Burn My Heart by Beverley Naidoo Read Free Book Online Page A

Mama Mercy had their eyes and mouths firmly shut. They were probably asking their Christian god to help them.
    The captain appeared in the doorway. Under his peaked cap, Mugo now saw short dreadlocks and the spark in the eyes that swept across the shed. A man beside him began to call out names written on a piece of paper. As people’s names were called, they stepped forward and were escorted out of the shed. Mugo felt a tightness around his chest. Were they being led through the archway into Wamai’s hut? Ndio! That was where the important business would take place! It was the ‘thing’ that was unspoken… a secret except to those who were part of it… and the reason they were all there.
    As people began returning into the shed, Mugo peered as intently as he could at their faces. He looked for some sign of difference, but at first he could find none. The tightness wrung his chest once more when he heard his parents’ names.
    ‘Kamau, son of Gitau! Njeri, wife of Kamau!’
    Baba and Mami stepped forward.
    ‘Josiah Mwangi… Mercy, wife of Josiah.’
    Mzee Josiah and Mama Mercy did not move. The tightness squeezed up into Mugo’s throat. Everyone in the shed had fallen silent. The man repeated their names, this time more harshly. Still they didn’t move. The next instant, a club cracking against Mzee Josiah’s shoulders sent him stumbling forward.
    ‘Get up! Don’t waste our time!’
    Mama Mercy emitted screams like a tiny, frightened bird as she tried to help her husband. The guard with the club threatened to bring it down on Mzee Josiah again.
    ‘We – can’t – take – this oath!’ Mzee Josiah stuttered. ‘We are Chris–’
    The club swung, sending him down on his knees. It rose to strike again. Mugo gasped. Baba had grabbed it, forcing it to judder in mid-air!
    ‘These are old people!’ Baba appealed to the captain. ‘It is not right to beat them!’
    The captain’s head barely reached Baba’s chest and he tilted back his cap to gaze up at Mugo’s father. Although he was much younger, Mugo could tell that he did not like Baba’s rebuke.
    ‘When the wazungu settlers stole our land, did they care about our old people?’ The captain spoke loudly enough to address the whole room. ‘The mzungu that you call ‘bwana’ will never leaveunless we speak with one voice. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old. It is your duty to take this oath for
ithaka na wiyathi
… our land and our freedom. If you refuse, it means you want to help the wazungu settlers. It means you are also our enemy.’
    Without waiting for a response, he signalled to the guards clustered at the door. They swooped and lifted Mzee Josiah like a sack. Mugo could no longer see his parents with so many young men circling them. But Mama Mercy’s protests punctured the air. They echoed in Mugo’s ears long after he imagined her being dragged away.
    When they reappeared, there were no clues in Baba’s and Mami’s faces as to what had happened in Wamai’s hut. Mugo knew he would never be able to ask. Mzee Josiah returned limping, his face like stone. He held his wife by the hand, her silent face crumpled and bewildered. But as more people were taken out and came back, the atmosphere in the shed seemed to liven. It seemed to Mugo that some stepped back inside taller and with their eyes alight.
    The rain eased and a cold wind set in. Mugo knew he should set off home before the meeting ended. When it seemed that everyone had returned from Wamai’s hut, he told himself it was time. But the captain now introduced the oath administratorwho had travelled with his assistant all the way from Nairobi. He wore a blanket over his European shirt and trousers and spoke so passionately that Mugo was captivated.
    ‘The mzungu is our enemy!’ he declared bluntly. ‘He has stolen our land and it must be returned to us. That is why we must act like one man with one mind. That is why every Kikuyu must take the Oath of Unity.’
    Mugo had never