better life.

A museum was built. Every week it attracted tourists from all over the world. The museum employed more and more people to tell them about Esilengeni. The visitors walked up and down the beautiful rolling hills surrounding the town. They lay on the green grass with their picnic baskets and watched the African sun disappear behind the hills. Some even changed their names to African names.

Good restaurants, filling stations and any business that you can think of opened up in Esilengeni because of the fishing industry and tourism. Anybody who wanted to work found a job. Esilengeni became a miracle town. It grew and grew.

Children no longer had to wander all day looking for grass and water for cows, or firewood to cook the evening meal. They attended an excellent primary school called Gugulesizwe. The secondary school, Sizabantu High School, also produced top students.

In the evening children helped their parents at the shops and factories and learnt how to run businesses. Some of them went on to become lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers and big business owners.

How it all happened remained a mystery. Not even the curator of the museum could really tell you the true story of Esilengeni, now a big bustling town on the South Coast of Zululand. It was only known to the little withered old lady who lived on the highest hill. Tofi was her name and many people called her the mother of Esilengeni.

Her age was a mystery, too. Some said she was the oldest woman that ever lived, but could not tell her age with certainty. Neither could she tell her own age.

One day Gogo Tofi called together all her great, great grandchildren to an mbizo.

‘My dear little ones,’ she said, ‘I am now very old, and very soon I will be gone. This is a story I have been dying to tell you. I took a friendly bet with someone very special, many years ago before he passed away, that I would live to tell this story to my great-great-grandchildren. I have lived to see that day. In a way