Ama by Manu Herbstein Page B

spoke in Asante and Dagomba and Hausa or in a mixture, whichever best served their need to communicate. They sang songs. When it came to her turn, Nandzi shyly sang a Lekpokpam lullaby that she knew from Tabitsha. It was the same song, she recalled, that she had been singing to Nowu when the Bedagbam had descended upon them. Dear mother , she thought as she sang, I am singing your song to these strangers. I hope that you can hear me and that you haven't forgotten me, as I have not forgotten you. Then she wondered whether, if she concentrated hard enough, she could somehow communicate with Tabitsha over all the distance which now separated them.
    She had a sweet voice. None of her companions understood the words, but somehow she succeeded in conveying the message. When she finished, there was applause and a demand for an encore.
    That night, sitting around the campfire, she had to repeat the performance before a larger audience.
    This young woman is certainly an acquisition , reflected Koranten Péte. She will make an excellent gift for the Queen Mother.

CHAPTER 6

    Nana Koranten Péte had business in Kpembe, important business, business of the King of Asante: kola business.
    The kola ‘nut’ is a pink seed about the length of a man's thumb. When chewed, it is reputed to stave off hunger and thirst. It is also a mild stimulant. Many Muslims, barred by their religion from the consumption of alcohol, are fond of chewing kola, which Islam does not forbid. When pressed, some will admit that their love of kola borders on excess, even addiction. Others will protest that kola is not only harmless but that it serves a useful function in lubricating social intercourse. This it achieves not only by its narcotic effect, but also by the value attached to its use as a customary gift.
    Dangerous drug or harmless nibble, the demand for kola appeared to be insatiable.
    Since its forests were the principal habitat of the kola tree, Asante had a virtual monopoly in the collection and processing of the fruit, which was its principal export to its northern neighbours. In order to preserve its monopoly, the Asante state kept the northern traders out of the kola producing areas.
    Kafaba was the most important international market for kola. During the harvest season, the roads from the south were crowded with porters, slaves and free men alike, all carrying head loads of kola. On the bank of the Volta River the kola was discharged into enormous dugout canoes which ferried it across to Kafaba. Asante customs officers collected an export duty of two large nuts for every hundred exported.
    Kafaba was a Gonja town; but Nana Kpembewura, King of all the Gonjas, resided not in sinful Kafaba but in the quiet backwater of Kpembe, which was his capital.
    â€œI have important business in Kpembe,” Nana Koranten Péte said to his secretary, “kola business.”
    * * *
    Kafaba was a town of two parts.
    The Upper Town, with its residential compounds and markets and mosques, lay above the reach of the waters of the Volta.
    Each year, as the level of the river dropped slowly in the wake of the floods, a new suburb, the Lower Town, made its appearance above the receding water's edge. This was of necessity a makeshift sort of quarter. There the overflow of visiting traders, for whom there was no room in the inns and hostelries of the Upper Town, set up the depots and stockyards in which they kept their slaves and kola. Ramshackle buildings of bamboo and matting and thatch were interspersed with patches of corn and plantain, cassava and cocoyam, which would be ready to harvest before the next floods. Temporary property rights were established by rude fences which also served to protect the allotments from the depredations of the humped cattle and goats which grazed in the sweet green grass.
    Through this confusion of allotments and temporary dwellings, one straight wide road was always left clear. Called the River Road, it ran from the canoe