Stranger in his Homeland

Chapter Thirty-Five

273 Chapter Thirty-Five Anap on his way to Tetseale turned his fears into a reality. Zaché had led Antony with the students and staff to the prefecture on the pretext that the Prefet wanted to address them all. There as soon as everybody had assembled he called Antony to the front of the crowd and inquired: “Mr. Surveillant General, ei know zhat you alone eur zhe only educated man in zhe world. Bot tell ez. Do yo know zhiz letter?” He held it in front of Antony, stretched it carefully and turned over the pages until he came to the end where Antony saw his own name. Antony felt a sharp pain at the pit of his stomach and his body suddenly underwent a crisis of feeling akin to that which one undergoes during a nightmare. That was the letter he had written nearly two months ago to Eru. He knew what he had written in the letter about the people and the place. He knew that he had not lied on any point at all. But in the hands of a man as malignant as Zaché it could be used to destroy him completely. The indignation which had burst in him evaporated in the instance, to be replaced by a nervousness and a fear, like the prospect of annihilation. He now saw why Zaché could afford to go to that extent in framing lies against him. The thought of how he could have tracked the letter down did not even occur to him. While he stood silent Zaché went round distributing photocopies of the letter he had asked to be made. Then he sent round the hall copies of his own translation. When that was done he did not return to Antony who still stood the way he was when he questioned him. He obtained permission from the Prefet to read the letter to the hearing of everybody. This was granted. And for thirty minutes Zaché read through the French, written in a language which unmistakenly reflected his attitude towards Anthony and which he wanted to impress on everybody else’s mind. When Zaché had finished reading it the Prefet took up the original and holding it in front of Antony asked him who write it. 274 Linus T. Asong “I did, sir,” he admitted. This sounded in everybody’s poisoned mind like the confession of guilt for all the other accusations. The people’s reaction was spontaneous. A sudden wild revulsion of sentiment swept over the hall as indignation against Antony rose to the point of violence. But Zaché intervened. He explained to them that if anything happened to Antony there in Sigili-Mundu it was he, Zaché, who would be held responsible and that he had brought him there to learn from his past mistakes, not to harm him. He promised them that after that day, unless it was a curse from God that he should behave so badly, Antony was sure to lead a better life. Then just to have the insults still fresh in their minds he went over the very long French version again. It included all the insults in this world. Antony could say nothing about it. He could refute nothing because he could not understand what Zaché was reading in French. If he needed to defend himself it could only be through an interpreter. Since he had himself confessed to having written the letter it was stupid and even risky for anybody to attempt interpreting any kind of defence for him in so hostile an atmosphere. When Zaché had finished talking the Prefet called the cashier and the Post Master out to stand in front of him. There he asked Antony in all seriousness to look at the faces of those two people and tell him what was so particular about them that he should stigmatize them as dull. Antony remained silent, vainly trying to rise above the affliction. The Prefet looked at his countrymen then asked if apart from the tribal marks there was anything on the faces of those people which was not found on Antony’s face. He pointed for instance to the very long beard which each of them had , even making everybody see that Antony’s was the longest of the three. Antony was still silent. He turned to Zaché just to make sure and asked him to speak the truth in the name of “Allah” whether he looked like a dull man. Zaché said, in...