Meokgo and the Stickfighter

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Sekalli le Meokgo is a magic realism story about Kgotso, a recluse stickfighter who lives a solitary life high up in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. Legend whispers of Kgotso's mother who died in childbirth bequeathing him with a curse. He was raised by an old traditional healer, who on her deathbed gives Kgotso his most treasured possession, a concertina. At the tender age of 8 Kgotso vanished into the mountains. Kgotso returns to the villages only when hired by distressed farmers to protect their sheep from thieves who plague the valleys. On day, whilst tending the sheep and playing to himself on his concertina he sees a beautiful and mysterious woman staring at him dreamily from the water. He is captivated. She disappears. The next day she returns, drawn by his beautiful music. As he plays for her, Mokgodutswane, a sinister and evil horseman, ambushes them. Kgotso is badly wounded. The horseman rides off with the woman. Kgotso is found by the villagers and nursed back to life. He discovers the woman in the village, but she exists only as a motionless body known as Meokgo. What he met in the mountains was her spirit, which was stolen and enslaved by the evil horseman Mokgodutswane. Kgotso, an outsider who was once cold and unloving, finds himself enchanted by Meokgo. Kgotso returns to the water to lure Meokgo's spirit and face the evil that has enslaved her. This is a story about unrequited love, and sacrifice infused with both the cruelty and the beauty of African magic.