The little boy Abo could handle the elephant with the same ease as the tribe’s champion rowers their canoes. Even as a toddler, the boy had never been afraid of the big beast, laughing his head off when one day, Bobo suddenly wrapped his trunk around him, raised him high up in the air and gently rocked him from left to right, to the consternation of his mother. It was as if the boy and the big-eared beast could read each other’s minds. Abo assured Midala that Bobo not only understood Chopi, but also spoke it. Doting father that he was, he had only smiled condescendingly, and this had upset the son who hated being disbelieved. ‘I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true,’ he had said indignantly.
(Thumbnail image credit: © 2016 Enrico Harvey)
Read about Abo »
Book 1
Chapter 2: Inhambane
(Inhambane, Mozambique, 1790s)
The Chopi people had always had a unique relationship with elephants whom they called their forest cousins.
Chapter 9: The Enemy Approaches
(Inhambane, Mozambique, 1790s)
Midala had slept not a wink all night. Shortly after the first crow of the cock, the tom toms had begun to rumble. This time things were happening nearer hom...