They are Coming

Chapter 25

98 Chapter 25 At Ilanga Youth Centre, Ambition’s eyes are fixed on Mrs Gumbo. ‘What’s she doing there?’ Ntando asks, alarmed, as if he wants to shout a warning. ‘They’ll beat her up if she doesn’t watch out!’ ‘I don’t think they’ll do that,’ Ambition says, for he’s noticed that Mrs Gumbo is wearing a white T-shirt bearing the head of the President, just like the one worn by the Green Bombers. Indeed, the Bombers stand up when they see Mrs Gumbo. ‘Good afternoon, Mrs Gumbo,’ Ntando says involuntarily, as if he too were in the class. ‘Good afternoon boys and girls,’ Mrs Gumbo says. She’s smiling, something she rarely does at school, ‘And how are you today?’ ‘Fine, thanks, and how are you?’ Ntando knows the drill by heart, as the young people on parade clearly do. ‘Fine, you may sit down now,’ Mrs Gumbo tells the Green Bombers, and both Ntando and Ambition sit down as well. The leader of the Green Bombers offers Mrs Gumbo a chair and she sits down and proceeds to read from her history textbook, which provides all the names of black leaders who were involved in the war of liberation, as well as those of the ministers since 1980. These are facts, which they are supposed to learn by heart. Afterwards they have to learn the names of all the minerals found in the country. And at the end of every lesson Mrs Gumbo explains how white people made black people slaves and that whites are very evil people. ‘When white people came to Africa, they had nothing and we had everything. But look around you now, they have everything, and we have nothing. Do you think that’s good?’ 99 ‘No!’ the Green Bombers yell, ‘Down with white people.’ ‘Look at all the black people who run away to Europe, thinking they’re going to find good jobs there. What are they doing now? The white people refuse to give them good jobs because, like I told you, they regard them as baboons. So they make them their slaves and force them to do their dirty jobs. But what do we do here in Zimbabwe when we see a white person? We want to grovel at their feet and worship them! Where is our pride as black people? What happened to the dream of Dr Martin Luther King please tell me?’ ‘Who is Doctor Martin?’ Ntando whispers. ‘Maybe he’s a doctor in town that Mrs Gumbo visits when she’s not feeling well. He’s probably a white person, because his name is “King”.’ ‘Now I’m going to read an excerpt from Dr Martin Luther King’s speech. “I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice …”’ ‘Her doctor is very good in English,’ Ntando comments. ‘What’s Mississippi ?’ ‘Maybe it’s an injection for mararia, but shhh, let’s listen.’ Mrs Gumbo folds away Dr Martin Luther King’s dream, and puts the piece of paper back inside the textbook. ‘But how can our Mississippi be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice when white people continue sabotaging us every day?’ ‘Mississipi must be a country,’ Ambition says. ‘There are even some of our own black people who have joined the white people in trying to reverse the little gains of our Independence,’ Mrs Gumbo continues, ‘which we lost blood for during the war of liberation . Just look at M.D.C.’ She provides an emphatic pause between each letter. ‘What are they trying to do? Mhh?’ ‘Down with the MDC!’ the Green Bombers shout. ‘I’ll tell you a story,’ Mrs Gumbo’s voice assumes a gossipy tone. ‘One day last year during the athletics competitions at my school, something happened that nearly drove me to doing something I did not think I could do…’ Mrs Gumbo pauses for effect, and looks at the seated youths. ‘I was one of the recorders of the running events; sitting next to me was that man Nkani, who’s now campaigning to be an MP for the MDC, the traitors.’ 100 The Green Bombers have obviously heard this story before, and they start whistling and chanting: ‘Down with Mr Nkani! Down...