Engolo- en-ngow-low

This is a form of combat from Angola. It comprises of kicks. It requires strength and agility.

Shasha-sher-sher

chambiko-is natural yoghurt

kachasu-is strong liqour

Chapter 11

Salifya

I hoped Ipyana would vent in the gym. That always worked for me. I did what Xo had advised. I had come out of my self to pull her in but instead I pushed her away. I was getting nowhwere with her. She spoke to me when necessary. Xo said to ignore all that and pursue her with love. It was my Christian duty. I know Ama went through the same with me. She became the embodiment of my anger and pain for my parents dying. Deep inside I knew she was not to blame but she was the closest punching bag I had. I broke her rules to frustrate her, I smoked weed to irritate and embarrass her. I would disappear for days without a word. I wanted her to kick me out but she did not.

I watched Ipy walk away with a sense of dejection then I walked into the engolo gym. I scanned the room for Madalitso, the club owner. After the usual ‘where have you been’ and ‘how have you been’. He told me to come that night at six. It was already five then. I used the hour to vent my frustration on their training bots.

I told Madalitso, that he had to pair me with five of his best fighters or three of them while my hands were tied. I noticed that at the end of the ring was a woman just one. I hated unfair fights. Madalitso loved them, he would have me cover my tatts and enter as a helpless young woman so he could win bets. He had pulled this so many times that I always had handcuffs on me. I cuffed my wrists behind me inadvertently standing in the first form of bembe.

“Kaulimi the province without men, the anomaly and the intrigue.” Madalitso said, walking to my end of the ring. “Throughout history Kaulimi women have faced threats from misogynistic societies who felt threatened by their existence. To protect themselves from random violence, jealous husbands and the many threats of war the Kaulimi women have trained from a tender age in a martial art form called Bembe. They have perfected martial arts that now, they are the best in Zamania. Welcome to the ring two K’warriors.” Amidst the cheering from the audience, Mada exited the ring. My opponent and I walked into the light in the middle of the ring. It was Shasha. My supervisor. There was no way I could beat Shasha handcuffed. I could hear the ref counting down. I started to manoeuvre out of the handcuff. I wanted to hurt Shasha for betraying Kaulimi and for framing me. I was moving around like a mouse because of her. Her weakness was her impulsivity. She would strike first and expose herself to other strikes. The ref was on one minute when I got out of my handcuffs. I knew that Shasha had been mentally going through our sparring sessions. I had to do the unexpected move.

Many punches and kicks later I won.

In the changing room, Shasha walked up to me. “Now that you got that out of system: can we talk?”

“Everything I had to say; I already said in the ring.” I retorted without turning around to face her.

“I owe you an explanation. Let me.”

I turned and starred at her. “It better be good.”

“I will have Kachasu.” She told the waiter-bot. “Bring the bottle.”

“I will have tamarind juice.”

She gave me a look. “Quit drinking?” she asked. I starred at her silently. “What happened?”

“We aren’t here to talk about me.”

“Yes. I missed you. It’s been a lonely few months.” She said as though she was thinking out loud.

“How was it?” I asked Wanipa as soon she walked out of the theatre.

Her face said it all. Her left arm was red. “It hurt like hell.”

I looked at my three circles. The deep leopard tattoo would take a lot of hours,under the laser, to remove. That’s just one circle. The details in my circle with the garden would take a lot of time too. And so would the seeds in my third circle. I walked in and lay down on the bed. The nurse had the laser ready. I gritted my teeth as the burning sensation seared into my skin.

“I was picked before my initiation why did they allow me to get tattooed if they knew they would make me remove them.” I asked Shasha afterwards.

“They want you to get used to pain in case you are tortured.” She retorted. I appreciated our friendship. Having a friend in an older set allowed me access to information that us initiands did not have. “That’s why they use this archaic form of removing tattoos.”

“Why aren’t we allowed to wear our tattoos?”

Shasha pressed packet of ice to my sore arm. “Because, our work will require us to blend in outside of Kaulimi. Those tattoos will impede that.”

I starred at my little room’s ceiling. “So we have to wear fake ink when we are here in Kaulimi?”

“Yes.” Shasha answered. Another layer of deceit. Being a mzengeli meant cutting my life from my family.

“Someone sent me a picture of my brother, my mom and her husband.” Shasha explained. “Ten minutes later Tikondane called me and told me they were broken into by buglars who took nothing. I knew they were serious. They had me send confidential documents all on security details of Kaulimi. Made me open backdoors in our systems so they siphon information. When my superior started getting suspicious they had me frame you to take suspicion off me.”

I glanced down at her, “Shasha why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“They have me wearing this.” She tapped the piercing on her right eyebrow. “It transmits all of what I say and do.”

My eyes darted across the restaurant’s empty balcony. It was just us sitting outside. “Then how come we are having this conversation?”

“Alumbengi figured out how to jam it last week.” Her voice was weighed down with distress and fright. “A few weeks ago, I tried to extract my family. They figured it out and moved my family to an underground location.” She downed another shot. “I have been coming to this gym to vent by taking fights.”

“You could have told me.”

“I was scared.” This was not the Shasha I knew. Scared? It didn’t exist in her vocabulary. “I think there is a mole in KUA. I have only told you and Alumbengi about this.” She was downing shots with each sentence.

“You must have theories about where they are.” The glass table between us clinked when I placed my emptied tumbler back on it.

“You are going to help?”

“Of course, I thought this is why you are telling me this.”

“I hoped you would help but I wasn’t sure.”

“This is my fight as well. Those people ruined my life too. So any leads?”

