The KT OLLA Web Stories

NILE and Vickie turned to Maqwela, listening to hear him all out. So the king went on to the case in point. ‘I told you the other day that I live with paranoia. That I always run to stone my sick brother at my time of crises. ‘Zadeque is the name of that brother of mine. I’m the only reason why he’s paranoid today. Why he hides from the world! ‘But, you see, I cannot let him roam because people will talk. I care for my throne that much! ‘Still, I want to atone for my sins. But then I keep on hurting this man!’ Nile and Vickie looked on and said nothing. ‘You see, I am selfish and self-centred! But you may be so generous that you’ll excuse these under frenzy… how about this incident? ‘It was a year ago when I was most desperate for a cure. I got some people who claimed to be experts of some alternative therapy. ‘They were carrying out experiments on acute cases like mine. They were also in the last stages of study, so I offered to be their study. ‘I brought in my brother as second guine...

IT was a special morning for Maqwela at his palace. Sand and Muse returned for their assignment with the ruler. The music stars were in a private talk with him. They were seated with him inside the secured hall where he’d had a talk with them before. It was the place with a secret pass into Zadeque’s. The prince lived in an adjourning cottage which the pass opened to.  So in their talk, Nile and Vickie told the monarch about salvation through Jesus. They told him that it was Jesus who had touched him through their music. That He’ll always restore wholeness to those who’d be grateful to Him. They told the monarch that Jesus was ready to give him a second touch and make him well. That the man needed to turn his life to Him. Maqwela smiled at the friends and said no. He gave a reason that surprised the two.  ‘I know your Jesus… probably more than you think I do. I know He pardons sins – I’ve heard it many times before. ‘See, if I was to be talking with other people, I’d just have...

VICKIE sat on the ceramic tiled floor, crouched in a corner in the little room. She clasped a small bible over her knees, spread it open at nowhere in particular... But Vickie wasn’t gleaning from her bible, she was glaring at Nile. It was the recess that’d got Samba to go out and check her phone. This was during the prayer meet-up. So they were on a break – and Samba must’ve gone chatting up Collins, she thought. But there they were, together... both Nile and her, they were the only ones left musing. So Vickie stole a glance at the young man as he sat a small distance away and jotted down some things. The tall, slim dude faced away from a doting girl, so he wouldn’t know a lady was tripping. He wrote in a notebook like a class pupil and didn’t know he was looking quite charming. Vickie turned to look some more and found herself gazing, and loving him. She wasn’t unfamiliar with him scribbling notes, especially after a spiritual encounter. She was pretty sure he’d got a revelation for ...

IT’D been a few weeks since Maqwela invited Sand and Muse over to the palace, so the media had got a tiny wisp of the news. The chatters spreading round the capital were that Es and Em got itself a big contract to play at the king’s palace. It went with talks about how fat their deal must pay. But that was not what happened, as the talk with the monarch was quite different. King Maqwela had asked the duo to play him therapeutic music till he was well. He’d offered them a huge pay for their time. But the friends weren’t some experts in music therapy. Nor would they share the credit of what God could work through sound. So they took on the spiritual work they’d take no pay for. They wouldn’t stop till the day he was healed. Now everywhere they turned on internet, there was something nagging them to explain better. They didn’t want the king’s secret leaked. They didn’t want their purpose known, too. So they chose to keep their phones down and focus on work. Within those days when they sta...

LIGHTS shone down on them, as cameras filmed at angles. It was the set of a viral show that crossed two stars the world had been dying to wed. They were solo artists who claimed they wouldn’t date each other. And had never been seen together. But all the Islands went wild every time they released their tracks after each other. As they rapped bedroom stuff that gave dirty meanings when synced in cross sequence. They were a different breed of stars, the other kind of shine. They called them Rich Hard and Dame Queen. Now the online talk show kicked off and there were about 600K live viewers with likes of half the number. It wasn’t what a Cape Island channel had ever recorded on the platform. Even youths across the borders liked to watch. Then Richard and Dame – that was their offstage names, took the internet by a big surprise. They went clumsy at their intro and made obvious efforts at bonding. They smiled and greeted, but everything seemed plastic. Yes, the viewers understood that they ...

