Microsoft Word - PhD Thesis Final.pdf - University of Limpopo ...

in 1889. During that funeral at the royal kraal, Sack wrote about how he
went there and confronted the chief:
But I found the chief [Monyebodi] in a small hut all by
himself. He sat on the ground, head in his hands. I had a
very serious conversation with him and told him that the
God of Heaven and Earth had spoken a word to him and
the whole tribe: that he and his people should now at last
accept the Word of God… Poor Monyebodi, you probably
know what God’s word requires of you and what the
teacher amongst your people wants, but you do not want to
free yourself from the chains of sin and darkness” 322 .
It appears that also, still on the death issue, the missionaries had a problem
in which the Black communities mourned for their relatives who had past
away, in addition to their frowning at their funeral proceedings. Of course
loud crying was another way of how relatives and other community
members mourned for their dead. On this issue of loud crying, Sack wrote
this on 18 April 1889:
Last night there was much noise and scandalous drinking
at the main kraal during which the men howled like dogs
and the women mewed like cats. In the kraal, in the
morning we were woken by sounds, like the long drawn out
howling of a jackal, similar to those mourning. I do not
322 Ibid, p. 4.
182