Uhuru
The truck turned off the highway. David stood beside Petra and Mario and watched it speed towards them, throwing up dust. The umnumzana had phoned to say he was about to arrive. Sipho’s wife and daughter were safe but greatly distressed. The mother had been repeatedly raped and the child subjected to terrible abuse.
Petra listened with a stony face. David expected her to burst into tears as one nauseating detail followed another. But she remained calm and waited for the truck to stop.
It pulled up beside them and a woman was helped from the rear. David recognised Sipho’s wife. She clasped her child and stumbled towards them as her feet touched the ground. Petra and Mario dashed forward and she collapsed into Petra’s arms.
Someone produced a chair and Petra helped her to it. The child’s face was contorted in fear. Marks showed where cigarettes had burnt her small body. Petra stroked her hand and spoke in Xhosa. The child’s features eased and she began to relax.
Mario joined David and the armed men who had climbed down from the truck. Men, who had previously mocked Petra, craned their necks to hear what she was saying. She mixed compassion with fury, alternating between Xhosa and English, turning back-and-forth between the mother and her wider audience.
Her voice was gentle when she spoke Xhosa and strident when she spoke English. David had rarely witnessed such a performance. Petra sounded like a tribal princess one moment and modern politician the next.
She thanked the men for risking their lives to rescue a poor mother and her child. The monsters who held them captive were mercenaries employed by the people who murdered her father. A new sort of colonialism was threatening the world. This time it was not based on race. Evil forces were grabbing the reins of power and destroying the achievements of democracy and freedom.
‘Uhuru!’
Her voice rang out. David was surprised that so much sound could come from such a fragile frame. Petra echoed the famous cry for freedom of Nelson Mandela and other African leaders.
The men joined in.
‘Uhuru … Uhuru … Uhuru!’
Their cries echoed in David’s ear. A remarkable transformation had taken place. Petra was no longer the fastidious young woman who spoke in studied sentences and was offended by bad language. There was fire in her belly. She was out to change the world.
He knew how she felt. Petra had gone through adversity and emerged as a far stronger person. His mind slipped back to the warm waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Blood enveloped him. He had gone through something similar but it would have been worse for her. Petra had suffered the anxieties of her father’s disappearance. Seeing her sister torn to pieces and eaten, before her eyes, would have been a final blow.
There are limits to what the mind can take. Events overwhelm its defences and it retreats into its shell. Without help, it can remain trapped. A girl called Rebecca helped him escape. He guessed that Mario had helped Petra.
The outcome is called rebirth. A new person emerges, based on the old but stronger. You learn to see things in a new light and face up to the harsh realities of life. In Petra’s case the transformation was striking.
Big John prodded David’s arm.
‘Man. That is something I did not expect to see.’
‘You mean … Petra?’
‘She has changed.’
‘Yes,’ David agreed.
‘You remember the penis sheath?’
‘She didn’t like that.’
‘No,’ Big John shook his head. ‘She ran away. The inkosi gave her a room in his house. Now she is talking to the same man like he is a great hero ...’
David resisted the temptation to crack a joke about penis sheaths and when they should be worn. The umnumzana had stopped listening to Petra and was hurrying across.
He spoke in Zulu. David couldn’t understand a word but the men’s body language said something was seriously wrong. Big John turned to him.
‘The umnumzana thinks they were followed.’
‘Why does he think that?’
‘Mrs Maduna was very upset when they got her and the little girl into the lorry. It was a long time before she spoke about the men who had raped her. Then she said they came on motorbikes and there were four of them: three white men and a black man. We killed three …’
‘One got away.’
‘Yes, David. One escaped. The umnumzana thinks he went after them. They saw his headlight. Then, when it was light, a car passed the bike. It dropped back and the car stayed behind. They shook it off by going up a rough road. They think it tried to follow but couldn’t.’
David reached for his phone. Kate had messaged him earlier to say that she had a plane and was ready to leave. It was now a matter of timing. Sipho was with the second lorry. If all went well he would be with them shortly.
