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

242 THINKING BLACK
idea, this is the mad monarch who would build a cathedral
as high as the pyramids, cementing every brick with
blood. Yes,
"a huge temple, decked by Herod's pride,
Who fain would bribe a God he ne'er believed."
Anything colossal appeals to his small mind, and indeed
the proper noun "God" is in daily use for surpassing
bulk or greatness. He would dearly love to send out a
" search warrant " for a congregation, driving in hundreds
to this Devil's fold by sjambok. He, too, would negotiate
baptisms of the " King Menelik " order, " baptism by
capture" as it is called. Do you know that hundreds
of Africans in the North are pounced down on by royal
command, and en masse driven like silly sheep into the
river? There they are divided into bands, the Wolda
Gabriel and Wolda Jesus, and thus they sin the bad old
sin of making Jesus Christ King by force. Truly the
Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence. Was it not the
Church's worst day when it was able to shout " Victory !
on a successor of the Caesars holding the stirrup for a
Christian bishop to mount his horse? But all this
" Defender of the Faith " role is denied him :
"
it would
be about as appropriate to allow Mushidi to "run the
Mission " as it is to see Bishops in the House of Lords
or a lady in a smoking compartment. Yet he has his
aflfectations of morality. Oh yes ! This is the old show-
man who poses as an angel on a mud-heap. By way of
wrapping the robe of the Pharisee round about him he