Mandla and Mabula were off on the side now. I knew they would go through the same heartache of ostracism as Mnumzane had and I wished there was something I could do about it. In larger reserves, they would team up with other adolescents forming a loose bachelor association with an adult bull. They’re called askaris and do what most young groups of men do: hang out, chase girls and test their strength and wits against each other and the world. The older male becomes the father figure they never had in the matriarchal herd, teaching them masculine etiquette as well as more practical matters of
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