copyright Dicho Disashi 2007

Copyright Dicho Disashi 2007
The Cannibals 
Dicho Disashi Ilunga
With 
Monette Bebow-Reinhard 


PROLOGUE: DREAM 
Brussels, 1899. 
In the falling of the sun, in the marketplace of Brussels, many people rushed to buy their foods and other necessities. Everyone rushed because the sellers were getting ready to close down their stands, so the customers at this late hour grabbed often without looking just to have something they needed to buy. 
Into this rushing hour came a young man, Jean Turken, who walked slowly, letting others push past and around him. His mind was on dreaming thoughts, many miles away. He�d had a dream that upset him the entire day. Even his mother wasn't able to interpret the dream. By the advice of his mother he went to see a renowned fortune teller who had a stand just outside the busy place. Philippe, a German, was more than fortune teller, more than a man who interpret dreams. He was also known as the healer of the heart in trouble, wise man and a motivator. 
His mother told him that dreams were the destiny and forecast of the future. He feared his future. He was a lad who looked for trouble because he didn�t like school, and though he thought he could be a good person, allowed others to lead him around. And he had a problem with wanting what wasn�t his. Just last week he had taken from a friend�s house a piece of jewelry, only later to find out its value and how frantic were the parents to get it back. He had it well hidden, but for how long? Even now his mother was swearing to everyone what a good boy her son was, how he would never do anything wrong. He told his mother he was afraid, and then the dream came. 
The fortune teller, an aging man with gray and disappearing hair, was about to close his stand after a long tiring day, when he saw a young man coming to him. Unusual, because most of the usual customer were older people of status, and with the money to pay for his services. Yet, this lad could be the son of one of them, so he waited. 
Philippe waited as the boy stopped in front of his little shop but said nothing. �Bonjour, can I help you?" 
Jean barely whispered in embarrassment. "I cannot sleep if I don't find peace." 
"Peace? I can help if you have bad dreams at night, but you must pay the fee.� 
The young boy had two franc with him, which he put in the basket Philippe indicated. 
Philippe stopped packing his working tools, and took a closer look at Jean, who could use that money for better clothes or to put some fat on his bones. His eyes had the sunken shallow look of malnutrition, too. 
He took the money out of the basket and handed it back. "I don't need money from you." 
Jean looked sadly at the money in his hand. "But I cannot find peace." He turned to walk away but couldn�t move. "I had a very disturbing dream. My mother and neighbors couldn't help me to interpret my dream." 
"What time is it?" 
"The sun has just gone down." 
"It is time to close the shop." Philippe shrugged at the boy�s helpless expression. I would have to pay extra rent if I stay longer. And people would start to expect it of me, and I would end up with no private life at all.� 
As Jean watched, unable to stop him, unable to walk away, Philippe continued to close up his shop. He packed up his tools-the cards, the bowl where water and tea leaves and the stick that his client stirred made interesting designs, the crystals. He closed the curtain over his door, and Jean was shut outside, so he could not continue watching the shop being closed in front of him. He knew he should have come earlier, but time often made little difference in his life. Now it seemed to him, time was running out and there was no one who could help him. 
Finally Philippe stepped out with a small bag and saw the boy just standing there, still looking lost and helpless. �I will take you to my home for dinner. We can talk. If you help, and are a good cleaner, I will not charge you.� 
Philippe lived alone, in a small, but well decorated home of crafts he made himself in his spare time. Jean could see with the crafts was also some imported German furniture, some carpeting from India, and crystals, probably Austrian but maybe from different places, too. And England�s lace on his curtains. A very interesting d�cor, and Philippe laughed as Jean looked around. �Helps me get in touch with all the different parts of myself.� 
Jean also saw a photograph of a woman and felt it was his wife, but didn�t ask. That might be too painful for him, and Jean wanted him to help with his pain. 
After a good dinner of soup and bread, Jean started cleaning, waiting for Philippe to start asking him questions. He didn�t know how to begin talking himself. Talking could be so difficult for him, as was thinking, and learning. Getting in trouble he found not hard at all. 
Philippe, while Jean cleaned from their supper, changed into his sleeping clothes, and made them some coffee. �Now, you have things to tell me.� 
�My dream. It is still in my head.� 
�Good. Then begin.� 
"I dreamed, that many people, of which I was one, but the shortest one, were in the Pyramid with strange people. I think they were Egyptians. I was in the front seat with a king. There was a beautiful woman who served us with delicious food. While eating I look at the pyramid entrance door and saw a dog guarding the pyramid that was eating too. When I look at the dog's food, I thought it looked like a dead dog it was eating. I wanted to kick the dog, but I couldn�t, because this was not my home. The king held a crystal shining stone on his table. I asked if I could have the stone, and he said no, and then laughed." Jean stopped. 
Philippe looked at him curiously. �Is that all?� 
�I woke up afraid.� 
�And you don�t know why?� 
Jean only shook his head. 
The old man kept quiet for a long time. After the silence, Philippe pushed his chair next to the worrying boy and took his right hand. "My boy, you know that dreams foretell our destiny. This dream is no different.� 
�So my mother tells me. I fear my destiny is prison.� 
This startled Philippe. �Why say you this?� After Jean told him his trouble, he shook his head. �I can see you are a good lad. Prison is perhaps part of your future, but not your destiny. This dream says otherwise.� Philippe took Jean�s hand and studied the lines on his palm. �I see your life line very long but cut by two big lines." Philippe took a deep breath. �Because of what you told me, this means your life will be briefly halted-this is probably prison. We must pay for our mistakes, son. But you will emerge a better person. Your life continues on, gets a little wider near the end. But it is not a very long life. I think, because it widens, it will be a very good life. You will grow strong, brave and smart." 
�But the dream?� 
Philippe gave Jean a look that told him no more interruptions. "Death is also a way of life. We all advance to our last days. Life is a perpetual fight. We all fight for survival since we were born. We struggle to breathe in our early days and every day after we struggle to maintain that life. No human is different in this." 
Jean devoted his new-found attention to the man he felt could heal him and help him sleep. Going to prison would not be his destiny, after all. 
�The pyramid is a house like any house made from the stones or bricks. The pyramid in your dream may have looked like those in Egypt but symbolically, Pyramid may mean any house situated in any country that is foreign to you." 
Jean nodded. This would explain why he would dream about the shape of the pyramids he read about in school. �But is it significant that Pyramids are in Egypt which is known as the earliest civilized nation still in existence today?� 
Philippe gave him the look that told him to be quiet. �As I said, Pyramid means a house in a foreign country when it appears in the dream. So your destiny is not prison but a far away place, a foreign world. This means someplace outside of Europe. This means also outside of America, which is also not foreign enough because of the Europeans who settled there. But you seem also worry about being the shortest man in the crowd." 
"Yes, I do." Jean quickly responded. That part bothered him because he was not the shortest person in his gang. He used to fear, growing up, that he�d never be tall but that did not concern his waking days anymore. 
The old man drank his coffee for short time in silence. "Short is not half. And big is not double. Short and big men are made the same. They have two hands and a one heart each. There is nothing bad about being the shortest man in the community or of being the tallest man in the community." 
�What does it mean, then? That I cannot reach my goals?� 
"Short may mean the youngest man or the most underprivileged. It means a man who does not have the equal opportunity of others. It also means, depending on the dream, a man who is unlike others, as in a different background. It also means a foreigner." 
Jean nodded, feeling his fears draining away. This man was worth more than the two franc he wouldn�t accept as payment. 
Philippe took Jean�s left hand again. "I see the fortune line long too, but broken like the life line. Broken differently, see, here toward the end?� Philippe studied it a moment, and put it down again. �You will get wealth, lose it, and get it again. But it will not be the same wealth. Fortune is not just money or riches. But so many people forget this. Your fear line is troublesome, as it seems, in your hand,� but Philippe did not show Jean this line. �To cut into the fortune line. You will get easy money at first but the beginning of the fortune line is attacked by a fear line in your hand." 
�How do I get money easy? Do I take it?� 
Philippe shrugged. �Some interpretations are for the dreamer.� 
�I think�I must learn not to give in to my fears.� 
"If you beat fear in your decision making you will become king of all you see. Fear will conquer your opportunities." 
�Is there a good way to fight fear?� Jean knew he was afraid of school, afraid of learning, afraid of working, because he was afraid to fail. And that was why he got into trouble. And that was why, he suddenly realized, he had such a bad temper. 
�Don't call yourself a loser. Remember that going before or leaving early doesn't mean arriving in time." 
