The River Between (16 page)

Even Waiyaki was affected by that great hush that fell over the land. He could hear his heart beat and he told himself: I must not fear. And he stood at a raised piece of ground and looked at the people; at their expectant faces and eyes.
Salvation shall come from the hills.
And he saw that many people had come and had filled up the initiation ground and the slopes of the hills. Some had climbed up trees.
A man shall rise and save the people in their hour of need.
And he remembered his father, and Mugo wa Kibiro, Wachiori, Kamiri, Gikuyu and Mumbi. And he remembered Kerinyaga as he had seen it that great day with his father.
I will look up into the hills from whence cometh my help.
Waiyaki prayed that the cold fear that settled in his stomach be removed. Kameno and Makuyu seemed to be staring at him ready to pounce on him.
He shall show them the way; he shall lead them.

Waiyaki realized all too suddenly that this was the hour, the great hour of need. The tribe needed him now. Nyambura needed him now. And he needed himself too. Kabonyi was a destructive element. He did not know the way. But Waiyaki was ready, there to move together with the people, to grope in the dark maybe, but together, searching for the light, looking for the way. And he remembered this was the piece of ground on which he had shed his blood; that too had been an oath. And he was now prepared to defend that soil.

He began to speak. At first he made a small speech; thanked the people for coming; asked them to bear with him. He had been stunned by the recent development in the hills: hatred and rivalry such as would destroy the people. He outlined his struggles in the service of the people, especially in the now ending year; it was the year that saw the transformation of the hills, a year that had awakened the sleeping lions. He told them of his attempts to get more teachers. He had succeeded although it was a difficult task. But when he came back he was accused by the Kiama of being a traitor. Some people, he said, had gone out at night and were singing that he was a traitor. Let those people now stand in front and accuse him publicly. If he had wronged the ridges, people would know what to do with him.

A big roar of “The Teacher” greeted his brief speech. Some cried “The Teacher is right,” though they did not know what he was right about. Others cried “Let Kabonyi come forward.” And Kabonyi stood up with dignity. Their unfinished battle was now on.

He was once a Joshua follower. Now he was the Leader of the Kiama and he lived in Makuyu. He spoke with the authority of a man who knows the secret workings, evil and good, in men's hearts and in the country. His big accusation was that Waiyaki was unclean. He had
thahu
and if he continued teaching the people there would be darkness instead of light. When a girl called Muthoni died because she was visited by evil spirits, Waiyaki had taken her to the white man's hospital in Siriana, and was never cleansed. As he was a leader, his
thahu
had visited the tribe. It was now for the tribe to take action. For Waiyaki was a greater menace than the people realized. He was in league with the white man, who had brought a secret religion to quieten the people while the land was being grabbed by their brothers. And taxation? Who did not now complain of the heavy taxation imposed on the men and women? He described Waiyaki's many secret journeys to Siriana under the pretext of getting more teachers for the people. When the Kiama said that people should take arms against the Government Post (it was very small anyway, it would not be difficult to take it) Waiyaki opposed this and cried: “Education! Education!” Will education give us back our land? Let him answer that.

He sat down. Waiyaki noticed that Kabonyi had carefully avoided any mention of Joshua or Nyambura. Why? He thought that he too would avoid dragging in the name of Nyambura but he would speak of unity. Now, or he would never get another chance.

Kabonyi's speech had been greeted first with stony silence and then with murmuring. The sun was slowly going down.

Waiyaki's voice was calm and compelling. His eyes shone and anger began to stir in him, for now he knew without any doubt that Kabonyi was determined to see his ruin.

“What does Kabonyi want?” he asked. “Who first followed the white man and embraced the new faith? Who betrayed the tribe when Makuyu and Kameno and the other ridges could have risen in arms against the white man?”

He turned to the people and in simple words reminded them of their history. “It was before Agu and Agu, at the beginning of things, that Murungu, the Creator, gave rise to Gikuyu and Mumbi, father and mother of the tribe. He made them stand on the holy ground on top of Kerinyaga and showed them all the land. You remember what he told them; the great Promise that he gave to our ancestors! ‘This land I give to you, O man and woman. It is yours to till, you and your posterity.' The land was fertile and in it grew all the fruit, and honey was there in plenty. When he brought them to Kameno, they still saw the land was beautiful. They were happy and with content in their hearts followed Murungu to Mukuruwe wa Gathanga, where he kept them. And now we who are the descendants of the nine daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi are torn with strife and rivalry.”

He spoke of the great heroes of the tribe and mentioned Demi na Mathathi, Wachiori, Mugo wa Kibiro and Kamiri. He told them of the great victories that these heroes had over the Masai and other enemy tribes.

“It is because the hills were united that such great victories were possible. People stood together in the hour of need, giving one another the warmth of their contact, the strength of their blood.”

He told them about Mugo wa Kibiro and his prophecy that there would come a people with clothes like butterflies.

“But people rejected him. And when the white man came, jealousy stood between Kameno and Makuyu. You would not come together. And you left the white man alone. Now, instead of learning his ways and coming together so that united we may drive him out, Kabonyi and a few others cry for vengeance against Joshua and his followers. That is what I have come to tell you today. We are all children of Mumbi and we must fight together in one political movement, or else we perish and the white man will always be on our back. Can a house divided against itself stand?”

