Forest of the Pygmies(21)
"Our missionaries mentioned a King Kosongo in their letters, but they had more to say about a Commandant Maurice Mbembelé. It seems that it's the military that's in control," said Brother Fernando.
"Maybe it's not the same village," Angie suggested.
"I have no doubt at all that it's the same."
"I don't think it's a very good idea to walk straight into the jaws of the wolf," Angie commented.
"But we do have to find out what happened to the missionaries," said Kate.
"What do you know about Kosongo, Brother Fernando?" asked Alexander.
"Not much. It seems that Kosongo is a usurper; he was put on the throne by Commandant Mbembelé. There was a queen earlier, but she disappeared. It's supposed that she was murdered; no one has seen her in several years."
"And what did the missionaries say about Mbembelé?" Alexander insisted.
"He studied a couple of years in France but was expelled because of problems with the police," Brother Fernando explained.
He added that once Maurice Mbembelé was back in his country, he joined the army, but he also encountered problems there because of his undisciplined and violent temperament. He was accused of putting down an uprising by burning houses and murdering a number of students. His superiors covered up for him to keep it out of the newspapers, then rid themselves of their problem by sending him to the least known point on the map. They hoped that swamp fevers and mosquito bites would cure him of his bad character—or finish him off once and for all. Mbembelé faded away into the jungle, along with a handful of his most loyal men, and shortly after reappeared in Ngoubé. According to what the missionaries wrote in their letters, Mbembelé set up headquarters in that village and controlled the region from there. He was a tyrant and dealt out the cruelest punishments imaginable. They said that on more than one occasion, he had eaten the liver or heart of his victims.
"That is ritual cannibalism; it's believed that in that way you acquire the courage and strength of your defeated enemy," Kate amplified.
"Idi Amin, a dictator in Uganda, used to serve his ministers for dinner," Angie commented. "Roasted."
"Cannibalism isn't as rare as we believe; I saw it several years ago in Borneo," Kate added.
"Did you really witness acts of cannibalism, Kate?" Alexander asked.
"It happened when I was in Borneo on assignment. I didn't see them actually cooking anyone, if that's what you mean, Alex, but I was told about it firsthand. As a precaution, all I ate was canned beans," his grandmother answered.
"I think I'm going to become a vegetarian," Alexander concluded, nauseated.
Brother Fernando told them that Commandant Mbembelé did not look favorably on the presence of Christian missionaries in his territory, but he counted on the fact that they wouldn't last long. If they didn't die of some tropical illness, or suffer a timely accident, they would be defeated by exhaustion and frustration. He allowed them to build a small school and a dispensary for the medicines they had brought with them, but he did not permit children to attend classes or the sick to go to the mission. The brothers devoted themselves to teaching good hygiene to the women, until that, too, was forbidden. They lived in isolation, under constant threat, at the whim of the moods of the king and the commandant.
Brother Fernando suspected, through what little news the missionaries were able to send, that Kosongo and Mbembelé financed their reign of terror through contraband. The region was rich in diamonds and other precious stones. There was also uranium, which as yet had not been exploited.
"And don't the authorities do anything about it?" asked Kate.
"Just where do you think you are, lady? Apparently you don't know how things get done in this part of the world," replied Brother Fernando.
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The Bantu men agreed to take them into Kosongo's territory for a sum in money, beer, and tobacco, with two knives thrown in. The remaining provisions were shoved into duffel bags. The International Geographic group hid the liquor and cigarettes at the very bottom, for they were more coveted than money and could be used to pay for services and bribes. Canned sardines and peaches, matches, sugar, powdered milk, and soap were also very valuable for trading.
"Nobody touches my vodka," Kate threatened.
"What we will need most are antibiotics, malaria pills, and serum for snakebites," said Angie, packing the plane's first-aid kit, which also contained the vial of tranquilizer Mushaha had sent as a sample.
The Bantus overturned their canoes and tipped up the ends on poles to improvise two roofs, beneath which they took their rest after having drunk and sung at the tops of their voices until the early hours. Apparently they feared neither foreigners nor animals. The remaining party, on the other hand, did not rest well. Clutching their weapons and their various bundles, they could not close their eyes for wanting to keep an eye on the "fishermen," who were sleeping the sleep of the dead.
Dawn broke a little after five. The landscape, wrapped in a mysterious fog, resembled a delicate watercolor. While the exhausted foreigners got ready to leave, the Bantus ran up and down the clearing, kicking a cloth ball in a vigorous game of soccer.
Brother Fernando set up a small altar topped with a cross made of two sticks and called everyone to pray. The Bantus came out of curiosity and the others out of courtesy, but the solemnity he lent to his prayers moved everyone, even Kate, who had watched so many different rites in her travels that she was no longer impressed by anything.