MAQWELA rushed down to his brother and called for help. The then head of palace security showed up. The man was Collins’s father. He’d also served Chaka-Hulu before he died. That man knew when the brothers’ talk turned a quarrel. As he’d been watching out for the king’s safety close by. But the quarrel went so fast that before he could figure where things were headed, there was the mess. So he rushed in while Maqwela cried, and called an ambulance. In a while the ambulance arrived as it was one of those stationed for the palace. Now the man went with the victim and stood as his guardian through surgery. The surgery went on for hours then the patient was turned to an intensive care. It was long weeks of sleeping comatose. Now after the dead sleep, Zadeque came awake… and survived. But the prince didn’t live the sane fellow he used to be. He woke up a paranoid case. And so, Zadeque began to live with paranoia from the age of 28. Well, so acute was it that he couldn’t bear to see anyone. ...

THE argument started like every other one that night. The argument about freedom between two brothers. It was 3 years after Chaka-Hulu died and Maqwela became king. So the new king had been visiting Zadeque at night to hear him out. But this night didn’t go down like other times. It went on and on and never dawned… It was a painful evening that rolled on for 15 years. Prince Zadeque pleaded, as he’d always done, for the newly crowned one to set him free. But Maqwela stood his ground, so the brothers wrestled with words. Zadeque saw that his brother wouldn’t yield, so he chose to throw words in his face. Words that could hurt his pride and make him bend. ‘Are you this scared about me? Someone who wasn’t raised with privileges like you? ‘Look, no man wants your throne – it’s just you! So why should I stay here to make you feel capable? Why?! ‘Come, if you’re so weak to hold your place then leave it out to regents! Go on, abolish monarchy in Cape Islands… who cares? ‘But you can’t hold me...

THROUGH their growing years, Zadeque was tutored within the palace as the possible heir of his father… Maqwela, however, was granted the privilege to travel and train in professional studies. As well as act as the kingdom’s crown prince. It was a dangerous race their father tossed them to. Well, Chaka-Hulu had read the older boy before the fight. He’d seen that Zadeque wasn’t interested in the throne… That what he wanted was being able to roam freely. Yes, the father knew that what he wanted was freedom. Still he placed a big price on this human thirst. ‘Hold on, my boy,’ he told him one day. ‘You are meant to tour the whole world, but not without power. ‘You are meant to be an emperor. Like the great Chaka of Zulu. ‘So you must hide till I gain more nations beyond our little shores. ‘Then when I fall like all conquerors must do, you will take my throne and rule my empire like Chaka. ‘You wouldn’t have to wait for these!’ Now it was these words that turned Zadeque the fierce fighter. S...

ZADEQUE was a kid that his father didn’t know he had. Yet from the day he found him and claimed him, he began to pitch him against his brother. The kid was born to him from an affair the king had with a woman. It was when he desperately sought for a boy from his queen. The secret love didn’t last a time when the woman fled. She fled when she realized she was pregnant. For the queen haunted her to death. Zadeque’s mother went hidden through her pregnancy. But she died at her delivery when she gave birth to her baby boy. So the baby’s grandmother took him and nursed him. He hid him till she would die. Therefore the first son of the king lived hidden from the kingdom’s awareness. And in the meantime the palace had a boy. He was Maqwela. Now when Zadeque’s grandma was about to die, she sent a letter to the king that he’d got a son. As she wouldn’t fear death, let alone the king. This way, an unknown prince showed up in a palace way too obsessed with crown prince-hood. Then Chaka-Hulu pitch...

KING Maqwela’s story started when the man was just a boy and the crown was only the future. Maqwela was 8 years when his father gave him his biggest shock as a kid. The man was the reigning king of the Cape Islands then. His title was the Chaka-Hulu. He was the third Chaka-Hulu to rule the kingdom. So he wanted his house to hold the king line. Chaka-Hulu called his heir Maqwela, so he ran to answer him. But while he was nearing the king’s court, he met another boy on the way who looked so much like him. Only he looked a few years older, and taller. Now the boy crossed the running prince on his path, as he dashed to the same place from elsewhere. ‘Hey, you!’ he cried after him. ‘You’ve got speed!’ Maqwela glanced back yet kept running. His lookalike doubled up. ‘You know I’ll have to catch up wi’ you an’ outrun you. ‘But if you’re this fast, I’ll just forget about the race and cheer you on!’ Maqwela stopped, surprised at the boy’s gut. It was upsetting enough that he saw a boy looking C...

