Theft by Gurnah Abdulrazak

Author:Gurnah,Abdulrazak [Gurnah, Abdulrazak]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: no data
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 2025-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

15.

She was a lovely little sister, Saada, she cheered everyone with her talk. She did not mean to but she was such a bright thing that you could not help laughing when such a small girl came out with something so grown up.

She was six years old when Haji was sent away to boarding school in Morogoro. They had to send him away. There was no secondary school nearby, and Morogoro was too far to go and come back every day. He did not think they wanted him to go away to school, but he was desperate to go. When it came to it, they had no choice, they believed too much in what they had been denied. They wanted him to study and win his freedom, find his own way in life. That was what his mother said, what she wished for him. His father laughed and said yes, let him go to school, maybe that will make a wiser farmer. He had every hope that his son would continue with the farm.

The school accommodation was overcrowded. The students came from far and wide and slept in bunk beds in long dormitories. The food was plain and not always enough, but there was order, and all the boys were eager for what was on offer.

Anyway, while Haji was away at school, the fever struck his mother and his little sister. They called him home, but Saada was gone by the time he arrived. He was just in time for the funeral. At least there was that, he was there to witness and share in the grief of his mother and his father, that was not nothing. He was there for the reading and the prayers. Later when he came home properly during school holidays, he found that the fever had struck his mother again. She was very ill, so thin, so weak, so sad. Often now she could not even leave the house.

Next time he came home from school, at the end of the year, he found Ismail had come to live on the farm. Haji had not met him before, but his father explained that they were related. Ismail was the son of a distant uncle who had now passed away. He was about two years older than Haji, though his birth had not been registered so his exact age was guesswork. He looked maybe sixteen or seventeen, and was much bigger and stronger than Haji. He looked as if he had already seen a bit of life, and his smile was hard-bitten and with a cynical edge.

He was quiet at first, and it was hard to tell whether that was caginess or perhaps even a sign of respect for the master’s son, but Haji did not hesitate. He took to Ismail as if he was a brother, sitting with him when he was not working or visiting him in one of the rooms in the storehouse where he slept. Ismail had not been to school and could neither read nor write.

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