A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe Read Free Book Online Page A

nation---as I saw it then lying on that bed---was that none of us had been indoors long enough to be able to say 'To hell with it'. We had all been in the rain together until yesterday Then a handful of us---the smart and the lucky and hardly ever the best---had scrambled for the one shelter our former rulers left, and had taken it over and barricaded themselves in. And from within they sought to persuade the rest through numerous loudspeakers, that the first phase of the struggle had been won and that the next phase---the extension of our house---was even more important and called for new and original tactics; it required that all argument should cease and the whole people speak with one voice and that any more dissent and argument outside the door of the shelter would subvert and bring down the whole house. Needless to say I did not spend the entire night on these elevated thoughts. Most of the time my mind was on Elsie, so much so in fact that I had had to wake up in the middle of the night and change my pyjama trousers.
    CHAPTER FOUR
    I usually don't mind how late I stay up at night but I do mind getting up too early. I was still fast asleep that first morning in the capital when I heard the Minister's voice. I opened my eyes and tried to smile and say good morning. 'Lazy boy,' he said indulgently. 'Don't worry. I know you must be dog-tired after yesterday's journey. See you later. I am off to the office now.' He looked as bright as a new shilling in his immaculate white robes. And he had only come home at two last night, or rather this morning! The crunching of his tyres on the loose gravel drive had woken me up in the night and I had looked at my diamond-faced watch which I often forgot to take off even for my bath. I had just bought it and believed the claim that it was everything-proof. Now I know better. But to return to Chief Nanga. There was something incongruous in his going to the office. It sounds silly to say this of a Cabinet Minister but I could not easily associate him in my mind with a desk and files. He was obviously more suited to an out-of- door life meeting and charming people. But anyhow there he was going off to his Ministry punctually at eight. Much as I already liked and admired Mrs Nanga, I must confess I was inwardly pleased when she told me as I had my breakfast that she and the children were leaving for Anata in three days. Apparently the Minister insisted that his children must be taken home to their village at least once a year. 'Very wise,' I said. 'Without it,' said Mrs Nanga, 'they would become English people. Don't you see they hardly speak our language? Ask them something in it and they reply in English. The little one, Micah, called my mother "a dirty, bush woman".' 'Terrible,' I said, laughing even though the thing wasn't funny. 'Of course I slapped okro seeds out of his mouth,' said Mrs Nanga proudly. 'My mother not knowing what he had said began to rebuke me.' 'Yes, it is good that you take them home sometimes. When do you come back?' 'After Christmas. You know Eddy's father is going to America in January.' Eddy is the name of her first son. The reason why I felt happy at the news of Mrs Nanga's journey was a natural one. No married woman, however accommodating, would view kindly the sort of plans I had in mind, namely to bring Elsie to the house and spend some time with her. Not even a self-contained guest suite such as I was now occupying would make it look well. Even if Mrs Nanga did not object, Elsie most certainly would. My experience of these things is that no woman, however liberal, wants other women to hold a low opinion of her morals. I am not talking about prostitutes because I don't go in for them. My host was one of those people around whom things were always happening. I must always remain grateful to him for the insight I got into the affairs of our country during my brief stay in his house. From the day a few years before when I had left Parliament depressed and