Stranger in his Homeland

Chapter Two

11 Chapter Two B efore Antony retired to his room later that evening, the DO had already made up his mind about him. He was NOT to be the new Chief of Small Monje, and the Elders in the palace needed to know about that change before they went to bed that night. He knew it would not be easy to convince the old men about the rightness of his action. But he was determined to use every weapon at his disposal, to use brute force, if necessary, to carry through the decision. Two policemen accompanied him to the palace. He parked his Land-Rover outside the gate and they descended into the palace. Two men who had heard the noise of his vehicle up at the gate met them as they entered the palace grounds. “Good evening, goment,” they greeted. They called the DO and any other government officials goment. The DO did not answer. He looked round the group and asked: “Where is Ngobefuo?” “In the Ndie-Ndee, goment,” somebody said. “What of the other Elders? Are they asleep already?” “Nobody had slept, goment,” he was told. “When we are catching a Chief we do not sleep. They are all there,” the man said. He suspected no problem. “Lead me there,” the DO said gravely. “I want to talk to them.” *** The DO very rarely came to the palace. In fact, he had never been known to come there in the night. It was already eleven o’clock, and the old men viewed his presence with very great trepidation. “Welcome, goment,” Ngobefuo greeted for all of them. “Evening,” the DO answered with a gloomy nod. He was then shown where to sit, but he did not sit down. From his standing position he pointed to Ngobefuo and said in the same severe tone: 12 Linus T. Asong “Ngobefuo, l would like to speak to you and those who choose the Chief for this tribe.” There was silence, abrupt and dismal. The old men detected a grave error on the part of the DO. Ngobefuo cleared his throat and spoke: “Goment, nobody here chooses a Chief. We only catch him. The father of our new Chief chooses him before he dies. And after he has died we bring the people together as we are going to do tomorrow and catch him. That is what we do.” “I want to speak to you and those who catch the new Chief.” “We are all here,” Ngobefuo said and pointed round at his kinsmen. The DO tightened his lips, swallowed his spittle loudly and then said: “I have come here this late hour to tell you that Antony Nkoaleck cannot be made the Chief any more. We have to change the succession and place it on any other of the Chief’s sons.” The expression on the faces of the Elders was one of outrage. “We do not understand you, goment,” Ngobefuo said, pulling is stool up towards the DO. “How don’t you understand me?” “We don’t understand you because Fuo-Ndee did not die yesterday. You have not just been told that Nkoaleck will be caught as the new Chief. When Fuo-Ndee died, we came up to you with Nkoaleck’s name and showed you and we told you that he was the one Fuo-Ndee had chosen to occupy his chair of rule. You said you agreed. You said you were glad. When he came down to put his father in the grave he was with you. You still said you were glad with him. And now you are singing a different song. That is why l said we do not understand you.” “I will explain…” “You will explain, goment. But after you shall have explained, we shall say ‘no’. And we shall say no because Fuo-Ndee has already died. We shall say no because we never break a dead Chief’s word. Never. We shall say no because we are only midwives of this tribe. A midwife delivers only the child that is in the womb of a woman, not any other child he likes. That is why we shall say no. If you asked us to bend his word, that would have been different.”” 13 Stranger in his Homeland The DO rubbed his hands together and then asked: “When do you bend a Chief’s word?” “Goment, we bend a Chief’s...