by Odafe Atogun
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Including the attic?’ Taduno added inquisitively.
‘Yes, including the attic. We checked everywhere.’
The President cleared his throat. ‘Just so we get this absolutely straight. Who exactly are you? What is TK to you?’
Taduno took a deep breath. ‘My name is Taduno, the musician you all forgot.’
‘What do you mean?’
Taduno explained as best he could.
‘Wait a minute,’ the President interrupted, ‘are you saying you are the great musician my government is looking for? The one whose name and face we have all forgotten? The one whose girlfriend is in our custody?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m saying.’
‘Well, there is only one way to find out. Your voice is your identity. So sing a song, prove you are who you say you are.’
‘I’ve lost my voice. I received one beating too many from your men, and that affected my vocal cords. TK’s trying to help me discover my voice, that’s why I brought him to stay in my house.’
‘So you are saying you don’t have the magic voice of the musician we are looking for?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then how do I know you are the man we are looking for? How do I know you are not a fake?’
‘I could play you my guitar. Maybe that would help you make up your mind. Or you could bring Lela to identify me. She’ll remember me.’
For a few moments, the President tapped one foot on the floor in deep thought. He was not prepared to give him the advantage of playing his music. ‘Go and get the girl,’ he said, turning to the soldiers behind him.
*
Thirty minutes later, they dragged Lela in, struggling and sobbing. Her hair looked wild and unkempt and she was thin as a broomstick.
Taduno jumped to his feet.
Judah rushed towards his sister. ‘Anti Lela!’ he shouted. A soldier held him back. He struggled in vain to break away from the soldier’s grip. Huge tears rolled down his face. ‘Anti Lela!’ he cried out again.
Slowly, Lela adjusted to her environment. She saw Judah. She saw Taduno. But all the other men in the room appeared as blurry images to her. She closed her eyes in disbelief. When she opened them, Judah and Taduno were still there. She saw them quite clearly. And then she crumbled to the floor.
Taduno rushed to her, with his guitar dangling from his shoulder. One or two soldiers attempted to hold him back, but the President’s voice stopped them like a cold whip. ‘Don’t touch him!’
He went down on his knees and folded Lela carefully into his arms. They stared at each other in disbelief. He closed his eyes in gratitude. This was the moment he had so desperately longed for.
‘Taduno?’ Lela whispered.
He was too overjoyed to speak. He held her even tighter. They wept quietly with joy.
Judah’s small voice shattered the silence and all that remained of the mystery that had swallowed his identity. ‘I remember you now, Uncle Taduno!’ the boy said wondrously. ‘Yes, I remember you now!’
And then, one by one, the other men began to remember him. The President shook his head as he remembered, wondering how they could all have forgotten.
*
Taduno and Lela clung to each other, rocking silently. At last Taduno leaned back to look into her eyes. They both laughed, like two little kids hiding a beautiful secret from the world. Again they hugged, then they kissed briefly, giggling as one. In that time and place, they became oblivious of the world around them. Nothing mattered any more, except that they were together at last.
The President and his soldiers were gripped by the unfolding drama.
Judah was speechless.
‘You haven’t been eating well,’ Lela complained, pulling back to study Taduno’s face. ‘Why?’ she asked with a pout.
‘I haven’t been eating well because I missed you so much. Look at you,’ he laughed. ‘You look so beautiful despite all you have been through.’
‘You must eat well, please,’ she warned him gently.
‘From now on I will.’
Looking into each other’s eyes, the impulse to talk about Lela’s letters overcame them simultaneously, but each realised how dangerous it could be. They realised that if the President knew about the letters, an inquest would follow and the punishment would be swift and far-reaching. So they just looked into each other’s eyes and nodded in quiet understanding. They giggled some more, happy that they could exchange secrets even with the dictator watching.
Their love was infectious. A morbid joy coursed through the President as he realised that it was the force of that very love that he would use to break them and get Taduno to do his bidding.
