The Impatient by Djaili Amadou Amal

Author:Djaili Amadou Amal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

My family searched for me in the days after my flight, until discovering by great coincidence that I was in Gawaza, a small village near Maroua.

The day I deserted the conjugal house, with no precise destination in mind, I hadn’t imagined the consequences of leaving, for me or for the rest of my family. With no plan, I took the first bus that arrived. In the streets of the small town, I entered without hesitation the first compound I came across. For a month, I shared the daily life of my hosts, a rural family whose wife, Djebba, kind and welcoming, offered me friendship and protection. Without asking me any questions for fear of embarrassing me, she nursed my wounds and boiled medicinal barks that she encouraged me to drink. The care provided by Djebba and her family allowed me to forget my misfortunes temporarily. The legendary hospitality of pulaaku helped me feel welcome. I knew that I could stay for as long as I liked; I was part of the household.

Meanwhile, my family was wondering what had happened to me. Moubarak had simply told them we had an argument. My family mobilized to search for me. All of them, torn between worry and anger, sought out any information that might lead to me, and then one day a family friend remembered having made the journey to Gawaza in the company of a woman who looked like the one in the photo they’d circulated. My escape came to an end with the interruption of Goggo Nenné in my new life, followed by Uncle Yougouda.

My uncle brought me back to the house manu militari and sat me in the living room, demanding that I wait there under the strict surveillance of my aunt until my father came back from the market. My mother came and held me in her arms for a long time. Her face was pale and her features haggard. Scrawny, she floated in her blouse. Thirty-five years old, worry had aged her ten years in a month. Contemptuous of her torment, my father had added to it, accusing her of being directly responsible for my disobedience.

“Oh! Hindou, what have you done? Have you no pity for me?”

I burst into sobs.

“Moubarak savagely beat me that night. I was so afraid, but I knew that if I came back here, you would just send me home immediately,” I justified.

“Of course we would have sent you home,” Goggo Nenné stated severely. “You are not the first nor the last woman to be hit by a man. That’s no reason to disappear like that. You would surely have found a solution. You are not a dead leaf at the mercy of the wind. You have a family to protect you.”

“But you would have just told me to be patient.”

“Which is normal. Patience is a divine prescription. It is the first response. It is the solution to everything.”

“Once, my husband punched me and it knocked me out. I passed out onto the canari, the jug where we store water to keep it cold.

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