SAMBA had a small rethink when she got up to walk with Collins. She hesitated a moment, then her man figured it was about the duo. He knew the lady was being anxious about Vickie and Nile, thinking they might find it a bit hard to get her. ‘Oh you’re worried ’bout them finding us? I mean, Es & Em. ‘Well, I’ve got somebody on that. The moment they’re through, I’ll be informed. You don’t need to worry, Samba.’ Samba looked at him and nodded. She smiled when she saw he’d got this mapped out. That he’d got the walk planned. So she smiled after the thought. ‘Thank you, Collins.’ The dude looked at her and said nothing. He only smiled like he knew. Thus the two new friends stood and walked round the grand palace, stamping down in sands of time their first steps together— Walking and talking from parks to gardens, to lawns and lanes... It was like they’d known each other since birth. Sand and Muse were done in about half an hour. So Collins helped the duo meet their manager. Samba saw the...

SAMBA took a forlorn look at her watch. It was about 3 hours since Nile and Vickie had been with the king. Samba had been waiting alone and thinking about the stars all of this time. So now she was starting to get a bit more anxious. But Samba’s worry had fell this heavily on her because she was all beside herself and lonely. She’d had so plenty of the view at sea – so plenty that she’d easily dream of waves on white sand that night. She’d had too much of smiling at the views that she was forced to remember she was still single. So the darling one was quite fed up with star and sea gazing, when she had a gorgeous surprise walk up to her. The girl had looked to the doorways so many times that she couldn’t count. Then she’d wished each of those times that the star kids would show up from there with a smile. It was the pleasant gift that she’d craved as payback for her waiting. But she found something else she’d got missing. Samba George raised her gaze from her watch now to glare at the ...

MAQWELA caught the smile on Nile’s face as he turned back to him. He knew why the boy smiled, yet he liked him more. Those were some things of innocence that he missed. The king liked people who wouldn’t cower when he used power. Unlike how he’d tremble as a boy when his late father abused the right. Yes, he liked folks who still retained their peace as they grew. Like those cute youngsters listening to him. So the monarch resumed, but he preferred to go the earnest way. ‘Now like I said earlier, that nobody enters here except Maqwela passes them – you must also know that nobody hears the things I’ll be speaking now unless we tell them! ‘Now I know you’re smart enough to know what I said – and what I left unsaid!’ The duo braced up and gestured with a nod. They knew the weight of that sentence and were ready to keep the monarch’s secret. They knew they were about to hear a blast. And so they braced up for it. Right then the middle-aged heaved a deep breath, crossed his arms over his ch...

SAND and Muse were led to the stately court of the King Maqwela I. Yet the duo never had to sit and wait as the monarch himself was waiting. In the meantime, their manager was hosted in a waiting hall within the palace... It was a place with a lovely view as it looked over the sea. Now as soon as his guests arrived, Maqwela dismissed his attendants – everyone, including his security men. Then he led the kids to a secret door within the palace. It was a false wall of concrete. One that formed part of a whole colour gradient that flowed across the place. The door was an automated one designed to sound like concrete in proportion to an applied force. And it only opened when Maqwela placed a thumb against a dot of infrared. Now behind the door was a fine-looking indoor lawn that anyone would wonder why it needed top security. The roof was made of glass that sent in sun and moon lights. Then it’d turn a blind when a sensor over it detected roaming. Or else, a valid pass into the place would...

AN empty silence filled the crystal decked interior of Es & Em’s speeding van. That morning before the break of dawn, Nile and Vickie raced to the appointment they’d got with the king. And Samba drove them at top speed. It was the week after the duo’s performance at the convocation event. So they, along with their mates, entered the new week as music graduates. Now the king of their country had scheduled an appointment with Sand and Muse. He’d told his secretary to reach their contact line and fix appointment. It was on the night he saw their performance. Well, Samba George had gone later to establish contact about the appointment and secure needed details for the team. Yet all she was able to get for Sand and Muse were things about logistics. No one knew what exactly the meeting would be about. So then Samba drove the fine chunk of luxury in a skidding pace through the fast lanes of capital. She must reach palace far longer than the set time. But the summoned ones only sat and wat...

