CHAPTER TWO - IN KALA

Medza reaches Kala about three o’ clock in the afternoon.

Outside the village he finds a remarkable spectacle of a sports ground. One the ground, he sees
about twenty big toughs, barelegged and bare-chested, engaged in a game which is war like in
nature.

Each team consists of ten or twelve young men lined up on a single file. Only two leaders of each
side are actually facing each other at two or three yard’s distance with their supporters backing
them up from behind.

Each man is carrying a long whippy, heavy assegai with a sharp point. These men brandish the
weapons in a most dangerous fashion.

At the end of each file stands a captain who is the strongest man in the team. This man picks up a
ball about the size of a football which is made of some hard, heavy, yet porous wood, spin round
two or three times a weight-putter and throws a ball as hard as he can along the ground.

The ball speeds away at a tremendous speed, bumping and bouncing over the rough ground and
long pointed long assegai whizz out to it so hard. When the ball is stopped in mid-flight and pierced
clean by a particular shot, the team’s supporters cheer up like mad and the lucky man is smothered
with kisses.

The referee squats in one corner of the field and scores five long lines on the ground to the credit of
the lucky team.When Medza comes near, Kala at this point is challenging another village for top
place in the league. This is the match Medza is watching to decide the winner.

Medza sees a great hulking devil (Zambo) in the Kala team who has enormous muscles. He throws
the ball for his team and his spectators shout ‘Zambo, son of Mama! Zambo, son of Mama! Zambo!
Zambo!’ His assegai shoots the ball with force at the shout of his spectators as they rise to their feet.

The whole match is a kind of Zambo benefit and Medza is proud of him. As the sun sinks down,
Zambo leaves escorted by a crowd of boys singing patriotic hymns and several girls keep up an ear-
splitting series of triumphal war-whoops.

As Zambo moves with the crowd, he looks behind two times to figure out the person he is seeing is.
He comes close and tells Medza that he cannot help thinking he knows him and Medza recognizes
him as Mama’s son.

Medza is surprise that Zambo tells him that he is at his service after they know each other. Zambo
tells Medza that he is delighted and honoured to speak to him and this makes Medza not to
understand him. Not Zambo alone has this disconcerting attitude but also all the boys and girls who
are singing praises. They cluster around Medza displaying indiscriminate admiration.

The experience of such imbecile admiration paralyzes Medza and he begins to resent their attention.

Zambo invites Medza home for a rest. When Medza tells him that he would stay with Mama if it
would not be inconveniencing, Zambo tells him that the family would be highly honoured to have
him in their home which surprises Medza too. Zambo sends the crowd home telling them that his
guest needs to rest for a little while.

When Medza and Zambo get home, David Mama and his wife are still in the field as told by Zambo.
He takes Medza into his father’s workshop where they examine the furniture. They go in the formal
dining room which is covered with a lot of family photographs. Medza notices that the whole family
is exactly like Zambo- large, tough and ungainly.

They are ungainly without doubt-father, mother and all the three children.

During Medza’s visit to Kala, the two other children of Mama are absent and from what he hears,
they sounded nearly delinquents. Medza tells Zambo the details of his mission and Zambo promises
him his unconditional assistance in accomplishing what he has come to do.

A young, extremely presentable girl -Zambo’s mistress, serves Medza and Zambo with meals and
Zambo does not bother to introduce her at first and when Medza asks about her, he tells him that
she is his mistress and this surprises Medza.

Zambo tells Medza to wait as the old folk(Mama) would come back. Zambo also asks Medza to go
out with him. At dusk, Medza is taken for a walk through Kala.

They go into the house where Medza suspects a drunken party is taking place. Kala is celebrating its
win in the ball-game. Medza and Mama receive a roaring welcome when they enter the house.
Chairs are brought to them and they are offered with palm-wine. There is a man playing a guitar
non-stop with tremendous panache. Only girls attending the party seem to take pleasure in music.

In the party house, Zambo calls for silence as he introduces Medza with all sorts of praises. He tells
them that good fortune has befallen him as he has received a young man from town sitting beside
him who is a prodigy he has been telling them about from town. He tells them that Medza was born
on the road and Medza’s protests at these praises which Zambo ignores.

Zambo tells the people that Medza is his favourite cousin and that he has been at school since he
was a child and has never gone anywhere. He adds that Medza has won every diploma one can think
of and sits on the same bench with white men who were scratching their heads over what sort of
diploma they can give him next. Medza cannot believe this comedy played by the cousin.

As the party is underway, all the young folk come to shake hands with Medza with great friendliness
and respect.

A young man comes to sit beside Medza on a stool. Medza finds out the man is known as Duckfoot
Johnny because his feet are not only flat but turn out when walks. The man has a powerful stick of
palm wine. Duckfoot’s real name is Albert Bidzo. When Duckfoot notices Medza’s glass becomes
empty, he calls for Son-of-God whose real name is Petrus but was nicknamed Son- of- God due to
scandalous conduct hence his name so that he might be adopted by God to be saved from hell fire.
In his drank state, Duckfoot asks Son-of-God to repeat what he says and tells him two things that he
must execute faithfully in order to be saved. He tells him firstly to come running every time he
summons him. Secondly, Son-ofGod must fill Medza’s glass every time it is empty.

Another young man by the name of Abraham- the Boneless Wonder asks Duckfoot Johnny not to
forget him when he wants to baptize anyone. Abraham is nicknamed the Boneless because sitting or
standing, walking or running, he shows himself more flexible than any other vertebrate, let alone as
a human being, has any right to be. He also behaves as though he is filleted.

While in the party house, Medza looks about for Zambo but he does not see him. Duckfoot is aware
of this embarrassment and he tells Medza not to worry about his cousin and that he would be back
as he is in excellent company and that Medza cannot get sleep so long there is a girl to screw
somewhere in the world.

Duckfoot also tells Medza that there is a girl giving them trouble as everyone else has tried but failed
to get her as she does not want to play. When asked for his name, Medza tells Duckfoot that his
name is Jean-Marie Medza.

Duckfoot asks Medza if he can get him a girl but Medza responds that not this evening but perhaps
the following day. He also asks Medza if they are pals and Medza agrees. When Medza is asked by
Duckfoot whether he has tickled a few pretty girls in town, he lies that he has.

Zambo’s parents are back home when Medza and Zambo come back from the party and they find
them sleeping. Medza is taken to a spare bedroom by Zambo which is always ready for visitors. He
advises Medza to talk to them the following morning but as for the woman he has come for, Zambo
advises Medza not to be in a hurry as she might be off doing her rounds with all her chums as the
village does not see her for the past few days. It now becomes clear to Medza that his stay in Kala is
going to last longer than he had expected but he has no regrets coming.

Medza begins to tell himself that he would experience such an adventure as he has never imagined
before in this unforeseen and unwelcome journey. Nothing of particular importance has happened
in Kala the first day after Medza’s arrival. Early in the morning, Zambo comes to wake Medza up.
Mama is such an odd creature that Medza wonders if he is not a stranger by origin to the village but
rather some wanderer who happens to settle in Kala. He is different from the general run of his
neighbours. Medza, Zambo and Mama have their early breakfast. Mama and the wife went off to the
field with Zambo accompanying them.

Zambo’s job as a rule is to work in the family cocoa-patch which must be close to the village like all.
Before Zambo leaves, Duckfoot, Son-of-God and Boneless Wonder come to pay respect to Medza
and ask him if he had slept well. They examine Medza with fresh curiosity and crack occasional jokes.