Jean always felt that he has lost when he hears that other people do well. He was too young to get a real job but gets jealous to see others work so easily, and doing well. 
"We only fail when we give up. Don't fear of trying and never give up trying. Your dream says that you understand the ways of foreign countries and you will do well wherever you go, if you are not afraid. 
The old man remembered everything the young man told him. It was his job. Each word Philippe heard had a meaning, so he continued with the interpretation of dream. This was like work to him, like what he did all day long, but this young boy, he felt, would be a great man someday and he can help. So Philippe took Jean�s hand again. 
�You saw the king with a big crystal stones." Jean had envied the stones in his dream. Philippe explained, "Crystal mean expensive, or plenty, or success. This is the most worrisome part of the dream." 
�How can success be worrisome?� 
"The jealousy of it in someone else means you may be pushed into doing something you should not do to get it. You understand foreign ways but you want to kick the dog. You see?" 
Jean shook his head, but waited, afraid to hear more about the dog. 
�You say you saw a beautiful woman. If you want to be happy, don't follow only the physical appearance of the woman. But because you see her beauty in a dream does not mean you are seeing physical appearance. Dreams are deeper than that. It is good, though, to interpret it this way, that you look only on the surface of things, as a warning. Dreams are destiny and often warnings. If you love a woman because of her beauty, the day she loses her beauty by accident or by getting older you will be tempted to look for another woman because what you followed has vanished." 
Jean wasn't that interested in girls but he listened patiently. 
"Beauty is like a flower, it grows old and dries up. The flower grows, and at some point dies. The woman shines on the outside in her growing stage, and then when she reaches her peak the beauty disappear. She shines in her teens and young adulthood, then the shining face disappears. It is the same with men, but is more apparent in women." 
Jean applied what Philippe said to his mother, who seemed still beautiful to him but he heard what others said, that she was not so pretty now as when she was young. He accepted that beauty is like a flower. 
"You will see beautiful women but you will learn to look for who they are inside, whether the dream tells you this or not." Philippe stood and opened his door, inviting Jean to leave. 
Jean went to the door but had not had all of the dream explained. The worst, he felt, was yet to come. " Philippe what about the dog eating a dead dog?" 
The old man laughed and shook his head. �I think you can figure that one out now. It means that wherever you go in a foreign country you must accept their differences. If you were to kick the dog, what would happen?� 
Jean thought a moment. �It could bite me.� 
�Now you know.� Philippe pushed the young boy of his house and shut the door. He grimaced with the words he could not tell the boy. �Just do not go to Africa.� 
 CHAPTER 1 
Africa in 1905 was a period and era popular in Europe as many of industry, religion and personal venture found opportunities to invest and expansion their activities, with many parts of the continent still open and unclaimed. The Belgium government decided to free criminals overcrowded in prison, and send them, regardless of crime or punishement, to open land in Africa far from their families and community. This would be like prison for them as they would still be under orders and answer to superiors, and locked away from all they knew and loved. But they would also have the chance, by cunning and verve, to earn a living and their freedom. 
Simon and Jean were two such criminals, destined to meet and cross paths together, a potential friendship with criminal leanings the only deterrent. Jean had recently been imprisoned due to his habit of stealing; Simon, for crimes much worse. 
The Belgian King, Leopold Deux, met with these people getting ready to sail to Africa to give them policies on how to cope with the situation in Africa and again their assignments. He commanded a large gathering hall and no one dared speak again after he�d entered the room. 
"I am sending you to land that�s still unclaimed by other nations, to stake the claim for our country. You are entering a world of great opportunities and many challenges.� He held up a book. �This is the Bible, and will be your steady companion. Use it to get the indigenous trust, which is essential to your survival there.� He paused, sensing raised eyebrows. �You did not know you risk your lives? But why else would we send prisoners? Many haven�t seen the white skin so there will be many reactions. Many still live in ancient era. They don�t have clothes, shoes. Go there and teach them the Bible. Show them our tools and they will be in awe, and will worship you. Teach them that the poor will go to paradise. That rich will go into hell. After you get their trust, you will exploit them for their resources. Find their minerals, above all else.� He chuckled. �We take great example from other countries how to deal with these primitive people. If they do not cooperate, they are exterminated. Get their cooperation, or kill them.� Several of the king�s bodyguards moved closer to him when they sensed a sudden restlessness. �We have given you prisoners a second chance, a once only lifetime opportunity to restart your life. Those who fail in all I say will be sent back to prison here-for life.� 
He paused again, to allow his words more strength. �It won�t be easy living there. You will be exposed to many dangerous diseases, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes, typhoid and cholera. But we have put in your disposition enough medicine to face the diseases. We put also in your disposition some snake vaccines. You will also meet dangerous animals such the famous declared king of jungle, lion. You will be taught how to handle wild animals. You will be given plenty of weapons. You will meet also some indigenous tribes who are not friendly or welcoming. You will in these cases be accompanied by soldiers. They are based in the main port and will send more in some main bases in the interior. Right now there is actually a short winter in Africa, which makes it easier to travel. At the main port and other localities you�ll meet your compatriots and our Belgium administration. They will be monitoring you, you will report the progress. You will refer to them as the Belgium Embassy, and respect them as you did your jail guards. They represent Belgium in central Africa. They will be able to assist you." 
After he left the room, a low rumble of voices started up, the sounds of both excitement and fear. A few were led back the way they came, back to Belgium prison, but the rest followed their guards out to the ships, ready for the journey. 
### 
Each ship had been filled with equipment for buildings, houses, along with food and medicine, clothes, communication equipment, and guns and bibles. The men were divided into groups, given a sergeant who commanded them. Each sergeant carried a map of the territory-each map had room for five different groups to be dispersed. 
Jean Turken felt a loneliness he could not explain, except that his mother told him she preferred he�d stay close by where she could watch him. He hadn�t wanted to leave her, especially after she began to cry as he was led away. But no, this was more than that. He�d had the dream again, several times, after the prison doors slammed shut on him and each time he could see a little more detail. Maybe stealing wasn�t the way but once he started, he find out how much he enjoyed being a thief, and couldn�t stop. Now, on the ship, he began to feel that this is where the dream led. He didn�t want to think about it, and turned to the first person he could who seemed to desire conversation. 
Seeing Simon looking so excited, Jean began to feel a little of it himself. Instead Simon turned to him suddenly and asked, �Are you sad, man?� 
Jean only shrugged. �I am mixed about it, I think.� He could share his dream with no man-they would only laugh at him for his young foolishness. 
The man, with a growth of beard longer than the two days on ship, nodded. �I know the feeling myself. Sad for leaving my country and my loved ones and happy to meet new opportunity that you will never meet anywhere but here.� 
�What kind of opportunity do you think we�ll find?� 
�The kind that fate brings to you, if you are alert enough to be ready. You must be aware of those opportunities. It is why we have to leave our land.� 
�Maybe. For me, it feels good to get into the fresh air again.� 
�All my neighbors who went to Africa have bought many houses in Europe. I had met many of them, they are praising Africa. They said that you will pick up diamond, gold, cotton, coffee for free in Africa because the continent is very rich and many peoples do not know the value of minerals and other plants. This is what I mean by opportunity.� 
�The king also said that there are many diseases.� Jean stared out across the ocean. The waves were calm, but still he felt queasy. After being locked up, he could not feel his legs beneath him. He heard about ocean sickness but had never been sick in his life. Perhaps the dog eating the dog in his dream became sick like this? 
�You will find diseases in every country around the world. It is not at an alarming rate yet, just a challenge that we will meet. We are lucky and we don't have to fear diseases because the government has supplied us with medicines.� 
�And the natives, will they not eat us?� Jean suddenly leaned over the railing but he did not get sick as he expected. Dog cannibal! 
�Cannibals? Not anymore, friend. You are thinking of a century or more ago. We are coming after the priests. Even if priests had not been there yet, these are no longer the dark ages.� 
But Jean did not believe this, because of his dream. He had a feeling he knew what to expect, and because of that, felt a little less frightened, a little more ready to face it. �I pray that we reach our destination sooner than one month. I want to be treated like a king too instead of being treated like a servant in jail. I want to make a lot of money and show my mother I made the right choice.� 
�We are on the right track. We will collect money with very less effort. They treat Europeans like gods. Imagine me, a common criminal, a god.� 
�The king wants us to erase their gods, not become their gods. Do not let him hear you.� 
Simon laughed, long and hard. �Oh-ho, you believe anyone really cares about what we do when we get there? You can preach all you want to, friend. My kind of preaching will make them worship me, not some invisible being in the sky.� 
Jean shook his head. �To gain their trust, we must be different, stronger, than they are. Do you know what group you are in?� Jean found he was actually feeling better. He felt almost like he understood exactly what would be expected of him. That was a better feeling than just a few minutes earlier. 