The tree was huge. Kate figured there was enough room below its spreading branches to accommodate the plane and lots of cover above. Rodriquez and his mates wouldn’t find her there. She touched down and taxied towards it. A giraffe ran out and vanished into the scrub. She reached the spot where it had been standing, turned off the engine and glanced around.
The giraffe had been scared off but not all animals were frightened so easily. A troop of baboons came out of the bushes and ambled towards her, led by a big male who brought back unpleasant memories of Rodriquez.
The ugly brute halted beside the cockpit and stared up at her expectantly. Kate guessed that he expected to be fed. The South African border was only a short distance away. But it wasn’t a normal border. There was a sort of no-man’s-land between the two countries. It had existed for a long time and was now a famous wildlife park.
People weren’t allowed to live there but wild animals could. In theory, they followed the lives of their ancestors. Some did. They munched on grass and leaves. Others gathered around the cars of tourists and lived on chocolate bars and other handouts.
The baboons weren’t intimidated by her presence. Some tourists travelled by plane and they evidently regarded her as one of them. She was on their patch and they expected her to play according to the rules. That meant they had to be fed.
Kate ignored them until the big male grabbed one of the wings and flexed it up and down. Prominent signs told humans to stay away from sensitive parts of the aircraft. Baboons can’t read and have no respect for private property. Kate reached for the ignition switch. The propellers turned and the animal got the message.
He made off followed by the rest of the troop. Kate glanced at her watch. David was half-an-hour away, waiting for someone called Sipho. When she got his message she would leave immediately.
The helicopter came in low, skimming over the trees. They heard it long before they saw it. Big John handed his binoculars to David.
‘What do you think it is?’
‘I don’t know. But it could carry a lot of men. I think we should get out of here. This place isn’t safe.’
Big John turned and shouted in Zulu. Men ran from the kraal. David joined them. The kraal was indefensible against modern weapons. He reached the protection of a brick wall and crouched behind it. His AK-47 hung from a shoulder strap.
Big John crouched down beside him.
‘I’ve told the men not to fire unless I give the order. They might be tourists.’
‘Who?’
‘The people in the plane. We make money from tourists. They go to the reserve and see the animals then they come and see us. The inkosi got money from the government to build the kraal. The women sing and we do war dances.’
‘Does the government know about these?’
David tapped his AK-47.
‘They are for self-defence.’
Big John spoke in the melodic voice he used when he was cracking a joke. David returned his attention to the sky. The helicopter had completed a sweep over the kraal and neighbouring buildings. He saw it clearly as it headed back towards them.
He turned to Big John.
‘It doesn’t look military.’
‘No. And it doesn’t look tourist.’
‘Why not tourist?’
‘They have their names on the sides. The big company is Air Safaris. In the morning, they come down low and hover over the kraal so that the tourists can take photographs. In the afternoon, when we are open, they land and the tourists go inside to see the men working at the forge and the women making baskets.’
‘The chopper was more interested in the houses.’
‘No, David. It was more interested in the trucks.’
‘How do you know? We had our heads down.’
‘The sound of the engine, David. We couldn’t see them but we could hear them. Air Safaris lands at the sheds. They bring in spare parts for the trucks. It sounded the same but they didn’t land. They came into the yard and hovered.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Everything rattled. You cannot mistake it.’
‘Why the trucks?’
‘The motorcyclist, David. Remember the truck with Sipho’s wife. It was followed by a motorbike. She thinks he was one of the men who raped her. He came up close like he wanted to pass but he didn’t. That made our people very suspicious.’
‘He was trying to read the rego number?’
‘That would not be necessary. Our trucks have our company name on them. He would have to go close to read it and the helicopter would have to go down low.’
‘It looks like they’ve found us.’
‘Yes, David.’
‘What do you think we should do?’
‘Leave as soon as possible. We can look after Sipho and his family. Don’t wait for him. Leave with Petra and Mario and take them far away from here.’