Kintu

by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

  Bwanika and his other wives arrived when little Yobu was three weeks old. They brought baby clothes and money. They also brought chicken and meat to celebrate.

  “I heard that my European wife was brave and I wondered: do my wives howl just to make me feel horrible?”

  Bwanika called Ruth his muzungu wife because she grew up in the city and did not understand traditional things.

  Bwanika’s wives went straight for the baby. The Ssemuto wife, the one who kept livestock, whom the children called Maama Ssemuto said, “We heard about the newborn and we thought what a perfect excuse to visit!” as she reached into the Moses basket to pick up Yobu. When she saw the baby’s face the woman added, “What a neat nose: there’s Tutsi blood in your family, Bweeza, don’t deny it.”

  “How can I?” Magda laughed happily. “This child is proof.”

  Bwanika and his wives stayed the weekend, cooking, eating, talking about the children, and gossiping. There was a sense of festivity especially when hordes of village women started to arrive and more cooking was done and the women stayed longer than they had intended. Each put money into Yobu’s tiny hands. When he gripped it, they laughed in admiration. “He recognizes money, doesn’t he?” as if Yobu was the cleverest newborn they had ever seen.

  “May you have strong hands to earn your living,” they prayed.

  “May you have luck the way millipedes have legs.” Ruth smiled happily as women wished her child good luck and cracked jokes.

  Magda was in her element telling the women how, because of her vigilance, the baby simply slipped out, “No complications and none of that stitches nonsense.” The women decried the hospital midwives. “They don’t give you a chance; they snap and slit and stitch at will.” And the women agreed that the lazy midwives who did not allow a child to arrive in its own time were perfect for the lazy city women who lie on their backs as soon as they fall pregnant.

  “I am going to replenish Luusi’s blood and help her body repair itself before I send her back to her parents. I doubt that that mother of hers knows what to do,” Magda told the women.

  Ruth’s face darkened at the mention of her mother. Magda, misunderstanding her, quickly added, “But the human in me cannot blame Faisi. My brother’s wife has never known blood relations. She grew up in an orphanage.”

  There was a moment of silence as Ruth looked up in surprise. The women squirmed in discomfort but Magda carried on regardless. “It must be hard not knowing who you are. But it’s no excuse to drive away your husband’s relations.”

  “Sometimes when we lack something, those who have it seem to flaunt it at us,” a woman explained.

  Ruth smiled to reassure Magda that she was not offended. Still, she was surprised to hear that Faisi came from nowhere but an orphanage. She had presumed that her mother, like her father, had discarded her relations. In any case, even if Faisi had relatives, she would have thrown them out of her life if they were not Awakened enough. In the past, before Magda was mentioned, their extended family were the Awakened. But the Awakened were controlled. They did not visit each other unnecessarily and they did not fuss over each other’s children. The church was like a bus and brethren were passengers on their way to heaven rather than a family. Ruth remembered the last time Faisi talked to Kanani’s uncle who had brought news that the most senior clan elder had died.

  “We don’t have relations that don’t walk in Christ. Don’t come back here telling us there’s this funeral rite or that death. Our Lord said, “Let the dead bury their dead!”

  Ruth, who was six years old at the time, had watched the old man climb the steps from the compound into the road. She had felt sad for a man who was already dead going to bury the dead.

  “I would like to wait before we tell my parents,” Ruth told Magda. “Until I am fully recovered.”

  “You do?” Magda could not contain her gladness. Ruth might have as well have said she preferred Magda to her parents.

  That weekend, Ruth noticed that some of Magda’s children resembled the other wives but she could not be so rude as to ask. Life in Nakaseke was not as simple as it had seemed. Counting how many children there were in the house was to invite death because only death counts people. You don’t ask visitors whether they will eat or have tea because you are telling them to say no. It was taboo to ask who was cousin, niece, or nephew. Only Ruth was niece in the house and only she called Bweeza aunt.

  On Monday as the two wives and Bwanika drove away in his Opel, Magda could not contain herself. She whispered to Ruth, “Did you see how possessively elder wife sat in the passenger seat?”