The water they traveled on was flat, quiet, wide and very very far away. Jean wondered if maybe Africa did not exist except in men�s minds. 
Simon pulled out his paper. �Looks like the north, where plantations have been established. There have been some groups that are causing trouble, and we are to control them. You know what that means.� He winked at Jean. �What is your name? We have been chatting without introducing ourselves. I�m Simon.� 
�Jean.� They shook and Jean was surprised how cool his hand was for a young man. �Nice to meet you.� 
Cold hands but a very big smile, Simon had. �You know, we should stick together, help each other, like a family.� He pulled Jean�s paper from his pocket. �Although I see you are slatted for some unconquered lands. Lucky you.� 
Jean thought this a bit forward, but being a former prisoner, he wasn�t about to reject any form of friendliness. �Did you leave a big family?� 
�Me? There was the usual noises and carryings-on when I left, but I don�t dwell on it. You?� 
�I left some cousins but the only immediate family is my mother. I love her a lot, she is always there for me, in good and bad circumstances.� I will never love someone more than my mother, even my own wife. Jean was not ready yet to take Simon into his personal thoughts. 
�Yes, it is good to hear that. I care also about my two young brothers. I want to sleep in the bushes with mosquitoes to make money so my brothers can afford to go to the universities to be doctors or lawyers. I was not intelligent for this study. I have to be honest that school was not meant for me. I will do anything for family.� And Simon looked off over the water, and allowed his face to sadden somewhat with thoughts of home. 
At least, that was how Jean read them. 
### 
The first day in the ship was an adjusting process and the second a learning process from many citizen prisoners of Europe, all talking about Africa. The ship ran by coal at a speed of almost 40 kilometers per hour in the big sea. Every man was involved in operating the big machine. One crewman in blue mechanics clothes, in charge of training the prisoners, came across Jean and Simon. He has been in Africa many times and was one of the members who could give them the clear image of the continent, they quickly learned, a reliable source of information. 
Peidro introduced himself to them and asked what they expected on this trip. 
Jean responded to him, quite innocently. �We are going to Africa.� He learned in prison never give more information than they asked for. 
�I know that. What are you going to do in Africa?� Peidro had a slight Italian accent, blending well with his romantic Latin features. 
Jean wondered why Simon, who had regained his talkative self after only a few moment�s pensive watch of the ocean, remained silent. �I am going to work.� 
�There is much work to be had there. Every work in Africa brings money, even for the priests and missionaries. The African evangelist is different than they are in Europe. In Europe you need to be qualified to talk to people, and to take their money you need a license. In Africa all you need is personal courage. And forget what you know about money as trade. Their wealth is measured in sheep and livestock. They call a man rich by looking at his children and wives. The richest might have fifteen wives and half a hundred children.� 
Simon whistled and Jean laughed. 
Piedro ignored them, caught up in his lesson. �So the man who works for God has to have some kind of business there, too. The man who use to be miner in Europe will be an engineer in Africa with many miners workers on his charge. The man who was a servant in Europe will be a king or prince in many areas of the large continent.� 
�Or a god,� Simon said. 
Piedro suddenly grabbed his shirt. �Do NOT think you can fool with religion, friend. You will be in deeper than that ocean out there.� 
Simon, his brow furling in anger, jerked away. After a grimace at Jean he turned to busy himself with a study of the ship�s machinery. 
�Those who used to be mad in the streets of London or Paris eating of the garbage in the street will be respected like a genius in Africa. So tell me, in which sector will you be working in?� 
�Sector?� When Jean stumbled for words, Simon turned. �I will be a missionary. I really enjoy working with the Bible. In my spare time I can do some diamond business.� 
�You won't find diamond everywhere. I am sure that you have that picture in your mind?� Piedro quirked a smile at this, as though hiding a grim secret. 
�No, I know that, diamonds are not all over Africa. I will try to find a specific place for those minerals. I have my ways.� 
Peidro lost interest in Simon and turned back to Jean, as though seeing a ripe innocence in his eyes. �All the sectors brings money, many make money in plantations too. They make more money than in the mineral sectors. Everything you will touch will turn into gold. The large continent is not yet exploited. The few areas located in our map represent a small part of the rich continent. Every year the map changes. More riches are discovered.� 
�How big is the continent?� 
�Bigger than Europe and Belgium. Bigger than all of the United States, with Mexico. Maybe even with British Canada.� 
�How many times have you been in Africa?� Simon warmed up to Piedro. Jean began to feel a little jealous. 
�I work on this ship, so I have been there many times. More than twenty times in five years.� 
�Do you make money? I mean, besides being a ship�s crew.� Simon led them for a casual walk through the ship�s belly, and feigned interest in the workings. 
�Of course! I wouldn't leave my wife and my son to suffer in this sea if I didn�t. I make plenty of money. I buy from the big port Boma that you will see different products that I sell in Europe.� 
�How long do we have to be on this ship?� 
�Man! Didn�t they tell you that already?� He laughed his big laugh again. �But I can see you are impatient. You will get there soon enough.� Piedro stopped to brush some dust off one of the big piping works. �Within a month, if the water is good.� 
�That will not go fast.� Simon watched the dust on the air as though seeing his own life passing his eyes. 
�It will be worth the wait. This sacrifice will change your life forever. You won't find any beggars there or homeless people. You will be sleeping where the government tells you, but wherever that is, you have more to eat than you can imagine. You will find plenty of work, and never lift heavy weights again. Africans will carry boxes for you. They work cheap. You will have bodyguards and servants. Even if you don�t get rich right away, you will feel rich.� He stopped as if to study a lug nut. �You will see in the big port Boma very few opportunities because thousands and thousands of Europeans have taken all the jobs there. You will have to enter the interior of the continent. Boma is becoming a modern city. You will see and find all European products and construction there. It has grown so fast since the five years I landed there.� 
Simon hesitated. �Why don't you settle in Africa instead of traveling in the dangerous sea?� 
�Man, I love the sea. I would rather die in deep waters than anywhere.� Then Piedro, as if in sudden realization, turned to Jean. �Tell me, what is your project?� 
�I am not sure yet. I don't like diamonds, gold and minerals. I may go into the plantation business. I am not a good preacher. I will be purely a business man. I will respect the king�s instructions when talking about God and Jesus to people.� 
�You better prepare yourself to preach at least a little, or you won't get the trust of indigenous. What the king has told you to do will guarantee success in a new land. I have seen many people-taken them there, brought them back, both successful and failed. The formula that he has given you has been found after many years of experience in the new land. It is what one must do to live in Africa. Remember that many indigenous in the central South of Africa are cannibals. They may eat you in a second.� And he snapped his fingers in Jean�s face, making the young man blink. �Unless you get to them first, with your God.� 
�How will talking of God and Jesus save us? We have guns, that they will respect.� 
�Yes, guns may help you for few times but how will one kill a thousand warriors?� 
Jean remembered the dream dog. �How well you know cannibalism?� 
Piedro only shrugged. �Only from the stories I have heard. Maybe not all true. Many Europeans went alone in the central southern part of the land and were never heard from again. Stories say they were eaten. They don't eat only foreigners like European, they eat also Africans who can not talk their languages. All are enemies, and enemies are eaten.� 
�Why do they do that? Don�t they have enough food?� Jean felt in his dream the dog had to eat dog because they didn�t give it anything else. We all do what we have to in order to survive. 
Peidro checked his pocket watched, acting startled, but Jean read more, like avoidance, in his profile. �Man, we have been talking for hours. Let�s go to work before the captain of the ship comes. Help me carry the coal from the storeroom to the engine room.� 
They went into the storeroom, a very dark room with plenty of black dust. The initial color of the room was indistinguishable underneath the black dust. They stocked many tons of coal for the return trip. Each hour they had to pour tons of coal into the burning engine to keep it heated. 
The ship was home to more than tree hundred males and twenty women. There were forty members of the equipage; they used passengers to help them in the heavy work. The women passengers helped the chief to cook and serve. The ship had more than twenty warehouse rooms, most of them plenty and full of equipment material. 
Jean complained to Simon while caring the heavy coal. 
�Yes, they look light from the eyes but very deceptive, no?� 
�All those are coal for the ship?� Jean asked Piedro. 
