The Setting Sun and the Rolling World

During a massive rainstorm, Mhondiwa, who works on a gumtree plantation, comes to his coworker Chitauro’s home to settle a dispute and drink homebrewed beer. The meeting is a reconciliatory tradition overseen by the elderly Old Makiwa.

In a flashback, Mhondiwa loses his job as assistant foreman or “boss-boy” to Chitauro. Chitauro tries to be friendly, assuring Mhondiwa that he too will lose the job in a few months because their superiors are fickle. Yet Mhondiwa remains silent, slashing at gumtree branches until his hands are covered in lacerations and bruises.

After work that day, Mhondiwa comes home to his wife, who already knows about his demotion. She tries to pick a fight with him in public, but Mhondiwa refuses to indulge her. Instead, he walks away, gets exceedingly drunk, and viciously beats Chitauro. When Mhondiwa returns later in the evening, his wife claims that Chitauro is their children’s biological father—which may be true, or it may be that Mhondiwa’s wife said it to hurt her husband. Whatever the case, Mhondiwa responds by beating his wife for the first time in his life. The next morning, his wife is gone, and she took Mhondiwa’s sacred lion skin belt with her.