‘Come, Judah!’ Lela cried happily, beckoning to her brother.
The boy rushed over and spread his little arms around his sister and Taduno. They looked like one big happy family held together by the fragility and innocence of a little boy.
The President smiled. Now he knew the weakness of his formidable adversary. He smiled some more with a slow nod of his head. He had seen enough. Now he was ready to make the next move.
*
The President gave rapid orders to his soldiers, and they stepped forward and tore the lovers and the boy apart with brute force. And as they dragged Lela out of the cell, her wretched cries joined those of Taduno and Judah, reverberating throughout that underground world and shaking the foundations of all things.
After they had taken Lela away, Taduno and Judah continued to cry, the loudness of their cry embracing the echo of Lela’s.
Shouting angry orders, the soldiers finally managed to quieten them and that tomb world regained its deathly silence. The President rubbed his hands together. He and Taduno must finish it there and then in that cold cell, now that a great mystery had been unravelled. And so, in one deft move, he put his chips on the table. Not with the recklessness known to most gamblers, but with the caution of a man who wanted to win at all costs.
‘Your girlfriend remains my prisoner until you use your music to promote my government,’ the President said. He rose to his feet and began to pace the cell.
‘I’ll praise your government with my music. But you must let Lela go first.’
‘No, she remains my prisoner. I will let you and the boy go, but she remains my prisoner. And you must hand TK over.’ The President brought the boy cleverly into the bargain, conceding him at the same time to make it difficult for his adversary to press for more.
Realising he was losing ground, Taduno fought back doggedly. ‘I cannot praise your government with my music until I discover my voice again. I need TK to do that. I also need him to produce the music. You cannot touch him. And you must withdraw all the soldiers from the streets. Their presence creates fear and tension in society, and I cannot make music that way.’
‘Fine, I will not touch TK. I will instruct my men to let him be. I will withdraw my men from the streets. But the girl remains my prisoner.’ The President’s voice had a cold finality that sent a chill up Taduno’s spine.
‘Wait!’ Taduno cried as the President turned to leave the cell. ‘Wait! Please release Lela, and I promise I will praise your government with my music. I promise. I will do anything you want, but please release her.’
The charming smile returned to the President’s face, seeing that he had an advantage over his stubborn adversary once again. He could sense victory not too far away now. He thrust his decisive blow.
‘You have four weeks to prove your loyalty to my government with a hit song,’ he spoke in a friendly tone. ‘If you fail, you will never see your girl alive again. As I speak, you are a free man. You leave with the boy, I leave with the girl. When your assignment is done, both you and TK will be very richly rewarded.’ He fired instructions at his men and walked briskly out of the cell.
NINETEEN
They drove him and Judah home in a stretch limousine that brought out the entire neighbourhood when it parked in front of his house. Judah cam
e out first, amidst a gasp of surprise that rippled down the entire street. And then as Taduno stepped out, like an armoured knight, they all remembered him as suddenly as they forgot him.
They remembered him as the great musician who championed the cause of the people; the ingenious maker of simple music, whose songs adorned their hearts and gave them strength in the lopsided fight against the military.
Like a sudden ocean surge, they rushed towards him and lifted him high on their shoulders, chanting his name, glad that he had returned to their midst. They danced with him all over the neighbourhood, and soon, news of his arrival spread across the city.
Within hours, his street flooded with fans and well-wishers. And a huge party that would rock the entire city for two days began.
‘I knew you were right all along,’ Aroli said with uncontainable delight, when he finally had access to him. ‘I knew we were the ones who forgot. Look, see how much they love you! How could we have forgotten?’
Taduno smiled at Aroli, and then at Judah who had not returned to his parents’ house since their release that afternoon.
‘Thank you for letting me stay in Uncle Taduno’s house earlier,’ Judah said to Aroli.
Aroli laughed. ‘But you got arrested!’
