Axel-Ivar Berglund - Nordic Documentation on the Liberation ...

study Zulu people in order to write a book on the people, that it dawned on me
what the consequences of a marriage between a Royal Princess and myself
would be. I was not a seasoned missionary, but I was a product of the
mission, and that marriage would cover up the evils that had happened. Now
these things come to my mind every now and again, I dream of them.
Bertil Högberg: What happened to this offer to marry this girl?
<strong>Axel</strong>-<strong>Ivar</strong> <strong>Berglund</strong>: Oh I said I wish to continue my studies. And that was
accepted. I said nothing about her, I knew her very well indeed. I think she
must have been a year younger than I am. We met every now and again and
when I came back to Ekutuleni after the years in Sweden, we met. She was
then married to a fair, good man. I came in time to baptize their second child
and the second child was a boy and in typical Zulu fashion, as the celebrant of
the baptismal ceremony, I should have a say in the name. I found it difficult to
find a name that could be attached to my person as well as to this little young
gentleman. At home I wasn’t called <strong>Axel</strong>-<strong>Ivar</strong>, I was known as Sleever. They
said, it was the mother, “But why not Sleever?” And Sleever it became. To this
very day he is Sleever.
I don’t like the word ‘chief’ because lots of people were chiefs, but prefer the
Zulu word ‘Nkosi’. Relationships between Nkosi Nkanthini as well as his
brother Piga and my parents, were very good indeed. Every year Nkosi
Nkanthini would send a goat to my parents for Christmas and my parents
behaved in corresponding fashion. When the goat was slaughtered you take
the part of the meat on the ribs, which is a delicacy, and send it back to the
people that brought the goat, so that they could report that the goat had been
slaughtered and skinned properly and say that this is what Nkwazi, my father,
is sending to Nkosi as thanks. All these little niceties we observed in our home
all the time and it all gave a certain standing to my parents in Zulu society.
I think that to get an overall picture of what happened in my life, I would have
to distinguish three things. Firstly, come my relationships with the Zulu people.
From the royalty of Nkosi Nkanthini down to the more humble people,
families, children, the servants, all of them were treated as people. The
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