�Of course, the ship has to return with another stock of coal.� 
�I never thought that the ship used coal.� 
Simon nodded. �I thought that the ship engine works with water.� 
Jean laughed. �That would be cheap travel for a ship!� He turned to Piedro. �Certainly is challenging to carry this much coal, for every day we are in the ship.� 
�The ship workers are used to it and like this job. As that man said, they make some business too, when we land and they pick up the cheap goods to re-sell.� 
�The trip is enjoyable until it comes time to work,� Jean felt muscles growing where he never had them before. 
Simon grinned through his sweat. �I will never complain because we don't do it everyday and it is useless to stay in a ship for one month without exercising your body. You have to do something in your spare hours, or go crazy waiting.� 
Jean couldn�t argue, and Piedro was in very good shape. He found himself panting with exhaustion after the first couple hauls, but this was better than sitting around topside with nothing to do. 
They slept in a big room with more than hundred boatmates, their bunks nearly touching each other. Some talked and many drank, and finally asleep quite a few snored, but the ship�s captain made sure that at least the drinking and talking stopped by ten p.m. There were four big rooms in the ship and a small one were women slept. The few small and privilege rooms were reserved to high personalities and the ship captain and his assistants. 
Jean wandered one night when he thought no one watched, and found a woman at the rail, sobbing. He asked if he could help. 
Startled, she looked through her messed red-blonde hair at him. �Do you care?� 
�Well, out here on the ocean, we are a community, are we not?� 
�No. Everyone cares only about themselves, even out here. I could jump overboard, and everyone would clap as I drowned.� 
Jean put a hand on her arm. She could be no more than 17. �Well, let�s not try them. Even if you are right. Where are you headed?� 
�I don�t know. I ran away from home, and ended up here. Cooking, slaving. What about you?� 
�I am a prisoner. Freed for African trade. I am anxious for it.� 
�Sure.� She looked out over the dark water that occasionally caught a glint of the quarter moon. �Can I ask you something?� 
�I guess so.� 
�Are you a virgin?� 
�You mean�in sex?� Jean blushed. He was glad it was dark and she didn�t seem to notice. 
�I think I will be put into prostitution. I won�t earn much, if I don�t know how.� 
Jean took her arm and led her away from the railing. �Let me walk you back to your room. Maybe I can convince you that there are reasons to hope for a good life, even in Africa.� 
### 
Simon the next morning was well rested. Jean felt he hadn�t slept at all. He had stayed with Agatha until she stopped crying and fell asleep. 
�Jean, this life reminds me of boarding school.� 
�I have never been in boarding school.� 
�We didn't have beer but the supervisor monitored us to make sure that before ten we all went to bed.� 
�Sounds like jail. There was no beer there either! There were many things we couldn't do.� 
�Life is not restricted here, except by the sea. We are in a very small piece of land flowing on the big water. This punishment is for a very short time.� 
Jean only thought about Agatha. She seemed in a prison that had no end. 
### 
They reached Africa at the biggest port called Boma. Jean and Simon both found they knew a few people, friends and colleagues, already established there. At the time they were one of twelve ships arriving with more than two thousands prisoners and one thousand ordinary citizens. Jean's ship was the fourth one to reach the destination. An average of two ships arrived and left the port every day. 
The first few days Jean spent trying to absorb the new surroundings, and missing his old ones-not the prison but the life he used to have, but his old friends, family and things he hoped to do when he was free. He regretted and sometimes found himself even wishing to be back in jail where at least his mother could visit him. He missed her, and didn�t even know how to contact her to tell her he was okay. 
Maybe her worry was real. Maybe he did fall off the ends of the earth. 
The local European bosses gave them two weeks to stay in the port to acclimate and learn some techniques before going in the interior. What faced them to learn was enormous-that of conquering the land for Belgium before other countries sent their people. England took the most of the southern part of the continent already as well as some in the east and west. Portugal took some lands in the South too. France also took one west central part and one in the North. Italy took some part of the Northeast, and Germany had laid some claim as well. All of them wanted more. 
The fight in Central Africa was between the fast-coming France first, and England and Portugal in second position. The European nations had only one rule: first come first serve was the rule in these lands of Africa. This was their playground, their casino, their get-rich-quick land, where gambling was a way of life-and death. 
Once they were acclimated they would meet their biggest challenge; exploring new places were there was no road, only single trails through heavy undergrowth that one would machete through to make way for civilization. In the port city, the local people had already been exposed to civilization, sent to school, converted to Christianity, but the new technologies growing so fast in Europe and the U.S. were slow to come here. Roads were not yet ready for the automobile because they were so new even the developed countries did not have the roads yet. But they worked hard, seeing the future-already they had begun a road from the town out toward a settlement designed to become another town. They had a medical clinic and other facilities, like a local phone service. And they were, finally, getting electricity, at least in the port town. 
Many indigenous peoples worked in Boma for the colonists in exchange of materials, like clothes, mirrors, furniture. They learned the use of Belgium money. The local Africans were escorting colonists to different parts of the interior too, helping to translate French into local languages, carrying materials�and so because they needed places to rest, the settlements started to grow. Many of those natives became porters-servants to the whites being sent into the interior. Jean was told he would be assigned porters who knew the language. He tried to learn but he only had two weeks. 
In Boma Simon went to the missionary facilities while Jean went in the governmental facilities under the command of an ex-Belgium soldier. The commandant, Bardo Bingham, always wearing military clothes, was in charge of sending them to the newest part of the land and to give them some instructions. 
He called the new colonists, including Jean, and gave them some instructions. �I am not a good talker, a man of action instead. I am the commandant chief of this land. I have the obligation to look after you and you have the obligation to look after the indigenous. Since your arrival you see how previous colonists have done their missions. In my twenty years I witness many changes. Boma was made of bushes, trees and animals but now is a city where we have everything we have in Europe. I have made this land my home. I want you to go and do the same in the interior. Boma was started by a priest to preach evangelism. Here the indigenous have accepted our civilization. They are no longer primitives. The Africans here will help you�into the interior, to find others to civilize. They will help you to translate. There are thousand of dialects but many are similar to each other. You will sleep in the bushes with local people but do not accept their lives without trying to give them yours.� He placed his hand on his gun holster as he paced, as though deep in thought. Jean in the pause saw several women being led through the street in chains. Agatha was one. He nodded at her but she did not seem to see him. �Now I must get serious. You will not all succeed. It took years to see Boma from a small village to a town. You are superior to them because of your technology, remember that, and use it where you can. Scare them into submission if you must, but remember to always be careful and alert for danger.� 
He sat finally, and laughed at their somber expressions. �I am not here to change anything the King has already told you. I am here to help the implementation of his policies. In Africa we live by Belgium rules. Every piece of land you will settle is automatically Belgium's land. You will pay taxes of all your enterprises, you won't escape tax here. We will send monitors to come and evaluate the progress of your work. We are still training many Africans to join us in the Public Force. We will seal the frontiers with our military personnel soon. Live with indigenous like their boss, exploit all the minerals and plantations in exchange for clothes. Send all that you collect here and we will evaluate all the production and collect the governmental taxes. Use your mind and the local Africans will work for you in exchange for peanuts. The government has identified some villages to turn into towns and help to implement the Belgium's policies. I saw many successful business men who came with two clothes but now own more than hundred properties in Europe. The porters who will accompany you will help you in your work are civilized. They will be your supervisors should you start your mines and plantations. Should you be that fortunate, put them to work for you. But first they will help you to communicate. The government will assist you, as will the priests you find along the way. Don't forget to make reports of all you�re doing so we get a clear picture of your activities.� 
He slapped his hands together and stood again. �This sounds like a great deal to remember, I suppose, but you are here under the graces of your government, and if not for that, would still be behind cold walls and steel bars. You have fresh clean air and opportunity here! You are in Africa under the guidance of Belgium which took the initiative to offer these opportunities. Behave yourself and work hard for the development of this continent, and our land too. Belgium does not have diamonds, gold and many valuables and so must get them from Africa. Good luck in all your activities and may God be with you in all your enterprises. Good luck.� 
Once he finished the speech, he pulled out his tablet and began to call names. He assigned porters to the names of the new colonists he called who were ready to head out into the interior. Fifty colonists left Boma with about some hundred eighty Porters, local citizens of Boma. Each colonist had at one point during the previous two weeks made a verbal presentation of thirty seconds to the commandant, and from this the commandant had decided how many porters he need. 