“No-o-o,” they roared in unison.

“Then we must stand together. We must end the ancient rivalry.”

People seemed moved, and when he sat down they rose and, as if of one voice, shouted: “The Teacher! The Teacher!” And when Kabonyi stood to speak, people began to press toward Kabonyi as if animated with the desire to tear him into pieces. And they would have done it and that might have been the end of threats to their teacher, but for Waiyaki, who stopped the crowd. “No! No!” he shouted. “Do not touch him.” It was as if Waiyaki at that moment realized that Kabonyi and the Kiama were also in their way an expression of something felt and desired by the tribe.

They listened to their Teacher, their savior, as if they would say, We shall never give you up. And Kinuthia thought of moving forward and giving a warning to Waiyaki, but a big fear settled on him, weakening his knees so that he did not move from where he sat. Instead he sought to hide himself in the crowd as if he did not want to be identified with the Teacher. As for Waiyaki, he was amazed because he did not know that he had such power over the people.

He could not even listen to what Kabonyi was saying about the break with the missions, and about purity. It was only when Kabonyi mentioned something about the oath that Waiyaki grew attentive. And he found that every other person was attentive to Kabonyi, who now spoke with a broken voice, full of grief. To break oath was one of the most serious crimes that a man could commit. Such a person was doomed to destruction.

People knew that Waiyaki had taken an oath given by Kiama never to contaminate the tribe with impurity and never to reveal the secrets of the Kiama, secrets which involved the political destiny of the hills. So when Kabonyi said that Waiyaki had broken that oath people roared back “No-o-o.” How could they believe it? How could they believe that Waiyaki was in league with Joshua for the destruction of the ridges? They again shouted “No-o-o!” Waiyaki remembered Nyambura at home and he felt afraid. He wanted to go back to his hut and see if she was safe. Then he wondered about Kinuthia. He had not seen him at the meeting. Maybe he was with Nyambura. He felt relieved and heard Kabonyi's next words.

“I can prove to you, beyond any doubts, that he is a Joshua's man in spite of his oath.”

They cried “Prove! Prove!” He waited for the confusion to die and then said, “He is marrying his daughter.” Another hush fell over the land before there were cries of “No! Not the Teacher,” and Waiyaki trembled slightly and he waited fearing, yet did not know what he feared. He wanted to rise and speak to the people and tell them about Nyambura and how he had gone to rescue her, but his knees failed him as he saw Nyambura in the gathering twilight, brought by Kamau and two other young men. She was made to stand before the people.

“Let him deny her.” Kabonyi threw the challenge, which went bouncing on people's ears to Makuyu and Kameno, to the trees that patiently waited and to the birds that did not make any noise. And Honia river went on flowing through the valley of life, throbbing, murmuring an unknown song.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

And the people shouted “The oath! The oath!” as if they were warning their Teacher. Waiyaki stood up and his eyes met those of Nyambura. And he remembered her on this very ground that time she was praying alone; it was the day he first held her in his arms. And she looked beautiful now. She looked like a lamb on the altar of sacrifice. And Waiyaki knew that he could not deny her now, that he could not go back on his love for her.

There was a long silence. People held their breath. Waiyaki thought of making a speech. Then the thought went bouncing away and instead he could only hear the challenge of Kabonyi. How could he deny her now? How . . . ? He took her arms and the silence that followed was oppressive. And Nyambura felt a warmth and an assurance that drove away her doubts; they compensated her for the suffering of the day. How could she have doubted the Teacher? Even Waiyaki felt a new strength which drove away the bitter thoughts of why he had taken the oath. Yet the oath did not say that he should not love. And that was what he wanted to tell the people. But as he tried to open his mouth, one woman screamed “The oath!” and the cry was taken over by the other people as an outlet to the oppressive feelings that burdened them. How could their Teacher betray them? How could he work for the togetherness and purity of the tribe and then marry a girl who was not circumcised? How could he do this to them?

Waiyaki tried to silence them but they would not listen. They only cried “The oath” and their cry was echoed in the forest. And how could he tell them now that he had not betrayed them, but this was not what he meant by unity; that he was not in league with Joshua? How could he tell them that he meant to serve the hills; that he meant to lead them into a political movement that would shake the whole country, that would tell the white man “Go!” He looked beyond and saw the children he had helped in their thirst for learning; the teachers who were coming; Kinuthia . . . and he wondered “Where is Kinuthia?” And then in doubt, a doubt that shocked him into a few minutes of agonized silence. Had Kinuthia betrayed him? Had Kinuthia been in league with Kabonyi?

An elder stood up. Waiyaki could not hear what he was saying for his mind was full of many thoughts and doubts that came and went. Waiyaki and Nyambura would be placed in the hands of the Kiama, who would judge them and decide what to do. It was the best thing and the crowd roared back “Yes” as if the burden of judging their Teacher were removed from them. They went away quickly, glad that he was hidden by the darkness. For they did not want to look at the Teacher and they did not want to read their guilt in one another's faces. Neither did they want to speak to one another, for they knew full well what they had done to Waiyaki and yet they did not want to know.

The land was now silent. The two ridges lay side by side, hidden in the darkness. And Honia river went on flowing between them, down through the valley of life, its beat rising above the dark stillness, reaching into the heart of the people of Makuyu and Kameno.