The escapades of a township riverbank
A short story by Lillian Mlambo, the EWT’s Communications Manager
What does a mermaid and an Anaconda have in common? They both lend themselves to tales of
superstitions about luck and danger as well as entrenched myths concerning them living or habituating in
rivers and streams. A mermaid is considered to be a lucky charm and a beautiful creature who lives in
harmony with both people and wildlife whilst an Anaconda is likened to the snake that tricked Adam and
Eve and got them banished from the Garden of Eden. The Anaconda is thought to be a dangerous and
ruthless reptile which destroys and swallows everything in its path. Whilst a mermaid is a make believe
legendary aquatic creature with an upper body of a female and a tail of a fish, the Anaconda is a real life
creature known to be the largest snake in the world which is indigenous to the wetlands and rain forests,
east of the Andes mountains, in South America. Take a look at the tales concerning the existence of these
creatures at a certain riverbank in Soweto.
As young children growing up in the townships of Soweto and occasionally visiting rural areas, we
encountered wildlife to which there were many myths attached. The many wildlife encounters we had in
the townships were limited to birds as they were forever roaming free from sunrise to sunset; caterpillars,
worms, butterflies, snails, if there was a garden in your house, and on occasions we would find snakes as
we ventured and played close to a bed of a nearby river with countless reeds along its windy banks.
In the 1980’s there wasn’t any much sporting and leisure facilities so we had to be very creative on the
‘games and activities’ of the day and we largely did this or played together as a group and we would collect
each other house to house. We ranged between the ages of six to eleven. On many occasions we went
to the river and we even had a regular competition of crossing the river back and forth, stepping on rocks
across its width which was about seven metres.
As children what fascinated us about this river is that we were told about a “Watermeis” a term used in
the township preferred over the Afrikaans term “meermin’’ or a “mermaid” in English. Another term
preferred was “u-mamlambo” in isiXhosa or isiZulu. “A mooi meisitjie met 'n stert van 'n vis wat kan praat
and ook sing”. We were really eager to come across such a creature as we were familiar with birds and
snakes and not this elusive creature that we could only find in the river. On school holidays we would
diligently venture out to this river daily to see whether we could identify the “watermeis”. What
fascinated us about this creature was that it was supposedly half-human and half-fish and the fact that it
could talk and sing. We also wanted to see the long flowing locks of hair, listen to the beautiful melody
of its voice, and experience this creature for ourselves instead of hearing about it through street tales of
the old magogos and mkhulus in the township. We formed an alliance with the intent of outdoing the
prevailing folklores about this creature and create a new one as young kids. In short we wanted to tell our
own story about this amazing and beautifully described creature.
After many journeys of embarking to the river, day after day, to unravel and discover this mysterious
creature for ourselves we then realised that this “watermeis” will not be coming out any time soon. We
kept this a secret and did not tell a word to our parents, we had make a pact about this. None of us
wanted our daily escapes to ever reach the ears of one of our parents, for fear of getting into huge trouble
and being grounded for eternity. It was one of those secrets that ended up with the children and rarely
ever got to parents which explained why we were able to go to the river unsupervised with many of us
not being able to swim.
We stopped our river escapades when we heard about the drowning of other kids in the area in March of
1987. Thankfully none of us in the “Riverbank Escapade Group” drowned but there are many kids who
grew up in the townships who succumbed to drowning over the years going on similar escapades. The
riverbank we had known and explored in for a period of four school holidays in 1986 suddenly became a
danger zone, this was cause for concern. As far as we can remember the word in the street was that the
kids who drowned were swallowed by an Anaconda.
As to whether there indeed was an Anaconda and a mermaid in a river flowing in Soweto will remain in
the imaginations of those who told the stories and to those they told the stories and so forth. So in our
minds we imagined that whilst we were sitting on a riverbank longing to see the “watermeis’’ or going
about our usual business in the river, that this gigantic long slimy and windy snake with an appetite for
kids will suddenly appear below from the reeds and devour us one by one. Ever since we discovered that
an Anaconda lurks in this river we vowed NEVER again to set foot in the river nor its riverbanks for fear of
being eaten by the lethal reptile. The image of a snake swallowing any of us did not sit well with us so we
bid “äu revoir” to our river escapades. With jaws that are able to open wide enough to allow Anacondas
to swallow a large animal or a whole pig or deer in a flash of lightning, we did not want to end up as
statistics.
For more information on this shorty story, please contact Lillian Mlambo on e-mail [email protected]