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

342 THINKING BLACK
After plying them with questions, I find the answer is as
old as the days when the common people heard Christ
gladly. It is surely this : all other religions under the
sun make man seek God ; this Gospel I preach whets their
curiosity, because God is seen seeking man. Beyond all
doubt there is such a thing as the scientific study of
comparative religions, but Christianity is not one of them.
There is only one Gospel : there are many religions.
* * ^
I gladly drop the curtain on these sorry deeds, and
would now proceed to business—the Master's surely— by
pointing out that, with this new complication of revolt,
our road North is as straitly shut as the road West.
We have no alternative but to look East for succour.
Yet, even there, the circle of Cain is closing in on us, for
what is the East but the Arab headquarters ? We may
seek to ignore them, but they never forget us. Indeed,
precisely now, with cold, concentrated malice, they are
shutting us in from three different points on the Eastern
skyline : Muruturutu in the North-East, Shimba due East,
and Chiwala moving up from the South-East. Chuckling
with glee that their old slaves the rebel Belgian soldiers
have voted for slavery, they are now advancing to join
hands with the Biheans and wipe us out, the compact, of
course, to be sealed in blood—our blood. Thus, North,
South, East, and West, the Devil is making a bold bid to
win back the vast Interior to its old allegiance to slavery,
the Arab in particular being bent on having nothing less
than a huge dividend- swelling concern. But if the