The Bride Price: An African Romance (Chitundu Chronicles) by Suzanne Popp

come?”
    “Yes. Another boy.”
    “You have made an excellent choice of family.  Family is really all that matters in the long view.  Family and reputation. And tradition.” Valoo looked for a moment as though he wanted to add something to this list of instructions for life, but what it was eluded him. “Well, keep up the good work.”
    “Yes sir.  Thank you again, Valoo.  You are a generous man.”
    Later that evening, as Valoo handed his daughter the tickets and told her she would be going home to care for a dear relative who had fallen ill, he remembered what he had wanted to add to his advice.  Values.  Like Valoo.  Values.  That is what was needed for a successful life.  He would have to try to remember to tell that to Joseph.  Maybe at the wedding.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 7
JOSEPH’S HISTORY
     
    Joseph began his courting of Violet by going over his history. He knew Violet would want to know all about him, and have information to share with her parents when they asked. As he could not write it down, he rehearsed what he wanted to tell them about himself, and if need be, he would have the church secretary write it out for him. As he thought about the decisions he had made so far in his life, he was positive that the choice of Violet would be one of the most significant he would ever make.
    Joseph came from the region where the Kalahari begins.  His people were hunters and gatherers and had been for eons before the other groups began to take over the land.  He was tall and had a mind for figures.  At an early age, he could take inventory of what was in the granary, the boma, the garden.  While his brothers and sisters were busy herding goats and cattle, or wrestling in the sand, Joseph lined up sticks to keep track of his calculations.  It wasn’t long before one of the Indian merchants discovered his gifts and asked him to come and work in his mercantile warehouse.  Joseph often took yard goods or a tool for his pay, and then would trade or give them to local people in need.  By the time he was a teenager, the merchant offered him the position of store manager, encouraging him to travel with him when he made his purchasing trips.
    Joseph loved to travel and while he did not attend formal school, he knew how to trace his voyages on a map and to record what he had seen by making a symbol in the margins. He also learned the price of goods.  He probably would have continued to work in the large warehouse store if he had not overheard a conversation between Valoo and his wife discussing the marriage of their daughter.
    “We are going to have to get the money together and send Pearl back to India to provide a suitable husband.  I have asked my uncle to line up a matchmaker to work on behalf of our family.  I know it is expensive to put together a dowry, and she is young, but we don’t want her to fall for some kaffir that she comes across in the marketplace” Valoo told his wife.  The Valoos thought they were alone for the evening as he and his wife counted out the cash from the cashbox at the back of the store.  Joseph was tidying the dry goods shelves and could hear every word.
    “Husband, I have had the same worry. I see her go to help do inventory and I am afraid the girl is not thinking about how many yards of cloth we have. There is no one here of our social status or class.  We may have difficulty in finding someone willing to take her if we wait too long.  She is already fifteen.  I was thirteen when we were betrothed.”
    “I will arrange to get her a ticket for next week.  We will wire my uncle and have him look after her until a match is made. You tell her she is going to visit a sick relative to give comfort.  I can forward him the dowry to seal the arrangement.  He knows what we want for our family in a mate.”
    The gist of the conversation was that they needed to get her back to their homeland so that she would marry a proper husband, and not find herself tying up with a