Two interesting proverbs of the Tonga people are: Mulonga uzula bunkumunkumu and Malweza atungana mulongo. Let us look at the second of the two. The full proverb goes like this: Malweza atungana mulongo kumulonga.
The literal translation is: bad news (many very bad pieces of news) make a line as they match towards the river. A Tonga should be able to quickly discern that there are at least two parts to this proverb. The first part is about bad news. The second part is about matching in a line, and the third is about a river. I will now take the parts and explain the connection.
The proverb is about bad news, and the nature or character of the bad news. This is not just about news that is 'not good' but news that is ugly. We are not talking about a child failing a class test or a thief breaking in to steal some money.
Think of a man who returns from the fields to find his wife killed by a snake, then, before that same day ends, learns that his brother in another village has drowned in a river. This is the kind of news the proverb is referring to.
Let us talk about the characterization of such news as matching in a line. This is to indicate that when bad news begins to come in, you can expect not one, not two, but more of the same kind within a short space of time. Think of an expecting mother who miscarries, then a daughter is divorced, followed by a son who loses his job in the city, and a husband that falls in love with another woman in his workplace; everything happening within a space of a week or even a month.
The association of bad news in this way is what makes this proverb particularly striking. The last part of it is as interesting as the whole proverb. What does the river have to do with this? Well, proverbs were not always meant for children to grasp. One can only imagine that a man could speak this proverb to another in front of children; children would laugh because the proverb reminded them of women walking in a straight line as they went to the stream to draw water, missing the main point of the proverb.
This was a familiar village sight: a line of women carrying clay pots on their heads, or in more recent times buckets of tin or other plastic containers. As they went they would talk about different subjects, joking, laughing along. Once they got to the stream they put down their containers and filled them up with water before starting back to the village.
Proverbs were meant to be a means of delivering complicated, if not sophisticated and delicate or heavy news. Instead of saying, Oh my God, very very bad news coming out of the village, distressing, depressing news, how shall we call this; the day of darkness, wish we were never a people! The bearer of the news would simply say, Taata, aaya malweza atungana mulongo kumulonga: "Very heavy news is coming to us in a never ceasing stream."
Note the river at the end of the proverb. This could signify the fact that there is always bad news out there. The bad news affecting us now is on its way the same way that water that falls to the ground is on its way, going back to join streams and rivers out there in a never ending cycle of life.
The next time a Tonga says, Malweza, he or she is probably shooting a warning to say, get ready, bad news attracts other bad news. It may be an indication to brace yourself for other bad news coming your way. This, the Tonga people learned, was one way of nature. When you see bad news it is not time to throw the towel in, it is time to pray for better times to return. These are some of the ideas coming out of this proverb. Some people that I have come across use this expression to simply state a fact that they are not surprised by a series of unfortunate events happening around them.
Finally, let me return to the word malweza. This is a specific reference to something that should not happen. This word is used in reference to something that is more of an omen. Malweza is a very serious word in ChiTonga; to say aaya malweza (This is malweza) signifies something horrible, sinister, and often spiritually motivated. Imagine a woman who marries her own son, or an Uncle who impregnates a sister's daughter. Such things were taboo among the Tonga. Akali malweza. When things like this happened they were often accompanied or preceded by some strange happenings in the village. Those are very rough times for families.
A black cat arrives in the village and suddenly without warning dies in the courtyard, or a big snake makes its way through the village in the sight of young and old, doing absolutely no harm to chicken or cow or person, or an owl appearing in the middle of the village, making its nightly sounds by day. Such strange things were easily associated with malweza.
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