Fointama: A Play

Scene VII

53 Scene VII At Fuli Enter Yuh and Tufoin Tufoin It’s useless sitting here all afternoon. Let us go down to the corners and have some corn beer. . [Yuh looks at Tufoin and Tufoin looks at him.] Yuh Did you say leave? You are not serious. Don’t you know this case is important to us? I tell you I cannot miss a second of the things that are happening here. Tufoin Can’t we allow every ganakoh to carry his cattle stick? What is interesting in this case for you? The jungle says you and I are slaves. The jungle says they are nobles. Two people, two worlds, two destinies yet one Kom, one tribe and one place. Yuh I understand your philosophy my brother. But you still do not understand. We are slaves. Call us – you and I dog. But we are not underdogs. And this land is made up of underdogs. In front of underdogs, dogs are lords. Tomorrow, yes tomorrow, I will have enough to eat and drink because many underdogs will be interested to hear from me what the truth of the matter with jungle nobles is. You know what I will say. [Beats his chest] We took the right decision. Tufoin You are right. But that is where the problem is. What shall it benefit a people who eat and damn their land? When injustice 54 transforms a people to jungle beasts and food and drink govern their thinking, can the people ever reason? When people in jungle life scheme and kill for love and power, food and drink, will Mbom, the creator, rejoice or regret at his handiwork? Is this the great tribe of Kom? Yuh The problem with you is that you think and philosophize…. Tufoin The problem is you, who is just a parrot passing for a griot. If you have to sing this farce of justice what shall be your song? Yuh Watch your mouth. Well, that once the great hunter overstretched his confines and faced the law of the jungle. Tufoin No. That once upon a time, the lion looked for a goat to atone for its sins and the land of hungry griots sang a false tale. Yuh That seems true. But will the sin of the lion be atoned for? Tufoin I shall know if the gods are also drunk with wine and food only after Bangsibu must have come. Let us get into my hut. [They move to the right stage Get into Tufoin’s hut Sit. Tufoin goes to a pot near a bed. Takes the corn beer and pours it carefully into a calabash Moves gently and bent forward. He places it before them.] This is corn beer brother. Drink and have peace. 55 Yuh Drink and have peace. Tufoin Drink in honour of the jungle and its laws. Yuh Drink in honour of the jungle and its laws. Tufoin Drink that the underdogs shall never be dogs and nobles. Yuh The underdogs shall never be dogs and nobles. But this wine is beautiful and its taste is full in the mouth. Who prepared it? Tufoin My wife. Yuh Your wife is great. I use to think that even the soil of the jungle is sour; The reason for the poor corn And therefore, poor beer. Tufoin My brother, you are right. [Mimics] Here we stand, in the name of the most high Fon of this land, Protector and most wise of the land. Chief of all the land’s institutions, the invisible and omnipresent Yet only wise leader of the land of law. We do pay him our allegiance for his wisdom in checking and permitting that corn continues to grow and we continue to have beer to drink in peace. 56 Yuh In peace? Tufoin In peace. You have seen nothing yet. For peace there is. A great achievement. And peace protects the land And it’s above the dogs And the likes of Fointama shall be victims of peace And they that are hungry will not feed For peace which the wisest ruler prescribes shall reign… Yuh Shut up. Shut up and shut up. You are a servant and should protect this peace and not throw words like little girls. Tufoin The words of a little girl are law; And Fointama’s fate is in such words. [Exit] ...