Finally Jean heard his name called. At first timid, he finally ran up. �Hello commandant. My name is Jean Turken.� 
�Hello. Have a seat.� 
Jean fidgeted, wondering if he was ready for this after two weeks. But he knew he had to be. They didn�t allow more time. �I haven't figured out what exactly I�d like to do.� 
The commandant sighed. �Another prisoner? You are an indecisive lot.� 
Jean bowed meekly. �You are right, my general.� 
�This is a last chance that the government will give you.� He poked his pencil in Jean�s face. �Another crime and you will be send back for life in prison.� He looked down at his tablet. �You are scheduled to be sent in the central south part of the land.� He looked up sharply. �Do you know what that means, boy?� 
Jean figured there was only one answer to give. �Yes?� 
The commandant seemed to shudder but quickly picked up a pencil and made note of his decision. �I give you two porters. These are your advisors, bodyguards and translators. They will help you in your projects. The government will pay them for one year before you get your activities settled.� He gave Jean a piercing stare. �Remember, taxes are government priority. In that part of the land you will find cotton and coffee growing like wild plants. You will mobilize villagers to collect it.� He took one of many bags stored at the corner of the office. �This is a bag of clothes. Give one cloth for one ton of cotton. The porters will help you. The first thing to do when you find a village is to get the heart of the village's chief. Then you have the heart of the village. Use the Bible like� cocaine to weaken even the stoutest villager. I am giving you three guns for your protection. Be careful, there are tribes that still eat humans.� He chuckled. �Like ship meat mixed with local spices and salt.� 
The commandant was still laughing over the cannibal�s taste in food when Jean left his office. When he walked out into the street he saw that the natives held signs to identify themselves to their new �boss.� Jean walked among them, reading signs, until he found Kinwa and Mpuwu. He gave them each one of the guns he was issued before he left the building and had a short shooting course outside the village square with the two men. 
Some of the Africans porters came from as far as Zanzinbar, some from the far west part of the continents and some were local people from Boma and surrending villages. Boma as a territory had been discovered a century ago, but has been known about since the 1400's, a popular African kingdom called "Kongo". 
Jean introduced himself to Mpuwu and Kinwa. Mpuwu seemed like a father to Kinwa but to Jean, these Africans all seemed to look alike. Kinwa was much more talkative and seemed happier to be a porter than Mpuwu, who followed along in sullen silence. Jean thought perhaps he only pretended to be civilized. 
But no time to worry about that now. Time to walk into the heart of Africa. 




CHAPTER 2 
The following day Jean took Kinwa and Mpuwu with him to get the map and his meager belongings. The two villagers carried little food and water. They left Boma at 9 a.m. after filling up on as much food and water as they could swallow. 
After a walk of many miles, they slept in one of the locations established by other colonists along the way. This was a lonely and difficult trip, crossing rivers and many dark forests. The only sounds they heard were birds and wild animals, like a cougar at one point, and hyenas at another. Jean gratefully allowed Mpuwu and Kinwa take turns guiding the way. He had little experience reading maps or talking with the colonists, and felt shy of most. He saw great signs of attempts at civilization, with colonists directing villagers on cutting trees and digging roads in various parts of the land. 
Settlements sprang up like isolated mushrooms, and in each it seemed a colonist had established himself like a local king. 
Jean had been advised to establish himself in the interior south section were people were more kind. All the indigenous had good and bad sides. The people from south of actual Congo were cannibals but very obedient. In the North, where Simon went, they were not cannibals but loved to fight. Fighting was great sport to them, and hobby red blood a favorite award. Even between themselves they ended up fighting, killing or maiming each other in the process - almost like practice for the sport of fighting others. 
Jean wondered how Simon would survive all that. He found out little about the man he came to think of as friend, mostly for his kind concern of Jean�s welfare. And every so often on the walk he thought about Agatha. He couldn�t help her-he didn�t know how. It appeared she would be used a slave, but he hoped, he even prayed, it wouldn�t be a whoring slave. 
At one point during their walk Jean saw several native Africans working hard to pull several others out of quicksand, to the point of near death for all of them. He didn�t even know if he could be that brave for a brother of his, if he had one. Kinwa told Jean that all natives treated each other as though brothers and sisters, even if they had different mothers. 
Jean grew more weary with every passing hour. Even a young man without exercise of a goodly nature can get out of shape in no time. Kinwa and Mpuwu often grew impatient waiting for him. They were accustomed to walking many miles without getting tired. Jean felt his load was light, only a very light bag and his gun, but was the most tired in the hot atmosphere of the continent. 
I could have stayed alone in jail instead of coming in this forest�I don't know what my mother is doing right now while I walk alone in this hell� 
After yet another fifteen miles on his feet without stopping, his legs nearly gave out. �Please, let�s rest.� Without waiting for an answer he sat gingerly and a fallen-over tree. 
Kinwa, the younger of the two, turned to him, having let Mpuwu go on ahead. �Boss, are you tired just now?� 
Jean shook his head. And these were interpreters? �I can�t get my legs to work anymore.� 
�Come on, boss, you are a man and man do not die from fatigue. If really you follow the caprices of the body we will never reach our destination.� 
�You go on without me. I�m not used to this. Give me a month�a week. I�ll outrun you.� 
He pulled open his canteen but it had gone dry, mostly likely because he tended to swallow too quickly. �Any water to spare?� he asked Kinwa. 
As Mpuwu and Kinwa watched him rest and drink, they chatted with each other in the language they knew he wouldn�t understand. 
"Angariya comment uyu muntu eko na kuria eko na kuwiya (I have the impression that we won't reach our destination),� Mpuwu said to Kinwa. They continued their conversation in their native language. 
�Why?� Kinwa found Jean intriguing. 
�The man is weaker than our sisters.� 
�No man, all the colonists are the same. They cannot walk, they never been in forest before. It is a normal phenomenon but I am sure by our third day of walking the man will grow into his feet.� 
�If we were alone, we could have been very far.� 
�If we were alone,� Kinwa said with a laugh. �We would not be here with this new job and education. We have to follow his instructions. We will get paid by the Belgium's government and will make more money by living with him. We don't have any choice, what is good is that the man is young, younger than us. We might even become good friends and brothers with him.� 
�Maybe I can get him on his feet now.� Mpuwu walked up to Jean and put a hand down to him. �Boss, you are a man, not a girl with weaknesses. If we stay in one spot too long the wild animals come. They eat the weak ones. Come on now.� 
Jean sprang to his feet, honestly feeling better. �Let�s go, I pray that we find a suitable village soon.� 
�We will get there. Only another hundred miles.� 
�Hundred?� He nearly sat again. 
�Of course, but we will rest twice on our way.� 
�Twice?� This is truly a punishment, he felt. How he longed for his cool jail cell at the moment. 
�The walk will be over, but then we will enjoy the fruit of our sacrifices for many years. It must be a struggle if it is worth doing.� 
Jean liked their enthusiasm. He could almost feel it moving through the air into his heart. His legs no longer felt a part of him as he followed Kinwa and Mpuwu down the road. 
After one more hour of walking, they saw from afar some kind of smoke. 
Mpuwu said, �Boss, we have a good news for you.� 
�Please call me Jean. Boss is too heavy and unfamiliar for me .I am not so comfortable with that name. If you cannot call me Jean, please call me friend.� 
�Sorry, Jean. I have good news. Do you see the smoke over there?� 
�Yes, I can see.� 
�It is a villager's sign, we are approaching a place where we can rest and find new direction.� 
�How far away is it, do you think?� 
�Some few minutes.� 
When Jean heard this he picked up his pace. But the smoke never seemed to get any closer. 
Jean complained. �We have been seeing the smoke for more than an hour!� 
�Don't worry! It doesn�t get farther away!� Kinwa laughed and Mpuwu joined him. They nudged Jean but he failed to translate the humor. 
�Those few minutes you are talking about seems to be eternal. Is this another failure to communicate? A day to me is an hour to you?� 
�Don't worry boss, sorry I forgot, my friend, we will reach the village now. We are in a very good area were there are no lions to perturb our journey, so no worry.� 
�I wasn�t�� but Jean realized he was worried about animals too, which would become a true problem if they don�t get somewhere before dark. 
Finally Jean heard some shouts and some singing he felt were coming from a village. �Thank you, Lord, that we have reached the first destination. I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time.� Still they continued to follow the road without end. �I don't understand, first we saw the smoke, then we are heard voices, why we don't see the village?� 
�We are in the locality already, it is a question of a few more steps,� Kinwa pointed ahead, to nothing Jean could see. 
