Stranger in his Homeland

Chapter Nineteen

143 Chapter Nineteen Any opposition from anybody concerning Antony’s marriage to Vicky only wet to emphasize how right he was in his decision. In fact, anything with which his people disagreed came to be the best thing for him to do. It was not that he knew they were right and deliberately decided to contradict them. His opinion of everybody else except Pa Godsabi was extremely inconsequential. Like Antony, Pa Godsabi did not care about what the rest of the world was saying about the engagement he had so carefully worked out. People had been insulting him for years. But he knew that the marriage of his long-neglected daughter to their first and only graduate was a milestone towards his rehabilitation in public esteem. He had everything to gain. His son-in-law would be able to pay a very large dowry, and he would also be able to turn to him at any time the need arose, for financial assistance. And that was not all. His son-in-law was also to become their Paramount Chief. And of the advantages that went with the crown, he was at pains to explain to Antony. “When you are Paramount Chief, you will be a god. You will have property, Money, etc. If Fuo-Ndee wanted to buy this town, he could have done it because of property. And the government will pay you 50.000 francs a month… Then for all these things, you have been talking about Anuse and Bitong and the rest. When you are Chief, all that will end. All, because we only see things as the Chief sees them… Fuo-Ndee has been my personal friend from when we were still children. When an ordinary man flatulates, people hold up their noses and complain. When a Chief flatulates, everybody claps! Nkoaleck, l don’t know whether that means anything to you.” “It certainly does, father.” Antony had never shown any interest in the crown at all. But each time, he sat with the old man, it looked more and more attractive. 144 Linus T. Asong “Good,” the man went on. “So if you are anxious that he should still look at you as the good child that you have always been, different from what Anuses keeps saying, l can do it. To go to Small Monje and talk to him like one good friend to another, and make him listen to me and believe me, that is not lie licking my elbow.” Antony knew that his father did not beer him any grudge. He had been home to see him on his return. But with Anuse and Bitong teaming against him and sending delegations every day to complain against him, there was always the possibility for his father to doubt some of the defence he had made. He was very grateful to the old man for the offer to go and defend him and encouraged him to do it. *** Eventually, the trip was made to see the Chief. Vicky went with them. As Godsabi had promised, he spoke so strongly in defence of Antony that the Chief gave them his blessings for marriage. This was the same as saying that the traditional obligations of the marriage had been fulfilled. And once a Chief blessed the marriage of his son in the presence of the father of the bride-to-be, the couple was free to live together as husband and wife. So as far as the tradition went, Vicky and Antony did not require any further ceremony to be called husband and wife. But Antony found the developments a little disconcerting. When he agreed that her people should go home and see his father, it was not to ask him to bless their marriage. He knew he would marry Vicky, but it was not to happen so soon. He had not wanted to get married to her officially without being assured of a job with the government. He thought the old man had made him act rather prematurely, that he had been tricked. That very month, the old man suggested to him that it would be more respectable for him as a married man to rent a small house up town, and not live with his wife in his own mother’s house. Antony saw this as just another way of telling him that Vicky was soon to pack and come to live with him. “My mother’s house is my house,” he tried in...