The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye

Author:Benjamin Kwakye [Kwakye, Benjamin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803288284
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Chapter Twelve

A year passed. It brought many tidings. Some were of great joy and some were not.

In September, Kofi Ntim went to see his maternal uncle with a bottle of schnapps and asked for land. The uncle had deep affection for this one, perhaps because his mother had died in his infancy. ‘You city boys never come to visit us,’ he complained. ‘But it is a great pleasure to see you, my son.’ Kofi Ntim did not waste any time in explaining his purpose. His uncle, having heard his request, insisted that he spend the night. The next day they went to Awutu and the uncle made over a large portion of land to the nephew. Kofi Ntim returned to Accra and forgot about the land for a while. Then in December the harmattan came and the wind got chillier and he prayed for the season to move on. At Christmas, he bought Esi a bottle of perfume. She was very grateful and her gratitude made him happy. He dreamt every day of his future and continued to save as much money as he could. He also continued to pay Mystique Mysterious a percentage of his salary.

He started to work his land in March, before the rainy season. The process was slow and painful, especially clearing the ground and preparing it for sowing. Every weekend he travelled to Awutu and worked feverishly on the land. He also hired two hands to help him. After sowing the seeds, he waited and prayed for the rains to fall. In April, the rains were miserly, but in May, they fell heavily. The earth drank deeply and the seeds did likewise. In June, the rains subsided, but they still fell. Kofi Ntim’s first harvest was bountiful. He bought sacks, hired a truck, loaded the maize into the sacks and the sacks on to the trucks, and hauled the crops from Awutu to Accra. He found a good market and made a sizeable profit.

When he harvested the second batch, Kofi Ntim was luckier still, for the roads in the northern regions of the country had become so bad that it was difficult to transport food to the South. So in Accra, the supply of food was low and prices rose. Kofi Ntim made more money than he had anticipated. He invested in clothing, buying at low cost and selling at a much higher price. He employed Baba’s friend Otto to help him run the business and this too began to make generous profits. Kofi Ntim was a contented man and began to dream bigger dreams. Although he continued to drive the taxi, he had second thoughts about the share he was giving to Mystique Mysterious.

He continued to woo Esi, but he was now such a busy man that his courtship was unwillingly sporadic. He tried to drink with his friends as often as possible, but his former daily visits to the bar were reduced to three visits a week. Still, he made progress. It began with holding Esi’s hand at the beach, then putting his arm around her shoulders from time to time.

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