  Magda made stiff motions with her neck as if the elder wife were a turkey. Ruth looked at her with surprise because she thought they liked each other. Magda relented and said, “They are generous, my fellow wives, but Maama Kapeeka always wants to show that she is the first wife.”

  Ruth and little Yobu soon fell into Nakaseke’s rhythms. In the morning, when the children were at school, she looked after him. But as soon as they returned, Yobu disappeared. They attempted to plait his slippery hair. Village girls lingered saying, “We’ve come to carry the baby for you.” Sometimes Ruth sent them away, “Come back later, he is sleeping.” Magda, seeing Ruth worry would say, “Let them enjoy him while he is still here. It is good for him to be loved by so many.”

  9.

  Yobu was lifting his butt off the floor, leaning forward to start crawling, when Kanani arrived to collect them. When Magda saw Kanani’s lack of interest in the baby she remarked, “When I saw the baby’s features I said, hohoho that Tutsi lad of old has popped up in the family again. Fancy him falling right into my hands!”

  Magda was only knocking Kanani with family history in jest, like throwing a stone into a thicket to see what might fly out. His response astonished her. “The child’s father is Rwandese.”

  Ruth, who was dressing Yobu, looked at Kanani sharply. It was as if she too could not believe that Kanani had said it. Then she felt Magda staring at her questioningly and she smiled in agreement.

  “Is he one of your church people?” Magda asked.

  “He’s not,” Kanani snapped just as Ruth was about to nod.

  “But why choose Luusi?” Magda smiled at Kanani’s discomfort. “You would think that if the lad wanted himself reincarnated he would go for a male’s child.”

  “You know how empty those beliefs are, Magda.”

  But mischief was still on Magda’s face as she answered her own question. “Well, what do we know about the world of the dead? Maybe over there they don’t erect boundaries between daughters and sons.”

  “But the Bible—”

  “The one written by the white man?” Magda snapped.

  “It could’ve been written by anyone. Remember there’ll be no color or creed in the new world.”

  “Is that what God says these days? Oh well, God has seen the light,” Magda threw her arms in the air. “The last time I was in church Africans were an accursed crew.”

  “That was a wrong interpretation.”

  “And this one is right?”

  “That’s it,” Kanani was fed up. “Ruth, pick up your bags, we’re going.”

  “Luusi,” Magda turned to Ruth, “Let no one make you feel sorry. Yobu being Tutsi was no mistake and you’re lucky to be chosen to have him.”

  Ruth kept a straight face.

  “Give me the bag.” Kanani reached for Ruth’s bag. “Get the baby. Let’s go.”

  But Magda was not finished. “Watch out, Kanani.” She pointed a finger at Kanani. “The ancients are on to you for some reason. First you had the twins, now the Tutsi? I am jealous!”

  “My daughter having a Tutsi child has nothing to do with it. There are Tutsis in this world. That’s the end of it.”

  “Nnakato!” Magda suddenly realized the implication of Ruth being a Nnakato. “That’s why he went for a daughter,” she gasped. The Tutsi lad is seeking his mother Nnakato of old.” Magda looked at her arms and said, “There are g
oose bumps all over my arms. I can’t believe this is happening, and to you of all people!” Now Magda closed her eyes and hissed, “For once in your life, Kanani, open your eyes and see what lies at your feet.”

  Kanani turned and walked out of Magda’s compound. Magda ran after him. Kanani hastened his pace as if the Devil was close to his heels.

  “I warn you, Kanani,” Magda whispered so that Ruth would not hear. “You might think that because you are a Christian the curse will not touch you but I am telling you this child is not a coincidence. Ignore him and you’ll pay dearly.”

  Kanani stopped walking and turned to Magda. “The curse is with us, Magda. You are the curse. You are the madness looking for things where they are not.”

  Kanani started to walk again. Magda threw her arms in the air again and called. “Oh wizard that bewitched my brother Kanani, let him go I beseech you!” but Kanani ignored her. Ruth followed her father. She wanted to laugh at Bweeza’s insistence about Yobu being Tutsi, at her turning a mere anthill into a mountain. Eventually Magda gave up and walked quietly with Ruth until they came to Nakaseke Hospital where they would catch the bus. Kanani walked ahead, alone.