‘Yes, but I saw Anti Lela.’ A hint of sadness crept into the boy’s voice. ‘If you had not allowed me to stay in Uncle Taduno’s house the soldiers wouldn’t have taken me to see her.’
Taduno turned to Aroli for an explanation.
Aroli explained that Judah had come to him that morning to ask if he could spend time in Taduno’s house. Although a very odd request, he had let him in and went about his business only to return later and learn that soldiers had raided the house and taken the boy away.
‘Thank God he wasn’t detained,’ Aroli concluded with a sigh of relief.
‘Where is TK?’ Taduno asked, his eyes fixed intently on Aroli.
‘Don’t worry about TK for now. He is safe,’ Aroli replied evasively.
Before Taduno could say another word, he was swarmed by a new set of well-wishers who had just arrived.
*
Everyone wanted to hug and congratulate him on his triumphant return. And only the intervention of Vulcaniser, who had taken charge of his security, along with seven handpicked men, saved him from being smothered by the rapturous crowd.
Vulcaniser and his men prised him away from the crowd into the safety of his house where he immediately succumbed to sleep, exhausted from his tortuous encounter with the dictator. While the street rocked, and more and more people continued to arrive, Taduno slept deeply.
The sound of celebrating drums shook the entire city. On Channel 4 News a rare smile lit up the face of the newscaster as she spoke excitedly about the return of Taduno, the great musician the world forgot. ‘The country has a hero again!’ she said. ‘The people have someone to look up to again. Freedom possibly beckons to us all!’
Listening to the newscaster in his office, the President nodded his satisfaction – Taduno was the right man to give his regime credibility. He often watched Channel 4 because it enabled him to gauge the mood of the country. He felt extremely pleased that very soon Taduno’s voice would lead the people, but not in the way the newscaster imagined. She did not know what the President knew. She did not know that Taduno had sold out.
*
The party went on for two days, and Taduno slept all that while, snoring lightly, delighted that the world now remembered him. Aroli and Vulcaniser took turns to keep watch while he slept. In the street, the noise was joyful and ceaseless.
When he woke up the morning of the third day, everyone had returned to their homes. He remained still in bed for a few moments. Then, seeing Aroli sitting in a chair at one end of the room, he raised himself groggily on one arm and asked: ‘Where is TK?’
‘You are awake!’ Aroli said eagerly. He jumped up from the chair where he had been reading a book and rushed to his bedside. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked, ignoring Taduno’s question.
Taduno ignored Aroli’s question too. He sat on the bed with his feet on the floor. He surveyed the bedroom slowly. Then he asked again: ‘Where is TK?’
Aroli knew that he could no longer evade his question. He pulled a chair close to the bed and sat down. ‘TK had to escape when you were arrested. Vulcaniser and I helped him because we knew they would come to search your house sooner or later. And we knew they would kill him if they found him here.’
‘Where did he go?’ His voice was a fearful whisper.
‘I don’t know. We gave him a haircut so that it would be difficult for the soldiers to identify him, and then he left through the back door with his bag.’
‘You cut off his Afro?’
‘Yes, we did. It was for his own good.’
Taduno shook his head in dismay.
Vulcaniser walked into the bedroom then. ‘You are awake,’ he said happily. ‘I hope you are well rested?’
‘I need to find TK,’ said Taduno. ‘I need to find him if I’m to secure Lela’s release.’
Vulcaniser wondered what TK had to do with Lela’s release. He turned to Aroli with his eyebrows raised.
‘He needs to find TK urgently. It is important,’ Aroli explained.
‘I will send my men into the streets to begin an immediate search,’ Vulcaniser said, and hurried out of the room.
*
While Vulcaniser was away, Taduno briefed Aroli about his encounter with the President. He left out the details of his ordeal in the underground cells. But he told him that he had seen Lela, and how pitiable her condition was.
‘You saw her?’ Aroli’s voice was tinged with fear.
‘Yes.’