�I don't trust your words anymore. You talk of minutes that turn into hours. I hope you never talk of days.� 
�We know what minutes mean to you. We are educated. We have been to school for few years and we know the difference between minutes and hours.� 
�Why we don't see the village?� 
�Because this is Africa. You must rid yourself of European mind. We will no longer talk of time, because it confuses you.� 
The worst for Jean happened as they walked. The sun set. He was in darkness. He was in Africa, walking, in darkness. He could hear the coyotes, or maybe they were hyenas. Sometimes he didn�t know the difference. �It is near midnight! I�m going to have to sit again!� 
Kimwa and Mpuwu each took one of his arms and dragged him through the bushes. Jean could smell the smoke and then he saw the people, several of them, dancing around the fire. The village! 
�Finally�sleep.� 
�You see? Just minutes.� Kinwa said, and laughed. 
Finally Jean got the humor. Time really was relative, after all. �Well, I hope I get used to walking soon. You enjoy walking while me, I hate walking. I�ll probably hate it even when I�m used to it.� 
Kinwa couldn�t understand this. �You will get used to it, you just feel angry, a normal reaction to fatigue. We walked many miles before in our life and the few miles we are walking today meant nothing to us. You will get use to it.� 
�It will take me years to walk like you do.� 
�Not years - only three days.� 
�Ohho! Your three days may mean three years.� 
�Three day is always three day. Tomorrow, after tomorrow and the following days.� 
### 
The first local man they saw was a hunter. On top of his shoulder he carried a Springbok. He interrupted their conversation by greeting them - �Hello!� 
Jean, startled, looked around. �Oh, hello.� 
�You are welcome in our land. 
�Well, thank you, I�m glad for that.� 
Kinwa and Mpuwu stepped forward. �We are your brothers from another mother from the big port Boma.� 
�How are our brothers and sisters in Boma?� 
�Most are fine. Some are not so fine. We are looking for the colonist�s house. We have his brother who is with us.� 
�Go straight and you will see a big building with foreign materials next to the King�s first wife house.� 
Jean paid less attention to what they said than he paid to the man himself, wearing only traditional shorts with a dead animal on top of his shoulder. He had no gun but had a traditional tribal spear in his hand. The animal could weigh some forty kilograms but he carried it with ease. 
When they passed the man on Jean looked around again. On their way they could see lots of signs of civilization. By the few glances he got he knew that these people have already seen a white man. Of course, there would be a colonist here, too! Local people here were wore modern clothes and signs of new construction lay about in the street. They saw the house of the king�s first wife built fresh with modern materials. The modern materials were gift of the colonists for allowing them to establish themselves in the area. The colonists had to pay habitation taxes to the village's chiefs and to other traditional kings some kind of tribute. Everybody had to pay something as individuals to the local government as well. 
Jean turned to Kinwa and Mpuwu. �I heard we�d find people walking nude here?� 
Kinwa blushed but Mpuwu, for once, spoke up. �Yes, we will find them but little bit farther to the center. This is the farthest point we will see natives exposed to civilization.� 
�Do these villagers eat humans for food?� 
�Not here. Once they did and not just colonists but all humans in Africa who do not talk their language. They were considered enemies to all but their own people. With the arrival of the Bible people are fast learning to farm and raise cattle and respect human life.� Mpuwu spat on the ground. �They do not understand culture, if they think we did not respect human life before.� 
Kinwa stopped to clear their path of some large pieces of wood left behind from a building project. The town was not dirty or polluted, just very filled with building projects. 
Mpuwu watched, not offering to help. �The local people had to pay a portion of their farm�s products to the village chief,� Kinwa said as he worked. �The colonists had to give modern materials to the chief too. The relationship between the chief and colonists is excellent.� 
They were welcomed warmly by the colonist who was living with his European family, a wife and three children, two girls and a boy. Their names were Sam and Molly, Carin, Celene and Carl. The children went to their rooms to do their studies after being introduced. They had to learn at home because there was no school here that could teach what they needed to learn. Sam was to be Jean�s adviser for a few days, to help him with the next part of the journey. Sam and Molly�s house was equipped with modern furniture from Europe. His house definitely did not match the rest of the village. It stuck out, while the others tried to blend in with their surroundings. 
They sat down with coffee and some donuts. Jean ate one and listened to Sam talk about his life here. Finally Sam stopped talking and so Jean figured it was his turn. 
Jean put the donut down he had reached for. �I have the impression that you are well known in the area and well respected?� 
�As far as power goes, after the traditional king it is me. The king respects me more than any body else.� 
�How long have you been here?� 
�Three years longer than my family. I had to establish myself first, as someone who could help people improve their lives here. I�d say it�s been eleven years now.� 
�How did do you manage to � to convince them you could help?� 
�Young brother, it was very difficult. I went first to the north part of the country, part of a group of fifty colonists. The government sent us to exploit gold. We met a strange tribe who wouldn�t allow us to establish there. At first we had the impression that they loved us. But after few months their local King become unhappy no matter what we gave him and mobilized his warriors to attack us. We fought for some four hours. We were superior with modern guns. We killed many villagers and lost two people on our side. The chief in our camp didn�t want to listen to us when we told him to take us back to Boma. He said no, they will never come back and we will establish ourselves by force in that part of land. Just when we were sure they were gone forever the warriors came back. We felt safe in those three weeks so they caught us by surprise. I do not know how many, but very many. This fight was much more intense, and we kept running out of places to hide because it seemed they were everywhere. We ran short on ammunition and thought maybe it was all over, when they finally went away. We lost seven people in our group, including two women and the chief of the group who had persuaded us to stay. 
�So we then returned to Boma. And then we went to the central part of the land to exploit cacao. We lived there for some three months in a group of 70 Belgians. The local king was good to us but his villagers were � I�ll just say undisciplined. We needed some 300 local villagers to help us with the cocoa but they couldn�t obey to our instructions and we ended up not producing. We couldn�t get established there. In my return to Boma again, this time I decide now to change sectors. So I came to the South to grow cotton.� 
�You make it all sound so difficult. I heard it would be easy to get established and make money.� 
�Sometimes difficult, most of the time easy. And the rewards are well worth it. I have some 50 villagers working for me and we are only one of four colonists in this area. The others Belgians live deep inside the village. The village is getting bigger all the time; we�re up to some five thousand habitants. We have some mineral resource too, some copper and other unknown mineral. Our government may send some 200 colonists at the end of this year and more materials to start the mineral exploitation. And this means employment for more than one thousand local people. All the men in this village and surrounding villages may get jobs. At least those who want to work. The rest�� Sam shrugged as though Jean would understand. He didn�t. 
�Tell me what the reaction of local people was when they saw you?� 
�Different reactions. We don�t go into those areas where they never saw white men. Sometime they may kill you or even eat you. Some tribes here still eat foreigners. Not exactly here but few miles away. If they don�t know you they may eat you. Skin color doesn�t even matter, white, black, if you don�t talk their dialects you may find yourself in a cooked pot. We took from Boma some Africans like you took two servants. They protected us, did all the talking, just in case. You need bodyguards too.� Sam pointed at Jean�s two porters. �How many dialects can they talk? A gun alone cannot help you against a thousand villagers.� 
�But that�s exactly what it must do,� Jean thought, and shivered. �Did you know any of the victims who were eaten out here?� 
�I know four people who have been eaten. They went into the deep South without any Porters. We don't know exactly how it happen because they had guns.� 
�You are not scared that you may end up in a pot or one of your family members or your colleagues may end up in a pot? 
Sam laughed and sat back as Molly poured them more coffee. �Impossible.� 
�Why?� 
�I am not a foreigner anymore. Those practices are dying here thanks to our missionaries and priests. We actually have almost 40 Belgians here without counting their families. The four colonists that I mentioned before worked in the plantation. The rest are into religion and social activities. We have primary schools and sometime in the next two years we will have secondary schools.� Sam reached over and grabbed Molly�s hand. They exchanged smiles. �At least our youngest will be able to benefit from that. All the teachers are from Europe but we�re hoping to train some natives soon. We have a hospital with two Belgians doctors and four female nurses. People change with civilization, and it�s always for the better, remember that.� Sam had stabbed at Jean with his pipe but sat back again. �In the North they don�t eat people but they are warriors. In the South people don�t fight well but they will jump strangers when their back is turned. They are not real trusting of strangers.� 
Jean felt his throat closing, just when he reached for another donut, because the donuts looked like pieces of human anatomy. Behind him Kinwa and Mpuwu exchanged glances. Kinwa almost spoke out but Mpuwu stopped him. 