  After a brief wait at the hospital, a Ganda-owned bus Sulemani Serwanga, arrived. Magda kissed Yobu over and over, reminding him that she was his grandmother and that she had brought him into the world. Then she hugged Ruth but stopped herself from saying, “Don’t forget Nakaseke, Luusi.”

  As he prepared to get on the bus, Kanani handed Magda an envelope. When she opened it, Magda smiled through her humiliation and said, “I would’ve paid you, Kanani, for the chance to look after Nnakato and our grandchild.” She removed the money and waved it. “This will help to fix the rituals for little Yobu’s Rwandese situation.”

  To contain himself Kanani jumped on the bus.

  “Buy the children some sweets or cakes with the money,” Ruth suggested.

  As the bus pulled away, Ruth stuck her head through the window and waved until Magda was out of sight. When she sat back, Kanani said, “I can see she treated you well,” rather sheepishly.

  Ruth only nodded. She felt herself slip out of the carefree Nakaseke mode. The city mask fell back.

  “Her father was my father’s real brother,” Kanani was saying, “But he was Asleep.” He sighed deeply. “Now see what happened: Magda married a heathen with two other wives. I doubt they go to church at all.”

  “The children did at Christmas and on Easter.”

  “That is exactly the nature of the Asleep. For them, God switches on for Christmas and Easter but he is off for the rest of the year.”

  When Ruth did not respond, Kanani continued less passionately. “I remember Magda’s father coming to visit us when I was young but my father never returned his visits. Magda and I went to the same school. She was quick in class, quicker than me in fact, although I was older than her, but she was not interested in studies. She could have become a nurse or a teacher.”

  After spending a year in Nakaseke where strangers asked about her child like their own, where Yobu had been called the newcomer as if he had moved into a house in the village, where everyone’s business was everyone’s business, Ruth was shocked by Faisi’s distance and lack of interest in the baby. As she and Kanani came down the steps, Ruth saw Faisi sweeping the side yard. Something about Faisi told her that she had seen but was not ready to acknowledge them. Finally, Faisi looked up from her sweeping as if seeing them for the first time but there was no hint of welcome in her eyes. Faisi smiled at Kanani and glanced at Ruth. She took the bags off Kanani and carried on as if there were no baby. Ruth was overwhelmed by tears. The mantra, there is no sin too big for God, which Kanani and Faisi dished out to strangers, had not been offered to her.

  After Bweeza’s vast and noisy home, her parents’ house seemed small and hushed. Ruth headed straight for the bedroom she used to share with Job. Their bedroom had been cleared out as if she and Job had been evicted. The metallic bed they had shared all their lives was now folded. It stood upright leaning against the wall. There was a second bed, a new Banco. Its stands were still wrapped in plastic covers. It also stood leaning against the wall. Everything else in the bedroom was neat.

  Kanani came into the bedroom carrying a Moses basket and put it down on the floor. Then he looked at Ruth. There was an awkward moment as if he wanted to say something but then he decided against it, turned, and walked out of the bedroom. A few moments later, he returned with a bundle of baby clothes.

  “These were yours and Job’s. Thank God your mother never throws anything away,” he said miserably.

  Then he helped Ruth bring down one of the beds off the wall and set up the bedroom. He said nothing to Ruth all the while. Faisi did not come to the bedroom to help.

  The night before Job was due back from school for Christmas holidays, Kanani informed Ruth that the following year, she would be going to Gayaza High. They were in the sitting room. Instead of jumping up and down with joy (Gayaza High, a boarding school, was the best Anglican girls’ school in the country) Ruth asked, “What about Yobu?” She had no intentions of leaving him with Faisi.

  “I’ll look after the child,” Kanani said. “I’ve piled up leave worth a whole year. I am sure the church will allow me to take at least six months at once. You must get a good education.”

  The air in the room went still. Kanani’s offer had come out of nowhere. It was clear that he had not discussed it with Faisi, for she asked, “What about God’s work?”

  “You’ll carry on with your work,” Ruth snapped.

