Stranger in his Homeland

Chapter Twenty-Two

167 Chapter Twenty-Two Antony and Vicky came too late. Pa Godsabi died an hour before they arrived. A crowd had gathered in his compound, but not to mourn for him. It was being said that the man had died in his latrine while trying to force a bundle of an undisclosed sum of money into the pit. Antony listened with disbelief. He went into the house and found the bundle of money on the table with the old man’s relatives arguing vehemently on how it was to be shared out. There were 500 franc notes, I,000 and I0,000 franc notes. Another group of relatives was struggling to take Vicky away from the painful sight. She was screaming and tearing her clothes in uncontrollable grief. Antony looked briefly at her, turned his face away and moved up to a pillar near the back door and leaned against it. Just then, the leader of the band stepped forward and complained: “You people should know that he did not pay us for four months, when you are checking like that, note it.” One of Vicky’s uncles looked at him over his shoulder for a long time and, suppressing the temptation to insult him asked: “Where is your receipt to show that he did not pay you for four months.” *** Pa Godsabi Ngang-nkwebre received a burial out of all proportion to the glaring unpopularity he had courted for himself during his lifetime. His orchestra played “entrance free” for seven consecutive nights. The bars in the entire neighbourhood had to close down for weeks because all the drinks in them had been bought to entertain mourners. But though this was most unusual for that family, it was not totally surprising. Not a franc of all the money squandered was contributed by any mourners. It was all the money the deceased had left behind. 168 Linus T. Asong Believing that nobody would ever have access to his money which he always hid under his pillow, Pa Godsabi had not bothered about a will. Even before he was buried, relatives exchanged blows. His half brother lost one eye, and Vicky’s maternal uncle lost the whole front row of his teeth. In the end, it was agreed that the only way to prevent further bloodshed and perhaps loss of life was to spend all the money to mourn for him. A committee of family members was formed immediately to supervise and ensure that every franc was spent. And it was. Antony made up his mind not to take part in the festivities that followed the funeral. He had barely managed to go through the burial. Thereafter he remained indoors. He refused to touch his hair with a blade as the tradition of mourning required, and also decided that he would not wear any black clothes. He made no effort to comfort Vicky as a husband would to a wife who had just lost her father. All the respect he had ever had for the Godsabi family turned into an uncompromising repulsion. The old man’s behaviour hurt him very much. He had known that he was going to die. But he had deliberately refused to think of his one and only daughter, her jobless husband and starving relatives and friends whose lives could have been lot better with just a legacy of a few thousand francs. He had chosen to stack up what he had wrung from the toil and penury of others, and dump into a latrine at his death! What ached him the most was the fact that this was the same man who complained of poverty to him at the slightest opportunity; the same man who had compelled him with his specious logic to pay his worthless daughter’s fee. And he had not only demeaned himself by going in for loans but had lost the respect, love and friendship of such an illustrious gentleman as Beckongncho. He shook his head and cursed the man in his fancy. In the wake of this bitterness rumours began to filter into his willing ears. One version had it that the old man had used charms to draw Antony into his family. They said there was not a newcomer in Likume whom he had not invited in an effort to make him develop an interest in his daughter whom he knew none but a stranger to the secrets of her life could desire for a wife. [3.17.184.90] Project...