Titabet and the Takumbeng

Phase 2, Scene 2

21 PHASE 2, SCENE 2 [A group of mainly elderly women about 60 years old appear on stage. They are naked but for leaves or`ngwashi` that cover their private parts. They belong to the women sacred cult known as Takumbeng´. They should be minimum fifteen of them. But only their chosen leaders speak to the group. Time: midnight! Their bodies are rubbed with red camwood. They parade the city of Bamenda during major incidents that the unarmed cannot handle. They expose their naked viginas to the victims while cursing them using special occultism like spiting on stones and shooting the victims with or spreading wood ash. This wood ash is a sign of casting out the purported victims out of the land. They sing the Nyankwe song at regular intervals.] NAHYUMA (LEADER) Mother owl has hatched her young ones. The night will continue to be frightful. Termites’ mounds are now pregnant with snakes. There must be a way out! NAHYENI(ASSISTANT) 22 Cow-dung is now used as delicious dishes for our husbands. Dogs excrement is found everywhere on the streets. There should be a way out! NAHVOMA My throat has become sore because of dry saliva. My household has become dead because rain drops have pierced my rooftops. Raindrops have replaced my husband! But there must be a way out NAHTEMA Locusts have harvested my crops at ´Nkeform´. Monkeys and wild geese have grazed on my produce. The soil revolts. We are starving. But there has to be a way out! ALL Yes there has to be a way out!!! NAHYUMA Our tongues must not swallow hot pebbles. We should not keep feeding on anger. Our spit no longer feeds our empty stomach! Two months of ceaseless curfew is more than any living being can bear. NAHYENI Is this not our fatherland! Is this not our HOME! Please tell me, where do we go from here? Our children now suck milkless breasts. Must a generation bear the brunt of political tussling? 23 NAHVOMA NO! Whoever soiled his hands in the death of Numvi, the burning of innocent group of young men, the raping of our kids and now our leader, Titabet, must have ripe bananas placed on his head and buried alive. Yes this act must be done. NAHTEMA Our husbands and male children are on the run. The city now belongs to two people: The old and the soldiers. Our men are starving in the bush. Who will provide protection for us against Evil? ALL Our ancestors, come to our aid! [They formed a semi-circle. Act out their occult rituals and sing mournfully. Their song is interrupted by a voice offstage] VOICE Our bullets will chop you down. Our tear gas and grenades will blind your eyes and make you crippled for life. Leave I say! Your traditional oaths are powerless. Science has taken over. You primitive women, away. Do not become slaves to impotent occultism. Go away and be ashamed of your ignorance. Just disclose the hiding places of your Men and we will free your leader. If not we will kill him like Numvi and force his body through your mouths. Enough is Enough in this Bamenda. I say Enough is Enough do you 24 hear? You babbling anglophones. Anglophones are terrorists. These terrorists want to unseat the government! Do you old women want to be governed by terrorists? They are criminals who deserved to be punished by gun fire. I repeat Go away! Leave now! [sounds of gun-shots] TAKUMBENG [In unison] Our hands are clean. Our eyes are open. We haven´t stolen from a stranger. We haven´t borrowed firewood from a helpless widow. We are only asking for justice and freedom for our lives. Our daughters can no longer go to school for fear of being raped and then sterilised. Foreigners have taken over our homestead. They have taken control over us. We are now slaves in broad daylight. Our young men are hiding in the bushes while the city contains two groups of people: The military and the old. Yes the old. What is our crime? Our predecessors, if you have our ears then this is what we humbly ask: Let thunder clatter and shatter the barracks. Let the soldiers be dumb and powerless. [They stamp their feet and disappear] NARRATOR [Emerging from the back of the stage] And so it is. Yes. So it is. Will...