WADIBE was stuck on a place in his text, so he asked the lay reader to read through. The lady went through the part again. ...that they should seek the Lord, in the hope  they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. The preacher resumed and blared out loud. ‘Yes, God wants you to only seek – because that kind starts from the heart! ‘For when you seek, you go beyond your efforts! You are yearning. You are longing to find. You are groping for Him! ‘It is with the heart that man seeks.’ He paused, then explained. ‘You see… a woman doesn’t search for the fruit of the womb. Because she almost cannot do anything about it. ‘A woman seeks the blessing which a union gives; and hopes, yearns and prays for it. ‘She seeks, because it is the gift of God!’ ‘So also, God is spirit and those who reach to Him must do so with true hearts! He desires truth in the inward parts.’ He closed on this: ‘Our physical efforts that have no spiritual rooting is vain, as fait...

NILE chose to go to church for the last time and say goodbye to everything church. And so that quiet weekday, the 15-year-old went to the evening fellowship but didn’t sit with the band. He simply sat at the backside of church. That day it was his father who preached. His short sermon was titled, “Adam’s Babel”. He began. ‘People of God, why do you think that all societies of mankind craft idols? Craft the things that they could see as god? ‘Well, they always say these things: that it’s in an effort to reach the Almighty. That anyone looking for Him tries ways. ‘Yes, that is what the scholars of Athens said, too. Because they made big efforts to find God. ‘It was in the first century AD when a missionary like Paul met this people. Yet this is the selfsame thing I hear among modern folks!’ He asked his lay reader, a woman evangelist, to read the scripture. She read the Book of Acts XVII. 18, 22 & 23. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, ‘What...

WHEN the Wadibes settled in the war-torn zone of South Sudan, they couldn’t raise Nile with undivided attention. The middle-aged parents had thought they were done with childbearing, then Nile came from the excitement of the new place. Reverend and Mrs Wadibe felt quite a bit embarrassed when they settled in the war zone to help give relief only to be surprised by joy... No, the couple wasn’t so happy. But then it didn’t take long before the family of 7 left Sudan for elsewhere. As the parents of 5 kids admitted they couldn’t keep the work there. So the newly born had just begun to crawl when the family thought to travel to Swaziland in the southern parts of Africa. It was a quieter nation than Sudan at the time, with a king and prime minister at the helm of affairs... For it ran a monarchical parliamentary – like the Kingdom of Cape Islands. Now Revd. Wadibe secured his mobilization to Swaziland in southern Africa... He was serving as a global evangelist for an American mission. So he...

VICKIE and Nile grew quite lonely in their younger years, so they chased nothing more than a parent’s love. The paired lump of destinies enjoyed care and everything maternal. But the luxury they didn’t find were their fathers… They weren’t there in their lives. Now all through life they chased their dads till a bigger chaser caught up with them. It was Destiny who caught two kids and brought them close. Vickie Williams was raised by Sara her mother till she was 9. The woman went back to her parents in her own country after Paul Williams left her to go back to Cape Town. Now Sara raised her girl in Cape Islands’ capital Basini, with her life dream being that Vickie would someday grow and beat Paul. That she’d grow so big he’d feel small. Well, Sara felt pretty hurt – to say it gently, when the conglomerate boy left her first. She’d got a big plan up her sleeves. That she’d use Paul to snitch close to the big guns in the clan, pleasure them and spy for them... Then she’d cause a crack in...

WHEN Es & Em’s manager seemed not to get their situation, she asked at last. ‘Is there anything wrong with the parcel, Vickie? Does it come from someone you don’t like?’ The words jolted the lady back to life. She was a strong, confident woman, but that piece of harassment didn’t meet her well. So when Vickie talked up at long last, even Nile doffed a hat for her. ‘It’s nothing that serious,’ she said. ‘I think I just discovered I don’t like purple and violet… and blue, and white!’ Both listeners turned to note the colours in the flowers. ‘But they’re very cool colours, my dear!’ Samba was amazed at Vickie’s reason. ‘That combination of colours, ma’am! I suddenly dislike them.’ Vickie’s words made the older lady stand up straight. She gazed at the stout looking queen and knew she shouldn’t pester more. So she was less surprised when the girl said this, smiling: ‘You can dispose the thing quietly. We shouldn’t let news be talking flowers like it’s music. Or what d’ you think?’ Samba...

