Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

116 THINKING BLACK
Chef excruciatingly murdering your supper fowl, plucking
it while yet alive. The same boy's father, too, in killing
a prisoner would with a refinement of cruelty insist on
first digging out the heart. The same devious course of
devilry is seen when they catch an eagle raiding the
chickens. Oh yes, they release the captured culprit,
but it is only with one leg cut ofi", one eye gouged out,
then away the regal bird flies in misery, maimed for life.
Yet so daring are these vultures that, at Molenga's, one
successfully swooped down on the plate passing only a few
yards from cook-house to table and carried ofi" the savoury
meat thereon
* * #
What next ? The ex post facto Chokwe " hungry
country" is a relative joy compared with the treat-
ment we receive from the Luvale people. The staple
product of this road-blocking tribe is a wealth of Rob
Roy bandits who live on loot. Squeezing through the
grass is a small concern compared with squeezing past
these stand-and-deliver ruffians. This is what the phrase
"boring in" means. Small ragamuffin sovereigns,
let us call them, generally this type of negro is the
greasiest and the dirtiest that ever defied soap. " Water
rots the skin," is their saying. Samikilenge at Peho is
the worst of the gang, then comes Kalunga Kameya, and
then old Kangombe. Every man of them nurses a private
grievance and demands " cash down " for seeing the light
of His Majesty's countenance. Most of their towns, too,
more prominent on the map than on the planet earth.