First, Kouzera whacked the horsewhip on the sandy rocks and then whistled the redheaded doelings into the kraal. Immediately, the kids raced towards the ‘maa’ and ‘baa’ goats and suckled the swollen nipples. Outside the kraal, twisted-horn bucklings head-butted each other. This time, the thumb-sucking man mumbled warnings that were snitched to him by a chatting bird. Instantly, the villagers scoffed at his cursing remarks, while mocking him for drinking gallons of ozonguindi brew. 

“Yellow bee-like insects are heading this way,” he said, licking his thumb. In reply, the chuckling villagers dished him sacred milk. Soon the forbidden milk churned his tummy, and he started yelling about yellowish bees flocking towards Okahandja. Not long after, the chief advised the villagers to take the cows behind the camel-humped mountains. By now, the humming bee-like insects blended in with the fluffy flowers growing on yellow acacias. 

Days later, Kouzera’s warnings spooked the villagers, when the doelings kidded yellowish kids. The gossiping women squirming on hand-knitted mats whined that the yellow thimble-thorns gave them sleepless nights.

 Later, the girls were given sour berries after piercing the thimble thorns from the loincloths. Even the servants plastering the huts with cow dung whined about the thorns-infested cow poo. This prompted the Ozonganga to suspend marital pleasures because of the hips and thigh-pinching thimbles. The nipping thimbles only softened after a spell of red hailstones and by now, the nursing doelings were producing yellowish milk. After the curse of thimble thorns, a flock of stinking bugs invaded the village. For weeks, the villagers pinched their noses against the stench sprayed by the creamy bugs. Although, the shield-shaped insects were not stinging, the unpleasant smell they excreted polluted the air. 

The odour-spraying bugs triggered an exodus of cows towards the mane-like hills, as a throng of herders ran away from the stinking insects. Now, the villagers consulted Ozonganga about Kouzera’s remarks after the red cows began to calve cream-coloured calves. The creamy calves became an easy prey of spotted hyenas that hid amongst the red rocks. 

The last sign was the arrival of gold-coated horses brought by the settlers to pull their wagons to Otjikango. Kouzera’s warning was scribbled on the yellow carpet of dried-up thimble thorns. In the end, the wild pigeons greedily pecked the stink bugs; cooed funeral songs, and drifted in the pinkish sky.

Ozonganga – fortune-tellers 

Ozonguindi – beer