The Bird of Heaven The Story of a Swazi Sangoma

Mandla is a young Swazi boy training to be a sangoma, and the plot follows his training and growth in power. After completing the quest for his muti bag, he is initiated into the mysteries of Nkosatana, the Princess of Heaven, and becomes a heaven-herd by catching a bird of lightning. This coming-of-age story is superficially a fantasy adventure with some magic realism, but it also explores archetypes representing the struggle between innocence and corruption, the transition from boyhood to manhood, and the relationship between a boy and his distant father (a leopard in the body of a man). It deals with self-empowerment through the gifts of ancestors (the muti bag) and the transcendent victory of a noble spirit (the lightning bird). The narrative culminates at the Incwala festival, a major annual ceremony that expresses the spiritual identity of the Swazi nation, where Mandla uncovers a plot to kill the King.

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