The Bad Samaritan

Cover

Download PDF (2.8 MB)
 

Title Page

Download PDF (56.8 KB)
 

Copyright Page

Download PDF (75.1 KB)
 

Contents

Download PDF (100.6 KB)
 

Chapter One

Download PDF (92.6 KB)
pp. 1-4

On 23rd November 2000, Esole received a letter from his daughter in London telling him she was coming home for a month’s holiday and would like to stay with them. He was so stunned by the letter that he gave it to his wife to read and tell him what she thought...

Chapter Two

Download PDF (97.7 KB)
pp. 5-10

"The flight is expected at 6 p.m. You want us to go early to that jungle and do what there before the plane arrives? Have you ever been to that airport? There is nothing interesting there. There is nowhere one can refresh themselves there. The place is just a jungle. I have never...

Chapter Three

Download PDF (92.0 KB)
pp. 11-14

Esole and his wife left for the terminal when the soldier guarding the makeshift area had gone. To his wife’s disappointment, she discovered that unlike other airports where visitors climbed to the roof to have a panoramic view of the runway and thus admire the...

Chapter Four

Download PDF (100.3 KB)
pp. 15-21

After two weeks with them, their daughter wanted to visit her grandparents in the village. She told her mother she would need some money to buy local gifts like tea, sugar, fish, rice, bread, soap etc. for them. Those were image boosting things lucky grandparents shared...

Chapter Five

Download PDF (92.4 KB)
pp. 23-26

Dione’s departure confounded her parents. Their hard earned lives were at their lowest ebb. For three days Mrs. Esole did not eat. For three days the couple waited for their daughter to phone that she had arrived safely. For three days they listened to the radio to...

Chapter Six

Download PDF (91.9 KB)
pp. 27-30

The payment of loans imposed on Esole’s family by a voracious regime, the ‘loss’ of his daughter Dione (whom he had named after his mother) as the consequence of that rapaciousness, caused him to develop high blood. One day, he was rushed to hospital...

Chapter Seven

Download PDF (92.3 KB)
pp. 31-34

The primary reasons behind his wanting to go to Britain were, living in an environment of peace, seeing men and women of conscience, earning a good salary and forgetting about the death sentence living in Ewawa had imposed on him. But for every coin, there...

Chapter Eight

Download PDF (92.0 KB)
pp. 35-38

After choosing the political party and the position he would contest for, Esole decided to see the SDO once more. When he got to the SDO’s office, he rose, gave him a warm handshake and made him sit down. Echoes of Esole’s popularity had reached him...

Chapter Nine

Download PDF (99.6 KB)
pp. 39-45

While the ruling party went on with reorganizing its basic organs, Esole set his campaign teams on the move. They were to penetrate all the nooks and crannies of Lebmot Sub-Division. He hired motorcycles and the aggrieved boys (graduates who had...

Chapter Ten

Download PDF (92.9 KB)
pp. 47-50

The SPDP lost the elections but not the will to survive. They lost elections in victory. The ruling party won elections in defeat. That is the antitheses of this fatherland. Esole was composed. He did not want anything to work on his morale. So, though his...

Chapter Eleven

Download PDF (92.4 KB)
pp. 51-54

The next day he left for Dande. To occupy himself during the journey, he bought four newspapers. All of them discussed the elections. They praised the ruling party for its magnificent victory. The “Ewawa...

Chapter Twelve

Download PDF (91.0 KB)
pp. 55-57

To be candid, the humiliation and spiting a retiree undergoes in the Ministry of Finance is so petrifying that people who have the means stay out of it by abandoning their pensions. They cede the problem to their children. They prefer to die without their...

Chapter Thirteen

Download PDF (92.0 KB)
pp. 59-62

Esole did his work diligently, communicated with his wife and daughter, feigned to be a happy granddad and while he waited for his retirement time to come, he paid what remained of his debts gradually. His children performed well at school and in spite of the...

Chapter Fourteen

Download PDF (93.0 KB)
pp. 63-66

Esole could not recognize the vehicle. It looked like a military truck too slow to cover the distances he thought he would be making. Although he had thought of spending most of his time at Nidong, he had been advised to make Tonye his main base. He was told to...

Chapter Fifteen

Download PDF (95.0 KB)
pp. 67-71

By the third year of business, Esole had not gone to Nidong to see his farm. Only Beri went there time and again. The workers at the farm did very well. The produce increased with constant clearing and punctual spraying. The people of Western Bassiland spent...

Chapter Sixteen

Download PDF (92.1 KB)
pp. 73-76

Shortly after Esole had repaired the two vehicles Beri got information that his uncle had died. He left for Benso immediately to attend the burial. He was there for two weeks. Upon his return at night he found ‘Eso & Sons’ premises closed and sealed. The neon lights...