Sam sat back, puffing on his lit pipe. �Boma existed now for almost five centuries, before even Belgium decided to grab this land as his colony. Only in recent years did colonists come in to rebuild Boma, but it was discovered long ago. The advantage of Boma his that it is a port and a reliable entrance to central Africa.� 
Jean cleared his throat. �How much you pay your workers?� 
�Almost nothing, that�s the beauty of the system! I pay them peanuts, they don�t know the use of money. They needed clothes, you have already known that they wore almost nothing before colonists came. But in two years� time the local people will come to know the use of money. This is why people in Europe are coming to catch this opportunity at this time, while labor is so cheap and easily disgarded. The government sponsors us for the first year and when you get established you will take care of your servants. One year is more than enough to get established here. 
�Where do you send your products?� 
�I send it to Asia and Europe, especially in England where I can make a lot of profits. I send workers with the product at Boma and then from there I sell to other businessmen from Asia and Europe.� 
Jean remembered what he�d seen and not paid much mind to in Boma's port. It was a center of many things, and all sorts of products were being loaded and unloaded there. Many covered by the tarp to prevent the rain from destroying most of products. This was just a confirmation that many colonist his established especially in the north and were sending they products to Boma. �Do you enjoy this place?� 
�Look yourself. I have a big house here and I will build another house in Boma. I bought a big house for my parents and my wife�s parent in Europe. I bought a big house for myself too in Belgium and many things that I didn't mention before I caught this opportunity. I used to be jobless in Europe.� 
�And all of that makes being here worthwhile? All the dangers, the strangeness?� 
�When you get used to it, it isn�t strange.� 
�But still dangerous?� 
Sam shrugged. When Jean didn�t accept that answer, he added, �not really.� 
�Who motivated you to come here?� 
�Molly�s uncle brought me here. He still lives in Boma. I had been struggling with odd jobs to feed my family and he told me about this. I figured I had nothing to lose.� 
�What special advice can you offer me?� 
�My boy, take every advantage of this opportunity. You are lucky to come here at your age. I come here when I was 35. By the time you get to be my age you will be very rich.� 
�Perhaps my lack of age will work against me.� 
Sam laughed heartily. �You may think so now, but wait. Go and find your own place and then after some two months you may go to Boma to ask for more help, if you still need it. You probably won�t. The little bit of help I can offer should be enough. You don�t need capital to start your own business, just muscle and sweat and willingness to learn. In the future these kinds of opportunities will be gone. Think like me, boy. Be where it matters.� 
At supper they talked of lighter subjects, of politics in other countries, of how some countries use force to get what they want, when there�s always a better way. Then Molly had a bath drawn for Jean, and he relaxed into the wet warmth, trying to forget his worries. He couldn�t relax as long as he wanted because Kinwa and Mpuwu had been convinced to take a bath, too. 
The next morning Jean and his two porters continued the journey. Sam gave more advice, as Molly and her children looked on approvingly. A few times Sam looked at Molly as though wondering if he was telling things right, and Jean could almost see her nod several times. His mother would like that, Jean realized. 
�Treat well your two porters. They are key to your success. Don't forget to take your gun wherever you go, even when you shower or go to the toilet. You have to catch first the attention of the chief before thinking of starting your activities, teach them the word of God. Keep in mind that the deeper you go, the deeper you will find no civilized people and the only way to create friendship is with the words of God.� 
They left early in the morning at around six a.m. They met many villagers on their way who were going to hunt and farm away from the big village. Jean saw his first herd of wild elephants. He had seen elephants in the zoo, but here they seemed like they could walk right over him, like he would a bug. The porters saw his fear and laughed at him. They tried to get an elephant to come to them, which made Jean even more nervous. 
�The elephants are not dangerous,� Kinwa told him. 
�Can we shoot one?� 
�Whatever for?� Mpuwu nudged Kinwa and both looked totally shocked by the idea. 
Jean looked up at the thunderous beasts not paying him any mind. �Ah, target practice?� 
�We will save our bullets. See how many hang together? Shoot at one and they will stampede. One bullet will not kill one, but one will kill you.� 
Jean felt his fears transfer to a need to shed blood. �We have enough bullets in our stock, we can shoot.� 
�Let�s keep the bullet for others dangerous animals and bad people too.� Kinwa grabbed Jean�s barrel and lowered it. 
One of them, being startled, brayed, and all the elephants joined in, their voices shaking the trees and making the grasses bend. The elephants walked in a group, plowing over the smaller trees that were in their way. Jean and his group watched the elephants passing by like a live movie. There were more than a hundred in that group many small elephants and their mothers following behind. The braying finally stopped when they came to a small river to drink. 
Jean nodded, glad he didn�t shoot. �This is God's wonder.� 
�Did you ever see an elephant before, Jean?� Mpuwu was anxious to get moving but Jean seemed rooted to the spot. 
�In a zoo once, as a boy. Otherwise, just in books.� 
�The elephant is a good animal. They do not regularly attack villagers. If you are attacked by an elephant that means you have problems in your family or with someone else.� Mpuwu put a hand on his arm when Jean still didn�t move. �You will see many more elephants in your days in Africa.� 
�I love this.� 
�Let us go now. We have many more miles to walk.� 
�Let�s leave when the elephants leave. Why don't they call the elephant king of the jungle? He is huge. He could squash a lion.� 
�Even elephants are afraid of lions. We couldn't stand like this if it was a lion. We�d be panicked and hiding in the tops of trees and shooting in every direction. I know, I�ve done it. The Lion can walk alone because he is confident and sure of himself.� 
Jean was warned not to wear red clothes during the long journey. They have told him that many dangerous wild animal attack people wearing red clothes because it indicated "meat and the blood of meat." 
�I still think there�s an injustice here, calling a small animal king instead of this monster elephant. Why would something like that be afraid of a tiny lion?� 
�We will meet a lion in our journey and you will confirm with the rest of the world the lion's supremacy.� 
Jean grunted. He started to walk with them. �Until I�m convinced, I will consider the elephant the king.� 
�Even if we don't meet the lion, you will hunt one day in the big forest and you will see what we have seen,� said Kinwa, who thought Jean should listen more to people who know. 
The elephants finished drinking the water in a small passing river and left the place with a thundering roar as they headed away from the three men. This scene motivated the young colonist to walk more quickly, to heighten his pursuit of getting deep into the interior of the land. Surely there would be other great scenes worth seeing in his lifetime. 
### 
But the same desperate fatigue came over Jean after walking more than thirty miles. He could walk more miles this time, but why again must he get tired? Why did it take so long to get from one place to the next? Why was the ground so hard to walk on? �Why do we have to walk for many miles before finding another big village?� 
�It is only this area that we are walking many kilometers before finding a colonists village. Remember this morning we met many villagers on our way.� Kinwa enjoyed making Jean feel stupid. 
�I�m tired.� 
�Be strong, Jean,� cautioned Mpuwu, �even our sisters walk sometimes many kilometers to visit relatives.� 
�In our land, we use wheels to transport us instead of our feet.� 
�The only place you may find transport here is Boma and we are far from Boma. There is no road to rely on here. But we do not worry because we have been walking like this since our childhood.� 
�Let us rest for a while.� 
�In this heat it is right to feel tired. Better to force yourself to keep going.� 
�I suppose, a little longer.� 
Jean didn't want to reveal his past, so he kept secret the story of his life in prison. He realized why the government sent prisoners to Africa. The government didn't free us�They pretend to give us a second chance in sending us in this disadvantage community to suffer far from our families and friends. I cannot return home because I will still be captured in the police custody. It was better to enjoy the fresh air than living in a small spaceship, which he often pretended to be in while in the jail cell. It made living tolerable, at least. 
They walked some eighty miles to find the next colonists before seeing the sign of a village. Jean was not as excited like he was the last day when he saw smoke and heard some noises. At least it meant they were closer, but he still knew there were many miles to go yet. 
He asked the porters, who he came to think of as servants, �Why do we keep walking for miles after hearing village's noise? 
�Wind carries sound a long way.� Kinwa chuckled. �Didn�t they teach you that in your state?� 
But Jean didn�t answer. They didn�t share their past with him-why would he with them? 
Mpuwu approached a farmer coming from the field and spoke to him in their dialect. 
�Hello.� 
�Hello brother from another mother. I am Wanka.� Wanka carried a sack of potatoes to the village. 
�We are from Boma and we would like to know where can we meet a white man.� 
�White man?� 
�Yes, a colonist.� 
�I know them�I will take you there. Is he the other man with you?� 
�Yes, he is.� 
Wanka walked with Mpuwu to join the others. �I heard that in Boma they are many whites?� 
�Yes, there are thousand of white people. Like the numbers of stars.� Mpuwu gestured skyward. 
