The Zulus of New York by Zakes Mda

Author:Zakes Mda
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781415210390
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Published: 2019-02-19T16:00:00+00:00

6

New York City – June 1887

The Photograph

The New York Giants have beaten the Philadelphia Phillies 29–1 and the streets are drunk with euphoria. As the crowds spill out of the Polo Grounds, Em-Pee and Slaw wait outside a 110th Street refreshment station. They have been waiting for a while, as the game took longer than expected.

Em-Pee is impatient; he’d rather be at Madison Square Park. Just to make sure one more time. After last winter, Dinkie the Dinka Princess did not return to the park. Early in spring he had gone there to fulfil his yearning. She was not there. Nor were the other displays. Instead, the whole place was fenced in and boarded up, as if being prepared for construction work. He went again after a few days; the same situation obtained. Perhaps today, whatever improvements were being done have been completed and the displays are back.

‘Do you trust this man?’ asks Em-Pee. ‘What makes you think he’ll keep his word?’

‘Why wouldn’t he?’ asks Slaw. ‘He’s a sharp impresario; there’s something in it for him too. If anyone can pull off this deal, it’s Davis.’

Sports fans are a predictable lot. They lose the game, they are so angry they vandalise everything and beat up one or two Negroes for the heck of it. They win the game, they are so happy they vandalise everything and beat up one or two Negroes for the heck of it. Some of them look at Em-Pee with beady eyes as they pass. But Slaw’s presence saves the day. He is not just a loitering Negro; he is with his master.

Slaw puffs on his cigar pompously, as befitting the hotshot impresario he imagines he is. After a while they can see Davis limping along with a cane.

‘We’ll walk,’ he says, without so much as a greeting. He’s a man of little ceremony. ‘It’s only half an hour from here.’

‘Are you going to be all right though?’ asks Slaw.

‘I’m not an invalid. Just a small sprain. Fell down the stairs.’

As they walk along, Davis says that even before they discuss anything else they must agree that he will get a fifty per cent cut on any deal that they make.

‘Of course,’ says Slaw. ‘It’s only fair, since you’re introducing us to these guys.’

‘I don’t think so,’ says Em-Pee. ‘I, for one, want to know first what this deal is all about and what’s in it for us.’

Davis looks at him disdainfully. ‘Is this not the fella I allowed to see The Wild Zulu for free and he decided he was too hoity-toity for that kind of performance?’

‘I just didn’t have the appetite for raw meat,’ says Em-Pee.

‘He’s going to be the death of you in this business, Slaw. Watch him.’

‘This is different, man,’ says Slaw. ‘It’s not like The Wild Zulu.’

‘The Wild Zulu makes more money than you’ll ever dream of,’ says Davis. ‘But, yes, this is different. This is theatre. This is Broadway.’

He tells them about Niblo’s Garden on Broadway and Prince Street, which will be producing a musical play titled She based on a story by Henry Rider Haggard.

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