Ngũgĩ Thiong - Wizard of the Crow

“Ssshh! Not so fast,” Machokali said, waving the statement away. “Tell me this: was Vinjinia at the ceremony or not?”

“How do I know? She might have been there in disguise.”

“But at the meeting you told me that you spoke to her on the phone?”

“That is true.”

“So how could she have been both at home and at the ceremony?”

“Markus, women are very complicated. Besides, these mobile phones are deceptive,” he added conveniently, forgetting that Vinjinia had refused to own one despite her husband’s entreaty to do so as a mark of being in tune with the times.

“Have you asked the workers or any of your children if she was at home?”

“Yes, and they all say that she was in all day. But how do I know if they are telling the truth? She may have bribed them to cover for her. Never trust a woman! I trusted Nyawira to my son owl”

“As to Nyawlra, later. Does Vinjinia know where the police took her?”

“She says no. She says that after they arrested her they blindfolded her, and after driving her in circles put her in a dark cell with dim light, and it was in this dark chamber that she was interrogated by people she could not see.”

“What did they ask her? I mean, what did they want to know?”

“They demanded that she tell them everything she knew about the Movement for the Voice of the People. There were questions about Nyawlra. How long had she known Nyawlra? How had they met? When did Nyawlra start working for Eldares Modern Construction and Beal Estate? Who actually offered her the job? They also wanted to know if there was a personal relationship between either Nyawlra and me or Nyawlra and you. Had you and Nyawlra ever met in or outside my office? Was she your girlfriend? Questions like that. Vinjinia says that she told them all she knew, which was very little, for she herself had not been a regular at the office, that she started working there only after I was stricken ill… You see now what I told you about women? Was it really necessary for her to bring up my illness?”

“Stop trembling and listen to me. Hold yourself together like a man. Everybody in the government knows that you were down with the flu. Everybody in Aburlria gets the flu. So that’s nothing to worry about. As for employing Nyawlra, anybody can make a similar mistake. A person may employ a thief, but it does not follow that he is himself a thief. Besides, a thief does not go about the streets shouting: I am a thief. The sins of the employed cannot be visited on the employer. Mark you, Nyawlra is an enemy of the State and if there is anything that you know that can lead to her arrest, tell me. Do you understand? To me first. When I am in the USA, I shall be calling you from time to time to find out what you have uncovered. But if I am nowhere to be found and you do have information on Nyawlra, then I suggest that you take it to the nearest police station, to that friend of yours-what was his name, Wonderful Tumbo? Yes, that would be wonderful. As for your wife, why do you want to divorce her when it appears she has done you no wrong?”

“Oh, thank you. So I am not in danger? You are not angry with me? The Buler is not angry with me?”

“Why would the Buler or I be angry with you?”

“Thank you! Thank you, my Minister!” Tajirika said as if the minister and the Buler were now one and the same.

Machokali was about to tell him to shut up, that he was a minister of the Buler only, but he held back. The more he talked with Tajirika, the more he felt depressed. He had never seen this side of him. No backbone, he thought, and wondered if it was worth telling him all he had wanted to tell him, like suggesting that Tajirika be his watchdog while he was away. He also considered withholding information about impending changes in the structure of the Marching to Heaven Building Committee. Then he thought that it was only fair that he should impart the news himself instead of Tajirika’s reading about it in the papers.

“I want you to listen very carefully. Even among us state ministers there is a fierce struggle for power and influence. Not every other minister loves me. Our birthday cake did not please everybody, not because they hated the idea of Marching to Heaven but because it did not originate with them. Some, and I think you know whom I mean-I don’t want to mention their names-resent the project so intensely that they would do anything to scuttle it. Failing that, they will do anything to put their stamp on the project. Now, I don’t want to beat about the bush. I want to tell you straight out that at long last they have managed to do so. Of course they wanted to push out all my allies, like you, from the Building Committee, but fortunately the Buler in his unfathomable wisdom refused their demands. Nevertheless, there will be a few changes that you should know about. For instance, you will now have a deputy”

“What? He will take over my job?” Tajirika asked, alarmed.

“No, no. You will remain the chairman of Marching to Heaven. Your deputy will only assist you.”

Tajirika looked relieved, as if he had expected news much worse.

“That is not a bad idea, you know,” Tajirika said. “I hold the chair and my deputy holds the pen. My clerk.”

“It will not be exactly like that,” Machokali, who had expected Tajirika to grow furious, tried to explain with a touch of annoyance. “Your deputy will not work for me but for my enemies. He will be the eyes of my enemies in my camp. So I want you to be very careful in what you do or say in his presence. I want you to note down what he does or says and on my return from the USA you will brief me. Of course just now the committee has very little work to do, and so in practice having a deputy means very little. Work will begin only after the Global Bank has released the funds. But if he tells you to do anything with him, or if he asks you to sign any document, don’t do it until I return from the USA, certainly not before you and I have at least talked on the phone.”

From the moment Tajirika realized that he was not on the Buler’s hit list and that he still retained his position as the chairman of Marching to Heaven, all his worries vanished. He wondered why Machokali was getting all worked up about this matter of a deputy. Isn’t a deputy a kind of glorified clerk, doing whatever the chairman wants him to do?

“It would have been better if I had been allowed to choose my clerk, give him a proper job interview, but I suppose it does not matter. Who is my deputy, anyway?” Tajirika asked.

“His name will be announced sometime this week in the official gazette, but I thought I should let you know so it does not come as a surprise. His name is John Kaniürü. Previously he was a senior youthwinger.”

“What, a youthwinger as my deputy?” Tajirika asked, now insulted. “What do these youthwingers know except… except… I don’t even know what they do. But on second thought, even this is okay. He will be my boy, running errands for me…”

“That is not all,” Machokali added, somewhat embarrassed by how naive his ally was proving to be. “There will also be a Commission of Inquiry into the Queuing Mania. The commission will try to find out who started it and where, and how it came to be used against the State.”

“That’s easy-they don’t need a whole commission for that,” Tajirika said, standing up and pointing toward his office. “It all started over there, outside my building. Unfortunately,” he said, sitting down again, “it was when I was ill. But my secretary can tell them everything, for she was there the whole time.” Then he remembered who his secretary was and quickly sidestepped the issue.

“My wife, Vinjinia, was also there, and she can truly testify that the queuing started outside my offices. Why? Are people trying to claim credit?”