Ladybird: Mmanyonyane

LESEDI was a land of hope. Hidden among the fountains and rocks, it called to those it deemed to be fit. Fit enough to carry great responsibility, to rule over the creatures in the sky.

To many, this was in fact true. They had seen the unimaginable and heard of their whispered names - BA GA LESEDI, BO MMANYONYANE le BA BA BONANG DIKELEDI TSA BATHO.

They had many names and they were known to be many things. Like the hundreds of people, Puso referred to them as guardian angels.

Her memories were often filled with the many stories Nkhono often told her. Some made up and some a good representation of what she believed they were.

Nkhono hated the lies and pretentious talk. The land had never been forcing gifts among people. BO MMANYONYANE were gracefully handpicked and placed in the world.

These were women of royalty, dating from Queendoms that were hundreds of years old.

Before Nkhono took her last breath, she told her one last thing about BA GA LESEDI. Something that had never left her mind since then.

Her great grandmother knew how to speak to the birds. She never ruled over them but she knew their mother tongue.

Without the gift, this caused much confusion in her life. Without it, she never really knew who she was.

One day, the birds gave her the answer she had long been looking for and she set off on a journey through the fountains and the rocks.

The hundreds of birds flew above her, guiding her every step of the way. The fountain never made way for her. The rocks wouldn’t recognise her.

As she walked back, the birds had departed from her. They couldn’t understand what she was. No one who knew the path had ever been denied. No one who was really gifted had ever been denied.

The fountain always knew, the rocks always saw.

Who was she? Where did she belong? LESEDI was never hers.

Her great grandmother died without ever knowing and her grandmother was going to suffer the same fate.

None of them knew the language but it was imperative that the answers were found. And so, using her last breath, Nkhono gave Puso a task.

Find the fountain and the rock. Should you die without the answers, no one will ever know.

Puso spent many days learning about BA GA LESEDI, how they ruled over the sky and who they were.

Many who weren’t black South African speakers called them Ladybirds, a direct translations from the original Setswana term MMANYONYANE. They were many and not all were as good as Nkhono deemed them to be.

Crime, murder, theft, all increased due to the power they held. Not only could they speak to creatures of the sky but they carried significant magical power to influence.

LESEDI had many pathways of fountains and rocks that Puso didn’t know where to start. She didn’t have the gift. Like her great grandmother, she would be denied, rejected and left to herself.

Months passed and soon years, Puso no longer cared about LESEDI. She often visited her grandmother’s grave and thought of LESEDI. How much it meant to her, what she’d say knowing she stopped looking and how the answers would never be found.

In an attempt to console herself, she told her grandmother about a bird. A dove that often followed her out of her yard.

She once stood and tried listening to it, hoping she’d somehow discover she knows the language but it never happened. Like her great grandmother, she never really knew who she was.

In her sleep that night, she dreamt of a fountain opening up and she never woke up.

The land was real and the birds never departed from her. The dove flew towards her and she heard her voice:

The one who knew the language but never had the gift.

The one who was denied but now lives embraced.

The End.