Within the Walls of Hell

by Taniform Martin Wanki

  Cain: He was an immigrant who came into my country under the pretext that he was running away from insecurity back in his own home country. He made up a story that men in uniform came to his village and killed many people on sight, raped their women and burnt down their villages. Those were the stories many foreigners who came to my country narrated. I believed such stories were just cooked up. The real reason why they left their countries and were flooding mine was in search of a better life. I had no problem with them seeking a better life but they would have gone elsewhere. I was not happy with those supposed refugees because they were stealing our jobs and accepting lower salaries for jobs offered to them. As a result, employers mostly employed them leaving my indigenous brothers and sisters jobless.

  Messenger: You have still not said what happened to Luanga.

  Cain: I got frustrated by the influx of foreigners and thought that it was better for them to be repatriated or killed if they did not want to go back willingly. I….(Pauses) I….(Pauses)

  Messenger: You have some problems saying what happened to Luanga. I will help you there. Since you did not like foreigners, you wanted some of them dead. You took advantage of the fact that Luanga fell sick and came to you for medical attention to imprison him in a ward and allowed him to die unattended to. As I said before, your primary mission in that hospital was to save lives and the origin of those who came to you for medical attention was not supposed to be an issue. Now tell me…do you know what happened to you before you came here?

  Cain: It was the husband of one of the women who died in my theatre room who injected me with some poison. He held me responsible for what happened to his wife.

  Messenger: The poison was the venom of a serpent. You couldn’t survive but you were given a few hours. You had to go through agony and in that agony, see my Master’s face and make amends for the terrible life you led. But in those few dark hours, you did not still see my master’s face. What you concentrated on were the material things you were going to miss if you ended up dead. You saw only the face of money. (To all) Money has come between my master and His flock. That is why He blessed everything except money. It is the root of all evil. All of you here deviated from your missions because of money. You became mean and heartless for its sake. (To Cain) You went the internet and posed as a business man and duped a couple in a foreign country of $1000.0000.00 which was what they had labored for all their lives. Did you bother to know what became of that couple? Did you bother to think of your creator’s command on coveting your neighbor’s goods?

  Do you still consider all what I have brought out as insignificant few which did not warrant your coming here? If you still think so, I would point out more that you did outside the hospital premises.

  Cain: (Remains silent).

  Messenger: My master is a just Master and you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t be here. You are here because you did things which you were not supposed to do and after doing those things, my master in His compassion still decided to give you a last chance which you deliberately refused to take advantage of. What did you do with all the money you collected from your patients? You spent it in beer parlors and hotels with free girls and women. That was your life.

  (Messenger exits and moves towards the gate)

  Act 4 Sc 3

  Still in Vladimir’s room

  William: (To Cain) When I’m listening to what you did, I feel some relief as somewhere deep within me a voice is telling me that my case was better. What are some of the other things you did that the Messenger did not want to talk about?

  Cain: (With a stern look, does not say anything).

  William: I’m sure that if any of those book makers who love telling stories were to be here to listen to your deeds down there, they would go back and produce encyclopedias. Your case is really heavy. (The rest burst into laughter including Cain) jokes aside…. We were all businessmen while we were down there. What I mean is that we had different occupations but in practical terms, we were businessmen.

  Stone: I was a businessman in the true sense of the word. That was really my occupation.

  Sandi: I was no business man.

  William: Ah yes…..you were the religious soldier-dreamer. But the rest of us turned the places we were into business premises when we were not supposed to. We are just reaping the fruits of our labor now. We deserve what is happening to us. We did not do the right thing and this is the price for failing to do the right thing. Why don’t we go and see how Carlos is doing? He has not left his room ever since he learnt that he could not go back to his palace.

  Stone: I think that is a good idea.

  (They all exit except Cain)

  Act 4 Sc 4

  In carlos’ room.

  (Enter William, Stone and Sandi. Carlos watches them with a surprise look on his face)

  William: Hi Sir, we have come to find out how you are doing.

  Carlos: You have just addressed me Sir and that means that you know me.

  William: That is true. I was your loyal subject down there. You could not know me since I worked more with the minister of justice down there. I helped to send most of those people who were a threat to you either to prison or to the grave.

  Carlos: Were you a uniform officer?

  William: No Sir. I was one of the masters of the law.

  Carlos: So you are a master of the law and you couldn’t say anything in my defense when that Messenger was tormenting me with all those very challenging questions?

