Ngũgĩ Thiong - Wizard of the Crow

Tajirika sensed in this the Ruler’s discomfiture with the armed forces and, emboldened by the new trust the Ruler had placed in him, he deigned to offer more general advice.

“Thank you for the trust you have invested in me, and I swear never to betray you. And if I might say so, you may need fresh eyes and ears in the State House to uncover what some people might be up to, eyes that can also quietly oversee the leaders of the armed forces, a kind of super-eye on the military.”

“I don’t think that your experience in military affairs goes beyond your taking over an armed camp with shit and urine,” the Ruler said coldly, resenting Tajirika’s intimations of his unease with the military. “Stick to money matters.”

That was a misstep, Tajirika thought, and in an effort to recover he hastened to ask, “When may I start putting my fiscal plan in motion?”

“I will think about it,” said the Ruler.

Tajirika’s plan was appealing to the Ruler’s philosophy that greed and self-interest ruled the world. But Kaniürü’s plans had the ascendancy.

And then other events occurred that suddenly moved the Tajirika plan from the realm of aesthetics to that of the practical and immediate.

Tajirika had gone to the Central Bank early to get some work done before calls started coming in. This late to bed and early to work was one of the changes in his lifestyle since becoming the governor. He would read the local, then foreign papers, mainly the business pages, and then check the Internet for the latest international stock market results and exchange rates; that way he would start his day with a proper overview of the money market of the world.

But before he had even settled into his chair, the telephone rang. Shall I take it or not? Tajirika wondered. But what if I don’t take it and later it turns out to have come from the State House? The Ruler had the habit of calling his advisers at any time of day or night. Tajirika took the phone; it was someone from the Eldares Times.

“We tried the State House and we could not get through,” the reporter told him. “So we thought of calling you instead.”

Even though he was not a minister, Tajirika did not mind people thinking or even knowing that the Ruler trusted him more than he did the ministers. And if he played his cards right, perhaps… who knows? he would sometimes tell Vinjinia.

“You have not strayed too far from the path,” Tajirika said, a touch of pride in his voice.

“We are actually calling you in your capacity as chairperson of Marching to Heaven,” the man said.

Tajirika felt his whole body tingle with excitement. Had the loans come through? In Marching to Heaven lay the biggest and most endless source of money, moreover money that did not require secret plantations and laundering facilities.

“You are talking to the right person,” Tajirika hastened to say. “What can I do for you?”

“A few words about today’s headline.”

“Today’s paper?” Tajirika asked.

“Yes,” the man said. Your reaction to the news.”

“I have not yet read it. Can you call back in five minutes? Or, better still, why don’t you just read it to me?”

“Global Bank Refuses to Lend Money for Marching to Heaven.”

“Excuse me,” Tajirika muttered.

“The Global Bank does not think that Marching to Heaven is a viable project. It is a case of free enterprise going too far.”

Tajirika’s hands shook. He did not wait for the reporter to stop reading.

“No comment. Please try the State House again,” said Tajirika in a tremulous voice.

He put the receiver down and reached for the Eldares Times. It was not just the loans for Marching to Heaven. The Global Bank and its policy-making body, the Global Ministry of Finance, had put on hold even those funds previously agreed upon. Worse still, the funds would remain frozen until the Aburlrian government had instituted economic and political reforms and took concrete steps to end inflation and corruption.

Tajirika did not know whether to cry for loss of these loans or laugh for joy: his proposed monetary policy was now more pertinent than ever.

The phone rang again.

Tajirika headed straight for the State House.

The floor of the Ruler’s sanctuary was littered with newspapers, the Ruler not apparently present. Tajirika looked up at the ceiling and his jaw fell; he took a step back for a clearer view. He could not believe his eyes. The Ruler’s legs hung in the air, his head touching the ceiling and his whole body gently swaying.

“Don’t just stand there with your mouth open-get me down,” the Ruler told him.

Tajirika felt weak in the knees and tried hard not to faint.

“Should I call the guards for help?”

“Of course not, you fool. Get me down.”

Tajirika could not reach the dangling feet, even on tiptoes. The Ruler’s body, now more passive than ever, seemed impossibly light; only the ceiling prevented it from floating away. Tajirika stood on a chair and grasped at the Ruler’s feet, but no matter how often he did, the Ruler would again rise like a balloon.

“What shall we do now?” asked Tajirika.

“That’s why I had you summoned,” replied the Ruler, looking down from the ceiling.

Tajirika thought that the Ruler was talking about his floating body.

“Yes, this matter is truly amazing,” Tajirika said, vaguely, sympathetically.

“There must be forces working against me at the Global Bank,” the Ruler said.

No, the Ruler is talking about the news, and I was about to suggest I chain him to the ground, Tajirika said to himself. He now sat on a chair with his head leaning back, the better to hear and see.

The Global Bank news had hit the Ruler hard, especially because the Bank had not seen fit to grant him the courtesy of first informing him through diplomatic channels or a special envoy but had released their communication to the media in New York.

“Look around you. Look at those papers. Look at all the headlines. Is there a soul in the whole wide world who is not reading this?

Where have diplomatic niceties gone? Imagine how my enemies must be rejoicing, believing that their agitation was responsible for halting our plans for Marching to Heaven!”

“Racists,” said Tajirika, putting as much hatred as he could into his voice. “Exactly what I myself said,” the Ruler said. “But we shall show the Bank that we were not born yesterday. What do you say, Titus?”

“You have spoken the truth, Your Mighty Excellency. We will fight back,” Tajirika said, noting that the Ruler had called him Titus as if they were the closest of friends.

“That’s why I made you the governor of money. Yes, fight back. Good words. You know that Gemstone is behind all this. He is the source of this undiluted hatred of me.”

“Racist,” Tajirika said again.

“You have spoken the truth, as always,” the Ruler said again, before he started complaining of a stomachache and demanding that his personal doctor be called.

Tajirika went to the telephone, feeling relieved that someone else would soon be joining him to help him cope with the astonishment he was witnessing.

In response to Dr. Kaboca’s “How are you?” a seated Tajirika simply pointed at the ceiling. The doctor did not understand the meaning of Tajirika’s gesture, and for a moment he thought that maybe Tajirika was mentally unbalanced and that it was because of him that he had been summoned to the State House. Where is the Ruler? Dr. Kaboca asked. “Can’t you see that the Ruler has conquered gravity!” Tajirika said impatiently.