SAMBA George walked into the dressing room to see Vickie and Nile looking busy. They seemed pretty engrossed tearing the bouquet note that they didn’t see her. It was Vickie who was doing the shredding, so she hissed almost every time she tore more parts. And Nile stood behind her all too speechless at everything. Samba saw how quite worked up they were, so she went closer and peeped. ‘What are you doing now?’ ‘Oh Ms George,’ jerked Nile. ‘We saw this small bouquet among our gift cards. Can you still remember who gave us please?’ Now the cute friends had no idea running through their heads that they’d easily take Samba as their player. And again they’d known her quite longer than they should turn her doting care to a freak’s game now. Yet Samba’s answer broke them down to pieces. And it wasn’t her that broke their hearts and trust. ‘Oh that flower,’ she answered. ‘We got it through a delivery man. He delivered it for Es & Em so I signed it on your behalf.’ ‘They even sent it by del...

IT was a little lesser than an hour since Sand and Muse performed at the convocation orchestra. Samba George had been moving about packing up several gifts presented them. But then she stopped by the female dressing room. It was a general women’s room in the college theatre. Vickie shared the room with female members of the school orchestra. But when Samba got there to find her, she was gone. Samba George was Vickie and Nile’s manager. A single lady in her mid-thirties, she offered to assist the rising stars on their schedules, and chauffeur them around places. Ms George, as the artists often called her, was a younger friend to Vickie’s mother, Sara. Sara had been the person working as the manager. But when she saw this friend admire those geniuses like one would do some adults, she stepped back to let her dream... To let her live her dream.  So Sara signed her on a paid contract with Sand and Muse. It was since the duo’s second year. Now when Samba searched the female room and did...

VICKIE William’s story started right before the girl was born. It started with her mama chasing the glamour. Sara was quite the gutsy island girl. She’d got the looks, then she was smarter than average... So along with beauty and brains came ambition. So, naturally, when she got into South Africa’s University of Cape Town where she opted for law, she didn’t flow with most guys. Instead, she went for the son of a conglomerate family in town. But then the dude wasn’t the heir of the clan. So he was playing around the university’s music department. Sara liked him and won him, and owned him. The boy’s name was Paul Williams. So the teenagers got so close that by their final year they were talking future. Paul liked Sara for talking big and dreaming wild. Her drive always fired him up to chase something big. But Paul would be too hurt to learn this. That Sara was using him to climb. Sara became pregnant, then the Williams’s heard and started war. The lovebirds eloped to the farthest place t...

NILE and Victoria were born close to each other but didn’t meet. Then they raced through their life to cross paths. The tangled swans weren’t twins or cousins separated from each other at birth. Still when they were born at the borderlines of Uganda and South Sudan, it seemed all forces didn’t want them close. So they toiled almost 2 decades to come near. Nile was born in Juba, which later became the capital of South Sudan in East Africa. It was during Sudan’s religious war when the southern side of the nation hadn’t seceded. Nile’s parents were travelling missionaries. His father was a charismatic leader, always sought after for his powerful words. So Philip Wadibe and his wife who trained as a nurse were the hands the American mission there, sought. The couple were citizens of Cape Islands, an indigenous country sitting off the western coast of South Africa. Just beyond the coastal waters of Cape Town. Now they’d barely settled in Juba of what became South Sudan, when they had Nile. ...

THE sovereign ruler of the nation of Cape Islands—he cried like a boy. He jolted up at a high pitch tone that bounced off the theatre walls and returned to pound his chest. It was a shrill falsetto that ushered in the night’s final act. And it was all sound and darkness and no one seen. King Maqwela’s demons returned, as he’d been able to hide a dark monster that had been feeding off his brain for years. So when the sudden cry came with nightmares, he suddenly got on his feet to flee the public. It was going to be a crisis and it didn’t come well. It was a night to remember in the capital islet region of Basini (the biggest of five islet regions that formed Cape Islands) – as so many people gathered for the 50th Founder’s Day Orchestra of its premier university... The University of Cape Islands. Now the event was also the musical night in the institution’s convocation ceremonies. So the kings and mayor of neighbouring peoples were invited to the grand thing. Resplendent in the high sea...