Chapter Seventeen

Download PDF (114.1 KB)
pp. 77-89

Next morning, the controller came from Tumba and broke the seal and gave Esole a six months probation period. Esole reopened the gates of his businesses with suppressed happiness. On the National Day he bagged FCFA 2,600,000 net...

Chapter Eighteen

Download PDF (97.4 KB)
pp. 91-96

Beri’s insights into corruption surprised Esole. But the truth was that they were so practical and problem-solving that he half admired and half condemned him in his mind. All in all, he had never had a boy like him and he prayed that he would...

Chapter Nineteen

Download PDF (94.3 KB)
pp. 97-101

Four months after the departure of Beri, Esole thought it was time for him to put Beri behind him. One afternoon, he decided to tour neighbouring villages to see their commercial potentials. Since he did not know how far he would go, he thought of...

Chapter Twenty

Download PDF (95.0 KB)
pp. 103-107

It was about mid afternoon when they set out to return. The boys conversed about the farm and opted to work there. They gave the virtues of farming. They praised their master for choosing to be a farmer. They praised Nidong and its environs. All such talk slashed...

Chapter Twenty One

Download PDF (92.5 KB)
pp. 109-112

The villagers stood gasping in disbelief, completely distraught by what they considered Esole’s heartlessness in human suffering. About thirty minutes after he had left, the woman died. Her husband sent his younger brother to Nidong to tell...

Chapter Twenty Two

Download PDF (93.2 KB)
pp. 113-116

Chief Nkume of Nidong, the paramount chief of West Bassiland took it as a personal challenge. He had been over vexed by the detention of his most loyal sub-chiefs in a filthy cell. He convened an emergency meeting of all the West...

Chapter Twenty Three

Download PDF (101.4 KB)
pp. 117-124

Esole returned from court completely traumatized. He was once again a victim of emotions. For sure, the Magistrate passed the verdict on the bases of the emotional overtones of his refusal to carry patients to hospital not on the facts leading...

Chapter Twenty Four

Download PDF (90.8 KB)
pp. 125-127

The fact that the CNN placed Esole’s interview side by side with that of Mandela and cast the interviews for several weeks, made Esole the talk of the day. Many international papers sought to interview him. There was much debate about...

Chapter Twenty Five

Download PDF (91.0 KB)
pp. 129-131

Esole developed slight headache after the interview. He compared the two interviews and found out that they dwelt on the same thing. He yawned, stretched himself and wondered why even the international media could not blame the deaths of...

Chapter Twenty Six

Download PDF (97.1 KB)
pp. 133-138

Esole thought he had to make good use of a golden opportunity. There was no time to waste. Time should not blur the hard facts. He had to strike the iron while it was hot. So, on Sunday afternoon, he set off for Kole village. He knew he...

Chapter Twenty Seven

Download PDF (97.1 KB)
pp. 139-144

The BS’s interaction with the people yielded good fruits. The village split into two factions – those that backed him and those that stood against him. Those who backed him argued that the state of the road was to blame for the death of the...

Chapter Twenty Eight

Download PDF (102.8 KB)
pp. 145-152

The H/M was completely devastated. He had all along thought of himself as a celebrity in the area. In fact most people thought of him as the icon of knowledge in the area. Now, in the presence of men, women and children he was defrocked. All over...

Chapter Twenty Nine

Download PDF (93.4 KB)
pp. 153-156

The BS returned to Tonye with a very heavy heart. Two days later, he returned to West Bassiland to talk to the chiefs. He convened the first impromptu meeting with three neighbouring villages at Nidong in the chief ’s house...

Chapter Thirty

Download PDF (88.7 KB)
pp. 157-158

All West Bassiland chiefs attended the meeting and after examining their situation vis-a-vis the ruling party, they reiterated their resolve to vote for the opposition. Chief Nkume gave a litany of the demands they had made to the government, the...

Chapter Thirty One

Download PDF (100.9 KB)
pp. 159-166

The H/M heard about the meeting The BS held with the chiefs. He heard about the poor entertainment they got. He heard that some chiefs had regretted attending the meeting and had said openly that if The BS’s politics was a politics...

Chapter Thirty Two

Download PDF (95.7 KB)
pp. 167-171

The young men and women of West Bassiland danced themselves out all night long. At dawn, they started staggering home. Ngwene left earlier and faster. When he got to the hill where The BS’s vehicle was burnt he stopped, cut branches...

Chapter Thirty Three

Download PDF (98.0 KB)
pp. 173-178

After a two day rest, the driver came to work. He did the necessary checks on the vehicle – oil, water, break and clutch fluid. Then he washed the vehicle and after that, went to see his master. He greeted him rather reservedly. The BS sensed...

Chapter Thirty Four

Download PDF (100.4 KB)
pp. 179-185

The BS went wild with joy when he regained his constitutional rights. Before he re-launched his election campaign, he went in for a very serious novena prayer session, a seven day punishing dry fast in which he prayed to God to remove...

Back Cover

Download PDF (2.7 MB)