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Certain Winds from the
South 4
'Had we not heard of the war? Was it not difficult to get
things like tinned fish, kerosene and cloth?
'Yes, we said, but we thought it was only because the traders
were not bringing them in.
'Well yes, he said, but the traders do not get them even in
the south.
'And why, we asked.
'Oh you people, have you not heard of the German people?
He had no patience with us. He told us that in the south they
were singing dirty songs with their name.
'But when are we going, I asked him?
'What he told me was that that was why he had come. He
could not take me along with him. You see, he said we were
under the Anglis-people's rule and they were fighting with the
German-people.
'Ask me, my child, for that was exactly what I asked him.
What has all that got to do with you and me? Why can I not
come south with you?'
'Because I have to travel to the lands beyond the sea and
fight.
'In other people's war? My child, it is as if you were there,
that is what I asked him.
'But it is not as simple as that, he said.
'We could not understand him. You shall not go, said his
father. You shall not go, for it is not us fighting with the Grunshies or the Gonjas.
'I know about the Anglis-people but not about any German-
people, but anyway they are in their country.
'Of course his father was playing, and so was I.
'A soldier must obey at all times, he said.
'I wanted to give him so many things to take with him but he
said he could only take cola.
'Then the news came. It did not enter my head, for it was all
empty. Everything went into my womb. You were just three
days old.
'The news was like fire which settled in the pit of my belly.
And from time to time, some will shoot up, searing my womb,
singeing my intestines and burning up and up and up until I
screamed with madness when it got into my head.
'I had told myself when you were born that it did not matter you were a girl. All gifts from Allah are good and anyway he
was coming back and we were going to have many more
children, lots of sons.
'But Hawa, you had a lot of strength, for how you managed
to live I do not know. Three days you were and suddenly like a
rivulet that is hit by an early harmattan, my breasts went dry.
Hawa, you have a lot of strength.
'Later, they told me that if I could go south and prove to the
government's people that I was his wife I would get a lot of
money.
'But I did not go. It was him I wanted not his body turned
into gold.
'I never saw the south.
'Do you say "oh"? My child I am always telling you that the
world was created a long while ago and it is old-age one has
seen but not youth. So do not say "oh".
'Those people, the government's people, who come and go,
tell us trade is bad now, and once again there is no tinned fish
and no cloth. But this time they say this is because our children
are going to get them in abundance one day.
'Issa has gone south now because he cannot afford even goat
flesh for his wife in maternity. This has to be, so that Fuseni
can stay with his wife and eat cow-meat with her? Hmm. And
he will come back alive ... perhaps not next Ramadan but the
next. Now my daughter, you know of another man who went
to fight. And he went to fight in other people's war and he
never came back.
'I am going to the market now. Get up early to wash Fuseni. I
hope to get something for those miserable colas. There is
enough rice for two, is there not?
'Good. Today even if it takes all the money, I hope to get us
some smoked fish, the biggest I can find, to make us a real
good sauce.' .
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