Segu by Maryse Condé

Author:Maryse Condé
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241293522
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Malobali could feel the eyes of the elder of the two white men wandering over his face, lingering, scrutinizing, tenacious as a fly on the slit belly of a carcass at some street corner. Malobali couldn’t hear him or even follow the movements of his lips, but he knew what he was saying: ‘I don’t trust him. He’s too old for a start. At his age, conversion is never anything but superficial and dictated by self-interest.’

The other man answered with his usual gentle inflexibility.

‘You’re wrong, Father Etienne. He’s hardworking and extraordinarily intelligent. His progress in French and carpentry has been exceptional. As for his piety, you can take my word for it.’

Malobali wondered which of the two he hated more – the first, who saw through him, or the second, who thought he knew him so well. He looked down at the plank he was planing.

Father Etienne raised his voice, uttering each syllable distinctly so as to be understood.

‘Samuel – come here!’ he cried.

Malobali obeyed, and stood there as he’d been taught, head bowed and hands hanging down the seams of his trousers. The two priests were sitting on the veranda of the modest straw-thatched hut. One of them was bald and rather fat. The other was thin, almost emaciated. Both had red faces and kept fanning themselves. But what really terrified Malobali was their eyes – pale, transparent, but with an unbearable flame in their depths like that of a forge. Every time they rested on any part of his body it was as if he were being burned, and he was always amazed afterwards to find his flesh intact.

‘Father Ulrich tells me you are about to receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you quite ready for this incomparable honor?’

Malobali managed to assume a mask of the utmost solemnity.

‘Yes, Father,’ he said.

‘We shall bestow the sacrament on you in Ouidah. We leave for there tomorrow. There are many Christians there. The family of the Lord is increasing.’

Malobali feigned a smile of delight. Then, in spite of himself, he looked up and met the eyes of the priest. The hatred in his glance was the equal of that in his own. It meant: ‘You are a fine beast, proud and cruel. You have blood on your hands. But no matter – play the game you’ve chosen to play. We shall see who gets tired first.’

‘Very well, Samuel,’ said Father Ulrich, with his customary unctuousness. ‘You may go now. I think you have more washing to do …’

Malobali turned on his heel, inwardly raging. So this was what he had come to: performing the services of a woman for this white man without a woman, without balls.

He collected a calabash of dirty linen from under the kitchen awning and started out toward the lagoon. Sometimes, when he thought of his present situation, Malobali wondered if he wouldn’t have been better off as a slave in the Americas. There at least you did a man’s work, on the land.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.