“Roy! What are you doing here?”
Roy stood up and they embraced. “You know me. Just looking for a meal. I should ask you the same thing.”
“Me, I am only visiting my mother. If I don’t come so often, she begins to complain.” He kissed Salina on the cheek
and took my hand in a crushing handshake. “So I see you’ve brought my American cousin! I’ve heard so much about
you, Barry, I cannot believe you are now here.” He turned to Salina. “Have you given Barry food?”
“Soon, Billy. Soon.” Salina took Kezia’s hand and turned to Roy. “You see what mothers must put up with? How is
your granny, anyway?”
“Same.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “That is not so bad,” she said.
Together with Kezia, she went out of the room, and Billy fell onto the couch beside Roy.
“So, you still crazy, bwana? Look at you now! Well-fed, like a prize bull! You must be enjoying yourself in the
States.”
“It’s okay,” Roy said. “How’s Mombasa? I hear you’re working at the post office.”
Billy shrugged. “The pay is all right. Not too much thinking, you know, but steady.” He turned to me. “Let me tell
you, Barry, this brother of yours, he was wild! Truthfully, we were all wild back then. We spent most of our time
chasing the bush meat, eh Roy!” He slapped Roy on the thigh and laughed. “So tell me, how are these American
women?”
Roy laughed, but he seemed relieved when Salina and Kezia brought in dinner. “You see, Barry,” Billy said, setting
down his plate on the low table in front of him, “your father and my father were age-mates. Very close. When Roy and
I were growing up, we were also age-mates, so naturally we became very close. Let me tell you, your father, he was a
very great man. I was closer to him than to my own father. If I was in trouble, it was my Uncle Barack that I went to
first. And Roy, you would also go to my father, I believe.”
“The men in our family were very good to other people’s children,” Roy said quietly. “With their own, they didn’t
want to look weak.”
Billy nodded and licked his fingers. “You know, Roy, I think there’s truth in what you say. Myself, I don’t want to
make the same mistakes. I don’t want to mistreat my family.” With his clean hand, Billy pulled his wallet out of his
pocket and showed me a picture of his wife and their two young children. “I swear, bwana, marriage takes you! You
should see me now, Roy. I’ve become so calm. A family man. Of course, there are limits to what a man should take.
My wife, she knows not to cross me too often. What do you say, Sayid?”
I realized that Sayid hadn’t spoken much since we arrived. He washed his hands now before turning to Billy.
“I am not yet married,” he said, “so perhaps I should not speak. But I admit, I have been giving these matters some
thought. I have concluded that the problem that is most serious for Africa is what?” He paused to look around the room.
“This thing between men and women. Our men, we try to be strong, but our strength is often misplaced. Like this
business with having more than one woman. Our fathers had many wives, so we also must have many women. But we
do not stop and look at the consequences. What happens with all these women? They become jealous. The children,
they are not close to their fathers. It is-”
barré
(Barré)
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