  William: But Sir, you were head of the judiciary while we were down there and by the normal trend of happenings or stratification, anybody at the head must be better than his or her subordinates. With that in mind, I said nothing, knowing that you could better defend yourself without me. Besides, you decided what was right or wrong or what punishment anyone had to be subjected to while we were down there.

  Carlos: That is where you are wrong. I might be better than you in status but not in matters of the law. I did not go to any law school though I made myself head of the judiciary and passed sentences on those I saw as enemies. Is there anything I wasn’t made the head?

  William: I’m sure you can now see why the people always wanted the judiciary to be independent. There was no need saying anything to defend you since we are all condemned.

  Carlos: That is the problem with this place. No one can hire a lawyer and they know everything. (Brief silence) all I ever wanted was to serve my people and to continue serving them.

  William: Sir, I don’t think the word ‘Serve’ is an appropriate one to describe what you really wanted and did. Anybody who wants to serve does not need to do so with the use of force or fraud. Of course the people are the meat in every politician’s soup. They always claim they want to serve the people when in reality they are out to serve themselves. No servant would want to serve using force. Are you sure you really wanted to serve the people?

  Carlos: On which side are you? Are you here to criticize me or to support me?

  William: I am here on my side. I am trying to help you come to terms with your deeds. The earlier that happens, the better for you. Do you like the state of mind in which you find yourself now?

  Carlos: What do you want to tell me?

  William: What I want to say is that before you became president, there were others before you. They helped in putting in place laws after concerting with the people. They respected those laws because they were actually out to serve. When you came and after serving your two terms which were catastrophic, you refused to go. You wanted to change those laws which your predecessors put in place and respected. Most of the people were against it but you unleashed the uniform officers on them. What did you still want to prove that you couldn’t during your two terms of office? If you were really out to serve, you would have respected the wish of the people and stepped aside. The truth is that you were there to serve yourself. As proof, you built a ve
ry magnificent palace for yourself. You spent most of your time in the rich countries in very luxurious hotels. In most of your trips, you had an entourage of sometimes more than 40 men and they had to lodge with you in the same hotel. The least time you spent on any of your trips was a week. The amount you had to pay for your hotel bills was the equivalent of 30 million of our local currency per day. Calculate all that for the two weeks and sometimes three months you spent out and then multiply by the number of times you went out. Can you tell us here a real figure? I don’t think so. That was not out of your salary….it was the tax payer’s money you went spending lavishly like that. Yet there were millions who survived on less than a dollar a day as the human rights campaigners always said. You tested power and saw that it was sweet and you wanted to remain there. It was wrong….very wrong.

  Carlos: What do you mean by my two terms being catastrophic?

  William: What I mean is that during your term of office, more people did not get jobs. Instead, thousands sunk down into poverty. You kept telling the population that the money they contributed went to pay debts incurred by your predecessors but that was not true. You and I know that. If you were actually paying debts, you would have come out with figures showing how much debt there was, how much was paid and how much was left to be paid. None of that ever happened. The money was going into your numerous private bank accounts. In addition, over taxing forced many companies out of business which caused many layoffs and no companies were allowed to come in, except they agreed to surrender a percentage of their profit to you. That scared many who went elsewhere. You thought that the only way to make the people worship you was to keep them poor. Trying to change the constitution was the worst thing to have thought of.

  Carlos: If I wanted to change the constitution, it was because majority of the people were behind me. Each time I said I was going to visit an area, they came out in their numbers to welcome me and they did so in songs. They might have been poor but they loved me.

  William: That was not true. Is it because they came out chanting songs and some smiled with you that you felt they loved you? They were being forced to do so. In the localities where your visit was announced, principals of schools were forced to suspend lessons so that the learners would come out to sing praise songs which you loved so much. Business men were forced to close down their businesses until you came and left. Some people were forced out of their homes to come and listen to you. Your special guards were the ones going around and forcing people. Your visits helped in starving some people because their businesses were disrupted. If everybody was free to choose whether to come and see you or not, you would have known that the people no longer wanted you. They had nothing to benefit from your visits. The people never loved you. That is the fact. They were being forced to come and you can’t tell me that you didn’t know that the people were being forced. You wanted the international community to give you some credibility.

  Carlos: I disagree with you.

