It wasn't until I first went to boarding school that I found out Okanya didn't invent the cotton reel tractor.  I was either six or probably seven and everyone at the school was terribly white in that well fed way.

    We slept in dormitories.  We were disciplined with a slipper and sometimes a cane.  We ate at long tables.  And every morning we would have to polish our shoes.  These things sound ordinary enough.  But I will say that from an early age I always enjoyed prison escape stories.

    When the holidays came, I showed Okanya the school Atlas.  Pointed to a map of the world.  He thought I was teasing him, because England was so small relative to the size of Africa. 

    Sometimes I wonder at the illusions I maintain in my world.  Those false things which I insist are true.  Those true things which I insist are false.  

Previous  Next