  “I mean money for God’s work.”

  “It’ll be paid leave,” Kanani explained.

  Faisi picked at the table even though it was clean. She stood up and went to the kitchen as if to discard the invisible dirt she had removed from the table. Ruth knew that Faisi was stifling something she wanted to say. She feared that Faisi was not yet done. Suspecting that she would suggest that the child be taken to Ssanyu Babies’ Home, Ruth began to heave. Kanani looked at her and asked, “Why are you crying now? I said I’ll look after the child.”

  “Thank you for not taking Yobu to the orphanage.” And she stood up and went to her bedroom.

  Job arrived late the following afternoon. The red-and-white school bus with a red lion emblazoned along its side dropped him outside the house. Tears rolled down his face as he threw down his wooden suitcase and attempted to lift Yobu in one hand and Ruth in the other. Faisi looked away.

  Kanani was clear. The twins were not to start another family in their bedroom. As far as he was concerned Ruth and Job were still children: he would not have them behave like parents towards the baby. Job was told to sleep in the sitting room, leaving the bedroom to Yobu and Ruth. And two weeks before the twins started school, the baby would move in with him and Faisi to get him used to being with them. As if she had been waiting for an opening, Faisi added, “Now that everyone’s here, it’s time we thought of an appropriate name for the child.”

  “He’s got a Christian name already.” Ruth looked at Kanani for support but Kanani kept quiet. Faisi shook her head.

  “Yobu, even in its Ganda version, is wrong for this child. I suggest we call him Nsobya.”

  “Nsobya? As in error?” Ruth glared at Faisi.

  “Sin is a sin and we must call it by its proper name,” Faisi glared back.

  “I don’t care about Nsobya as a surname,” Job said. “But there is nothing wrong with Yobu as his Christian name.”

  “We shall baptize him Saul. It will give him a chance to turn into Paul.”

  Kanani, who had kept an uncomfortable silence, now spoke up.

  “I name my grandson Paulo. His Ganda name will be Nsobya. That’s the end of the matter.” He sat back in the chair and crossed his legs.

  There was silence. Its echoes hovered about the room.

  Faisi, cut off by Kanani like that, sat back in her chair and propped her chin with her hand. The twins looked at each other, stood up and went to th
eir bedroom where they jumped up and down soundlessly. It was a relief to see Kanani assert himself. The miserable look on Faisi’s face was priceless. Ruth whispered to Job, “I don’t know why, but he’s been clipping her lately. First, he did not send Yobu away; then he offered to look after him. Now he has crumpled her ‘sin’ view.”

  “But when we leave, she’ll override him.”

  “I told them I’ll kill myself if I find my child gone. You should have seen how frightened he was!”

  10.

  Sunday, February 2, 2004

  Paulo parked outside the Redeemed Gospel Church on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road and turned off the engine. He waited for Ruth in the car. Outside, the sun was stretching toward one o’ clock. He reminded himself to tell Ruth that Kanani had been cut off from work. He was worried about his grandfather. The change he had seen in him in just a month was dramatic. Perhaps he was imagining it; perhaps he had never noticed his grandfather looking so lost because he had never seen him idle. It was not the loss of his job that was killing Kanani, Paulo knew: it was the loss of the Cathedral. Kanani had been the Awakened’s last hold onto Namirembe Cathedral. There were no young Awakened in the church anymore. Most of the children of the Awakened, like the twins, had deserted the sect for the new Christianity. Others had abandoned the faith totally. According to his grandparents, the Church was now in the hands of the Asleep.

  When he looked up, worshippers had started streaming out of the church. Ruth emerged. It seemed as though she was heading straight to the car, but then she stopped to talk to two women. Then they were joined by still more women and Ruth settled into chatting. Uncle Job too emerged from the church and went to where Ruth stood. Ruth turned to him and said something. Aunt Kisa, Uncle Job’s wife, also came out and joined the group. Paulo sucked his teeth. He had hoped that Ruth would come straight to the car so he did not have to go and greet the twins’ friends. Now he stepped out of the car and walked along the road. As he approached the church gate, someone recognized him and called, “Ruth, your brother’s here.”