Anthills of the Savannah - Chinua Achebe [100]
… And now the times had come round again out of storyland. Perhaps not as bad as the first times, yet. But they could easily end worse. Why? Because today no one can rise and march south by starlight abandoning crippled kindred in the wild savannah and arrive stealthily at a tiny village and fall upon its inhabitants and slay them and take their land and say: I did it because death stared through my eye.
So they send instead a deputation of elders to the government who hold the yam today and hold the knife, to seek help of them.
After Agbata there were numerous empty seats in the bus. Braimoh moved down and sat directly in front of Chris who had been joined by Emmanuel since the girl had deserted him to sit with a fellow student-nurse.
“Young men are not what they used to be,” said Chris. “You mean you let a girl like that slip through your fingers on a bus excursion?”
“I did my best but she wouldn’t bite. And do you blame her seeing these rags I’m reduced to?” He made a mock gesture of contempt with his left hand taking in his entire person decked out in ill-fitting second-hand clothes. “Such a tramp! And on top of it all you should have heard the kind of pidgin I had to speak.”
“Poor fellow,” said Chris with a gleam in his eyes. “I am truly sorry for all this inconvenience.”
“I must confess I became so frustrated at one point I began asking her if she had ever heard of a certain President of the Students Union on the run.”
“You didn’t!”
“No. But I nearly did. It is not easy to lose a girl like that.”
“And under false pretences!”
“Imagine!”
“Sorry-o.”
“Actually she is the shyest thing I have ever met in all my life. I don’t think it was my clothes alone.”
“I shouldn’t have thought so either. Your sterling quality would shine through any rags.”
“Thanks! The real trouble was getting her to open her mouth. She spoke at the rate of one word per hour. And it was either yes or no.”
“How did you find out she was a student-nurse?”
“Na proper tug-of-war.”
“What’s she called?”
“Adamma. Her father is a Customs Officer in the far north.”
“A lot of information to piece together from yes and no.”
They laughed and fell into silence as if on some signal. They had each independently come to the same conclusion that though everything had gone reasonably well so far they must not push their luck by talking and laughing too much. It was in the ensuing reverie that Chris, gazing out into the empty landscape, had become aware of the anthills.
When he had read the prose-poem through and read the last paragraph or two over again he said quietly to Emmanuel: “You must read this,” and passed the paper to him.
It was Braimoh who first drew their attention to a large crowd on the road half-a-kilometre or so ahead. Almost simultaneously everybody in the bus seemed to have become aware of the spectacle so unusual and so visible in that flat, treeless country. Many of the passengers had lifted themselves to half-standing positions at their seats the better to see this strange sight. What could it be? A check-point? The driver slowed down to a wary pace. As the scene came closer, a few uniforms began to emerge out of the dusty haze. There were a few cars and trucks parked this side of the crowd and a bus that was heading South and perhaps other vehicles as well slowly became visible beyond.
The uniforms were greatly outnumbered by people in regular outfits, presumably passengers whose journey had been