‘Why didn’t you get the President to release her since he now remembers you? After all, you are the one they are looking for, not Lela.’
‘He insists I must praise his government with a hit song within four weeks. Lela is his bargaining chip. I explained that I need to discover my voice first, and that I need TK to do so. He agreed to call off the hunt for TK to allow him to work with me.’
They fell into a long silence.
Finally, Aroli spoke. ‘The people are singing your praises, looking up to you. You are not going to crush their hopes by supporting the regime with your music now, are you?’
‘I have no choice.’ Taduno’s voice was quiet.
‘You have a choice.’
‘What choice do I have? Allow Lela to die? All along, the plan was for me to discover my voice, praise the government with my music and secure her release.’
‘Yes, that was what we agreed. But that was before we remembered you. Now that we remember you, the whole country is looking up to you. If you go ahead and support the regime with your music, our hopes will be crushed. The regime will have won. Tyranny will have won, and people will say that you were responsible for conceding that defeat. It will be remembered that you sold the people out.’
‘I’m selling no one out!’ Taduno exploded.
‘That’s the way it looks.’
Taduno jumped to his feet and stormed into the bathroom.
*
He emerged forty minutes later in a white bathrobe, refreshed but strained. Downstairs in the living room, he found Aroli in a distant mood.
‘I guess there is nothing left to say,’ Aroli said, rising from his seat. ‘The way I see it, the priority is to find TK, and then you will have to discover your voice and make music to praise the government.’
Taduno did not respond.
Aroli shrugged. ‘I’ll go and see what progress Vulcaniser and his men are making and report back to you.’ He went out and closed the door quietly after him.
For a while Taduno roamed his living room, unable to coordinate his thoughts. The only clear image in his mind was of Lela’s face and the anguish she bore so helplessly. The image passed, replaced by that of TK, without his distinctive Afro cut.
Wondering how he would find TK, he went up to his bedroom and
began to get dressed.
*
Taduno enjoyed smiles and greetings in the street just like the good old days. Everyone stared at his guitar in admiration; they wanted to know when he would rattle the dictator with another song. He had no answer for them, and he wept in his soul knowing he could no longer live up to their expectations.
He refused to look into people’s eyes. He could not laugh with them or smile at them; his conscience forbade him. So he simply looked away and spoke to them from the corner of his mouth.
‘We have not been able to find TK,’ Vulcaniser updated him.
A small crowd of men gathered around him in front of Vulcaniser’s workshop. Everyone patted him on the back and assured him that they would help him to find TK. Vulcaniser had told them how important it was, they said.
He nodded gratefully at them.
‘I cannot thank you all enough,’ he managed to say. ‘I’ll start a search for TK too, from tomorrow. I’m sure that together we will find him soon.’
They answered in chorus, nodding their heads eagerly.
Afterwards, they insisted on going for a meal with him at Mama Iyabo’s restaurant. More people joined them as they made their way there, and, in the end, the restaurant was so packed many had to stand or sit on the bare floor. But they did not mind. They were in the company of a hero whose music would liberate them from the ruthless dictator.
*
‘Where is Aroli?’ Taduno asked Vulcaniser as they ate.
‘He has not returned since he went out in the morning,’ Vulcaniser replied. ‘I’m sure he is still combing the streets for TK. He said we must find him urgently.’
‘I wish he would understand.’ Taduno spoke his thought aloud, a sad look on his face.
‘Oh, I’m sure he does,’ Vulcaniser said as he wiped his soup bowl clean with his last morsel of pounded yam.
Taduno nodded absentmindedly. Vulcaniser did not understand what he meant, and he did not intend to explain to him.
They finished eating, and all who could afford to contributed towards the bill. Then they begged him to play for them. He obliged, knowing that he would soon betray them irredeemably. He played a very slow tune that brought tears to his eyes. ‘Tell me, what hope is there for the man who betrays his own people to save love?’ he asked with his wordless song. But no one could console him with an answer.
