“Come in for breakfast.”

The two boys were still dragging their feet wanting to stay outside longer when they heard Mwana’s mother shout, “We made ‘THOSE’ pancakes today!”

All that was left as the training spot was dust.

In the main homestead of Mwana’s family, there were several people seated around a huge oval table on stools of varying sizes. At the head of the table was a middle aged man on a white wheelchair. The chair looked curved out of some type of sturdy wood. Curved on its wheels were two sculptures, though it was hard to tell what they represented due to the wear and tear.

One could tell that this wheelchair had once possessed a magnificent look. This man had a well built upper body as he sat shirtless on the chair, but his legs had already atrophied. They were covered by a thick purple blanket with white shell patterns, but one could still see from the outlines that his legs were much thinner. He was the head of this homestead, Jua Vumilivu, Mwana’s uncle and the one he called ‘little father.’

Beside him were two middle aged women, Jua Moja and Vua Moyo. They both had shaved short hair and their necks were adorned with several necklaces made of multicolored beads. Their arms were uncovered but they wore long black dresses that were tied below their arms and flowed to their feet. They also wore belts made of multicolored beads just like their necklaces. On their arms were numerous golden bangles, over dozens of them, each with unique runic patterns.

The woman seated to the right, Jua Moja, was the firstborn cousin in the generation of Mwana’s parents. She was older than her cousin Jua Vumilivu, who was only the third son but still the second uncle. This might have seemed complicated since cousins would call each other brother and sister. The other woman, Vua Moyo, was Jana’s mother and Jua Vumilivu’s wife. She was actually from the Vua clan, another of the clans within the Jemedari tribe that specialized in fishing.

Beside Jua Moja was another man. He was extremely tall, almost reaching seven feet tall. His hair was deep black with shades of grey that stood out starkly. His beard was thin and sparsely spaced and his dark grey eyes seemed to emit minute suppression as if he was ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

Just by sitting there, he exuded a unique air of someone who lived in the battlefield. Despite it being early in the morning, he already had his shoulder guard on and his spear at his side. His upper body was bare and he only wore a short cloth made of an unknown animal’s hide. At his waist were two massive knives held in place by a coarse leather belt. He looked like someone going off to war instead of just eating breakfast.

“Brats, you have been training for so long, not even wanting to eat. Let me test your strength.”

The moment Mwana and Jana entered the living room they were greeted by their second uncle’s Jua Wapili’s booming voice.

“No way!” They both exclaimed at the same time when they saw their uncle already standing from his stool. They immediately started running around the house like cowardly rabbits. It was obvious that they had suffered before whenever this uncle wanted to enter a ‘test of strength’ with them.

“Sit! Don’t run around!” Mwana’s mother and his third aunt, Jua Jumatatu, had just arrived from the kitchen when they found the two boys running around.

His aunt, Jumatatu, wore an orange robe with a white cap while his mother was still dressed in white just like she was the night prior.

The steaming pancakes which were usually baked using a variety of flours including wheat, cassava and sweetened yams, were set on the table. They had all manner of different shapes and were dressed with a golden syrup made of groundnut extract, honey and other sweeteners.

The adults were already salivating let alone the six children at the table. In addition to Mwana, Jana and Pendo, the other children were Jua Chenga, Jua Sayari and Jua Sawa. Chenga and Sawa were fraternal twins who were just seven years old while Sayari was even younger at five years old. All three had to call Mwana and Jana ‘big brother’.

At this time of the year, these six were the only children in their family’s homestead. Mwana also had several older cousins with two of them, who were girls named Mengi and Shera, having married into other families. Another one of his older cousins, Soko, had joined a travelling merchant caravan that battered goods all over the country so he was rarely in Jua village. As for his oldest cousin, there was rarely news of him after he left the village, even Mwana did not know much about him.