Before she could answer, her phone beeped. “It’s Alumbengi.” She sighed. “I have to go. I will contact you.” I watched her walk away. Who were these people that had reduced my Shasha into a prisoner and me a fugitive?

“In the old world among the Kyangonde if a man failed to pay his debt, his youngest daughter would be given to his debtor as a wife. These girls were often pre-pubescent. As you know many mzengeli rescued these girls. Zione had rescued one such a girl on the eve of the poor girl’s betrothal. Her husband to-be, an aristrocrat, sent five soldiers after her. To keep the girl safe, she hid her in a cave and let herself get captured. The soldiers could not find the girl. They tortured Zione for two days to make her reveal where the girl was. Zione did not crack. Instead she waited for an opportunity and escaped her captors.” Diminga narrated. “I know you are thinking that you can not manage that but you will be trained to endure torture. Torture is a battle of will: the torturer against the tortured. The struggle between these two exists in the mind not the body.” It was a month after this lecture that I found a usb on the table in my room. I placed it in my laptop. It had a message from Diminga. “Keep the contents of this usb a secret from everyone.” Inside it were transactions between Shasha and an anti-Kaulimi radical group called Amuna. I was shocked. Shasha was a double agent? The transactions dated back two years. I hid the usb in a pair of jeans in my locker. I was still analysing Shasha’s behaviour trying to determine if I had missed anything when I fail asleep. I was awoken by someone placing their hand on my mouth and solar blaster on my forehead. The person in a ski mask dragged me out of the KUA academy campus. I tried to fight my assailant off but they subjued me. This was another mzengeli I could tell from her fighting style. In her pod she took off her ski mask. It was Shasha. She pressed something on my skin. I passed out. I awoke in a dark room.

“I have her.” I heard Shasha say on the phone. “I will find out where the usb is.” I was trying to get out of the binds she put me in when she turned. “Call you later.”

“What’s going on Shasha?”

“I think you know what’s going on Fya.” Fya was what they called me at KUA because I was agile since Fya was the sound a canister made when it was being sprayed. Shasha placed her hand on the table behind her. “Where is the usb?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I was angry at Shasha for betraying Kaulimi. I tapped into that when I spoke. “I should be there one asking questions here. You are there one who kidnapped me in the night.”

“Look at you,” she smirked. “Not even a full mzengeli and yet already acting like one.”

Look at you, not even a full mzengeli but already betraying Kaulimi, I thought to myself. She grabbed a torture simulator from the table. She placed it my lower back where my nerves meet.

“I don’t want to do this Salifya. Just tell what I want to know.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

She chuckled. “I hate to do this to a friend.”

My mind moved me to a burning building. I was stuck under a table unable to move. It got hotter and hotter. I could not suppress my screams. I tried to tell my mind it was not real but it was not listening. After five minutes, I returned to the dark room.

“Are you ready to talk?”

“How can I talk about that which I do not know?” I panted.

“We go again then.”

My mind took me to the bottom of a lake. I tried to swim to the surface but the surface was too far away. It’s not real, it’s not real. You will get out. My body was not listening. I was ranning out of oxygen. I was going to pass out any second. I returned to the dark room.

“I hate doing this to you. You can make it stop. Where is the usb?”

“I don’t know anything about a usb.” I exhaled. “I don’t. Stop this madness.”

The third sim was me in the middle of a forest with honey painted on my skin. I was bound to a tree. The first were flies. I minded them but not very much. After that came the bees. I really did want to tell her where the flash was. But I kept reminding myself this was not real. If I told her where the usb was, I would lose. She would win. She would go scotch free after betraying Kaulimi. The bees lacerated my skin with each sting. I hoped I would die and it would end. I was passing out when she pulled me out of the sim. She let me rest. She brought water and food. After that she pleaded with me to tell her. I could see she was tired and desperate. I lay at the bottom of a dried up well. I looked up at the sky. I could climb out of this, I said to myself. Then I saw the chains on my legs and arms. A legion of scorpions crawled out of the crevices of the wall. This time I was screaming before the first bite. Scorpions were my worst fear. The poison filled my blood stream I could feel it navigating its way through my bloodstream heading for my heart. I forgot to tell my mind this was not real. When she took me out of this sim my whole body was still shaking in a cold sweat.

“Stop this. I am your friend.”

“Only you can stop this. Just tell me where the usb drive is. I will let you go. You get to make it in time for breakfast and sleep in your own bed for the rest of your day.”

I scoffed. “You must think I am naïve. I know how this goes. The minute I lose my usefulness to you: you kill me.”

“Just tell me what I need to know. I don’t want to do this anymore. There is only so much your mind can take.”

I knew sooner or later she would feed me. That would require her getting close to me. That would be when I would escape. She brought soya porridge. A spoon and a bowl were placed at the bottom of my feet. There was a bottle of water. She untied me slowly.

“Eat.” She said as she retreated to sit on a chair a few metres away from me. Her right hand held a blaster aimed at me. “You do anything but eat I will kill you.”

“You need me alive.” I reached for the bowl of porride. I pretended to be weaker than I was just like Diminga had taught us.

“I need you alive but just enough to talk.” The look in her eyes scared me. She meant what she said.

I ate half of the porridge. I had the spoon in hand and was drinking water. I quickly threw it at her eye. She dropped the blaster. I rushed to where she was and picked it up. She pulled another blaster from her waist.

“What are you going to do, Fya? Shoot me.” She said with a laugh.

Thank you for reading my book.

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Discussion:

What are your first impressions of Shasha?

What do you think of the new Salifya?

Is she really different?

What do you think of her attempt to trick her sister into the engolo gym?

What do you make her of relationship to Xo?

how beautiful is this image by Peter Pharoah. If i was to draw Sali this would be her.