�I heard that whites erupt like lava from volcano's mountain?� 
�Those rumors are false. We must not fear their numbers. There are human like every other people.� 
�Why do they appear so different to us?� 
�There are not different to us, they have all we have and eat food like us. They can die of thirst like us.� Mpuwu did not like this man�s manner of leaning toward him when they walked. He was afraid Wanka was going to fall into him sometimes and they would both tumble to the floor. 
�You lie. Whites are different to us in everything. You are trying to protect your friend. I believe that whites erupt from mountains in winter and run over everything in their way.� 
Mpuwu shrugged. �There is nothing we can tell you to change your beliefs. You must know that they are not different to us. But maybe as time goes by you will understand.� 
�Those people are very good to us as you said despite their different looks. They brought us some clothes. Last week they gave to all my children and my wives some clothes. We used to wear animals skin and plant leaves before their arrival.� Wanka laughed. �So maybe they will run over us but maybe we will be glad for it.� He leaned close again. �But sometimes they get too demanding, and that makes me fearful.� 
Mpuwu ignored his fear, though knowing it well. �How many are there in this village?� 
�Whites?� Wanka looked skyward as though counting stars. �I have seen five males, no women among them. Sometimes more come and leave again. That�s how I see them - always coming and going. Do they live in Boma?� 
�They come from very far away but in Boma you will find a lot of whites, thousands.� 
�You said that you are from Boma.� Wanka stopped to adjust his load and followed Mpuwu again. Kinwa and Jean walked on ahead, so Mpuwu and Wanka followed a distance behind. 
�Yes, we are from Boma. I was born there and grow up there. I want to live far from Boma with our boss. We call him Jean.� 
�I have a cousin who is in Boma. When he comes to visit he always bring some clothes. Do you makes clothes or pick clothes from trees in Boma?� 
�No, clothes are made in the country of whites, brought to us by big steel ships.� 
�Did you ever visit the country of whites?� Wanka licked his lips as though wondering over their flavor. 
�No. I hope to someday. They say there are many great things there.� 
�They have a country where they erupt from mountains. The white people told us that eating foreign people is bad in the eyes of God.� 
�That is the biggest sin in the World. The one who eat his fellow human will go into hell and will be burned into eternity.� 
Wanka shifted his potato load to his other shoulder. �I am not a cannibal but I have talked with them. They say that theirs is a ritual that has a dual purpose, keeps their enemies from returning to meet them in the next life and helps to keep them from being too hungry and removing all their resources too quickly. You tell me what to do if we should run short of meat? The animals, because so many are hunting, are not able to grow a strong herd anymore. When we were kids we used to hunt animals next to our yard, not going out far at all. Now we have to walk more than ten miles every day to get good meat.� 
�God will provide food.� 
�Tell me, I will go to hell too?� 
�Why?� 
�I ate some foreigners before the arrival of the white.� 
�If you did not know it was bad before you knew God, He will forgive you now that you know.� Mpuwu realized that Wanka leaned more closely when the sack was carried on the other shoulder, and decided to get used to walking a little sideways. 
�I remember the first time we ate a foreigner. I was almost ten years old. He was just passing through, and as black of skin as I ever saw. I asked him if he knew where he was going but he couldn�t talk the same dialect like us. So then my father and my late uncle came at him with knifes. They killed him and my mother and the neighbors cooked him. They send also a portion of meat to the village�s chief and other friends of my father join us. It tasted very nice, what I remember. A rare treat because foreigners do not come often into this area. Did you ever taste human meat?� 
�Not me.� 
�Why not?� 
�Because when we were born the priests were already in our area to show us the right way. But my parents in their generation before they arrival of priests, they use to eat black foreigners and once ate a white foreigner. Tell me, if you go to another land of foreigners and they ate you how will you feel?� 
Wanka laughed. �You sound like a priest yourself! Do you only figure they are right and no one else?� He sighed, and for a moment they walked in silence. �Black foreigners of the north do not eat people. We people from the South do not have to travel to the other part of the world.� 
They walked on, talking and not talking, and finally after five miles reach the house of the priests, a big modern house built in a form of boarding school. 
The five priests were happy to meet the young and ambitious young European, Jean, who wanted to live in Africa and build his future. As usual, Jean didn�t want them to know he had been in prison. He felt they would be forgiving, but he only hoped to look ahead now, and not behind. They had many fine things in this house, though, that made his hands itching to go back to his stealing ways. 
�Who motivated you to come to Africa?� 
�My late uncle.� Jean was introduced to the five men, and he struggled to keep their names straight. The one who did the most talking was called Jimbo, which he found an unusual name, but also somewhat European, so he could remember it. 
�What are you planning to do in Africa?� 
Jean accepted the coffee they offered. They had put sugar and milk into it and he didn�t really like it that way but he didn�t complain. It didn�t seem right to complain. Mpuwu and Kinwa both said no to coffee, and looked around as though uncomfortable, and wanting to leave. 
�I want first to look of the land and find my own place where I will make a coffee or cotton plantations. I want a place where whites never been before. The king and the authority in Boma have told us to capture new lands. 
Jimbo nodded, his grin growing wider. �It is possible to find that kind of land here in the South of Congo. People here are passive, but in the North people resist our entrance. The problem is that in the North they don�t eat people, yet are resistant to us. And in the South they are friendly but they eat unknown people. We have been preaching to end of these practices and we have a good response. You don�t have to worry. You have two Porters who are your interpreters and protectors. They won 't be seen as foreigners because they speak the same languages, just a little different in dialect but they can communicate. A foreigner is someone who don�t speak the same dialect enough to be understood. Are your workers from Boma or the North? 
�They are from Boma but I don't know where they are originated from. Boma is becoming a big town where people from different part of Africa lives now.� Jean glanced back but Kinwa had disappeared and Mpuwu continued looking around nervously. 
�We help everybody here, colonists who need help and many villagers too. We do other things, with God�s assistance. We have one of the biggest cotton plantations here in the South with 250 workers. We have the only hunting team here, with modern guns. Some of our workers both work the plantation and hunt too. We hunt Lions, Leopards, Giraffe skins which are very valuable to sell. It helps to keep us in food.� He shrugged. �It is unnecessary to mention the profit that we make. We give back to the community in forms of schools, hospital and we are planning to build the road to Boma. With only five years here we already have a school and a hospital under construction.� Jimbo helped himself to more of the concoction he called coffee. �Do not worry if you need help, we will be able to help. It is difficult to settle and once you settle, because you are white, you will be some kind of king and well respected person. But you need to do the right things, and you need to know what they are so that the villagers do not turn against you.� 
�And this help you offer-what do you get from me in return?� 

Jimbo only waved him off, although Jean felt himself very smart for once. �Most of the villagers all over Africa know the ten commandments now - killing is bad, robbing�they only kill in self defense and many who used to kill foreigners as meat are learning the true way. How old are you now?� 
�I am twenty years old.� 
�That is a good age - a pliable age. You will see how you will change, even as you change others. What did you do before you came here?� 
Jean thought about this carefully. �I have only a mother left. She cannot work well, and has depended on me.� There - that didn�t feel too much like a lie. 
�This is an age where you can start building your future. In just one decade you will have as many as four houses in Europe, along with all the land you will own here. These people,� he waved briefly at Mpuwu and Kinwa, who had finally reappeared, and lowered his voice to Jean, �do not know the value of what you will take from them. That makes it easier. I will personally advise you and encourage you to walk again some fifty miles and you will find a virgin land where whites never been before and you and your two Porters will find a dream land. Your Porters will be your supervisors of your plantations. In this area cotton are growing so well and so does coffee. I think you have the map with you?� 
�Yes, I have the map with me. The uh�superior in Boma told me that in the South you may find also some diamonds.� 
Again Jimbo waved his hand, as though some things were not worth thinking about. �There may be mineral resources but we are more interested in agriculture and hunting. The biggest mistake many people make is that they want to earn a lot of money right away the first year. That kind of money can disappear just as quickly. Look, you won't wait for long, some plants like coffee and cotton grow like wild plants. First you collect those wild plants. And use them to start your own plantation. We all have houses in our motherlands. Our standing of life here is much better than our colleagues who do not want to make this sacrifice. If my superior tells me to return today I will still be happy because I gained more already that what I could have earned in Europe for the rest of my career.� 
Jean frowned. �I don�t understand. When do you preach?� 
Jimbo put a hand on his shoulder. �Every day, my son, every day.� 
�Well,� Jean stood, and shook his head. �I understand perfectly your advice. I will come for assistance here if this is the last stop of civilization for me.� 


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