  William: Whether you agree or not is no longer important. You are already condemned. You know that down there, we always said that politics is a dirty game. I think it is true in all the facets of the term. It is really dirty and this is where the dirtiness has landed us. Down there we saw it really as a game and permitted all rules so long as one used them to achieve his or her goals. We can fidget and get away with any atrocities in our course to attain power down there but once we cross that bar which separates this world from that one, we would be held accountable. No lawyers are needed here. I didn’t need to say anything in your defense. They know everything from before you think of an idea to when you execute it. They know things even before they happen. If that messenger asked you any question, it is not that he didn’t know the answer. He just wanted you to point out your wrong doing yourself. If you refused to speak, he would have told you what you did. Those our rules trampled on those of our Creator. We were supposed to understand that our creator shall always be the ultimate destination for Everyman. We therefore had to use His rules to shape those that we put in place to govern ourselves. That was where we failed and are now paying the price. I supported you in that game and went around telling people that everything in the country was well. I did not care about the plight of the poor who were in their millions. I saw things only from my perspective. Since I was fine, I went around generalizing that the whole country was fine. I knew the reality on the ground but supported what was wrong and professed lies. That was one of the points in my case file. I served myself and saw that life down there too beautiful than the one I would have had in that golden city (pointing) over there. Things have turned out this way to teach us that you can get into the House of Representatives through the back door or use money to buy your way into any high office but you cannot buy your way into that golden city. Nevertheless, I would like to end with a story which was told by a preacher when my friend Augustus died and was taken to a house of prayer for the last requiem.

  Sandi: (Interrupts) Was it a true story or a made up one?

  William: Whether it was a true story or not is not very important. What matters is the lesson we can learn from it. As I was saying, after the first and second readings, the gospel came next. The preacher began his homily with the story which I want to tell you now. “There was a king who had four wives,” he began. “He did not marry all of them at the same time. He married his first wife when he was still very young and the second, when he was older and the third, when he was much older and the fourth, when he was old. There came a time when he was about to die and decided to go round to ask all his wives if they would accompany him on the journey beyond. He began with his fourth wife. “I have loved you with all my heart and given everything you could possible dream or imagine for the short time you have been with me. I now feel that my days down here are numbered and I was wondering if you would like to accompany me on my journey to the world beyond,” he said. The fourth wife in response said that there was no way she would accompany him because she was still very young and beautiful and still had enough time to pick up another man and continue with her life. Her answer to him was a vehement ‘No”. The king was very disappointed and went to his third wife with the same request in the hope that he would get some consolation. He was mistaken as his third wife told him that she was young and belonged to someone else. That answer from his third wife chattered his heart into pieces and frustration enveloped him. He went to his second wife hoping to have an answer that could take away the pain caused by his fourth and third wives. He presented his request and the third wife accepted to follow him but her acceptance had some conditions attached. She accepted to follow him only for a short distance. It was a little consoling but not enough. He went to his first wife and presented his request. “I have been the one who has loved you truly through these years. I have loved you in the good and the bad times. Yet I was the one who suffered years of your neglect in the cold and your abandonment. I have always loved you and you know that. I will go with you anywhere you want me to go,” she said. With those words, the king fell down at the feet of his first wife and begged for forgiveness amidst tears streaming down his face. Now, all of us are like that king who was married to four wives. Our fourth wife is our body. We do everything possible to keep it young and beautiful using all sorts of cosmetics. But that body does not belong to us. It belongs to the earth. It will abandon us when we are in desperate need. Yet, it is the one we struggle to please most. We steal, rob, extort, dupe and do anything for money to use in pleasing our fourth wives. We join sects and offer human sacrifices for the sake of our first wives. We cling to power because of the advantages that go with it. Such advantages only go to satisfy the body which does not belong to us. Our thirds wives are our wealth and all the material things we spend our lives amassing. When we die, we do not take any along. When we die, our wealth belongs to other people and that is why our third wives cannot come with us. Our second wives are our family, friends and relatives. They are the ones who wou
ld accept to accompany us for a short distance. The grave side is where they would end. Our first wife is our soul and it is the one we always neglect. It is with us from the moment we are conceived and is with us even beyond the grave. We are all here because we neglected our first wives right to the last hour and minute. Instead we spent our lives amassing wealth and money to please our second, third and fourth wives who would abandon us at the end. I’m sure that you must be convinced beyond every reasonable doubt that you are where you chose to be.