Contributed by - Marabout
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Chapter 3
The fateful morning came. Eustace had finally fallen into a restless
slumber in the small hours of the morning, but he was awake by six
o�clock. He knew it would not do to be late for his appointment with
Miss Moyo. He took a long and thorough shower, shaved carefully and laid
out clean underwear and his newest shirt and trousers. He wanted to look
presentable for his punishment even if, as he suspected, he would be
required to take his clothes off fairly soon. He drank a cup of coffee,
but felt too nervous to eat anything. The time dragged � seven � seven
thirty � eight � eight thirty. He tried to read, but he found he could
not concentrate. His alarm clock showed twenty minutes after nine. It
would take him about five minutes to walk from his house to the
administrative building where Miss Moyo had her office. He wanted to
arrive exactly on time. Eustace walked fast but with a strangely
nervous, stiff-legged gait, as if anticipating the lash of Miss Moyo�s
birch across the backs of his thighs. He entered the administrative
building and stood before Miss Moyo�s office door, dry-mouthed, and with
a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. His knees were shaking
uncontrollably. He knocked and heard Miss Moyo�s voice bidding him
enter. She was seated at her desk and to her left stood Mrs Kirembe. She
smiled her habitual bright smile when she saw Eustace and greeted him in
her usual friendly way, just as if he was making a normal social visit
rather than reporting for a flogging. She wore her usual white nurse�s
overall, Next to her stood Mrs Margaret Mbele, the school housekeeper, a
plump, motherly woman in her fortties, clad, like Miss Moyo, in the
green and yellow ANP uniform, complete with head-dress.
�Well, Eustace,� said Miss Moyo in her brisk, business-like fashion,
�you know why you are here, don�t you?�
�Yes, Miss Moyo,� Eustace muttered in a voice hardly audible, such was
his state of nerves. Both Mrs Kirembe and Mrs Mbele smiled kindly at
Eustace as Miss Moyo went on.
�Very well, then let us get down to business. Mrs Tembe is pleased to
hear that you have chosen to receive formal punishment rather than
dismissal from the college. So be it. We maintain a high standard of
conduct here at this college, as Her Excellency the President demands,
and we believe in strict discipline, which, I may say, has come down to
us from British colonial times. This applies not only to the pupils but
to the teachers as well. One feature of this discipline which we have
inherited is a belief in the efficacy of corporal punishment.� She
paused meaningfully. �I have discussed the matter with Mrs Tembe and we
have both agreed that you are deserving of a punishment commensurate
with the seriousness of your conduct, which could have harmed the good
reputation of this establishment. We have decided, therefore, that you
shall receive thirty-six strokes of the birchrod.�
She paused, to let this information sink in. Eustace gasped with dismay
at the severity of the sentence. Mrs Kirembe and Mrs Mbele smiled
brightly and simultaneously voiced their approbation of the punishment,
clearly relishing the prospect, in the time-honored Azangan fashion, of
witnessing a sound flogging.
�Well, Eustace, now that you know what is in store for you, do you wish
to revise your decision or are you still prepared to accept a formal
college punishment in lieu of dismissal?�
�No �no Miss Moyo � er, I mean yes,� Eustace managed to stammer
nervously, �I mean I accept the punishment.�
�Very well. Now, as Mrs Tembe wishes to witness the punishment herself,
the flogging will be postponed until she returns to the college in three
weeks� time. In the meantime, therefore, you are confined to the college
premises until then to await your punishment. If you need anything from
outside, inform Mrs Mbele or Mrs Kirembe. Is that clear?�
�No � er yes, Miss Moyo thank you Miss Moyo,� Eustace mumbled.
�Then that is all� Miss Moyo announced. �You may go.�
So began Eustace�s �long hot summer�, which was to be hot in more ways
than one! His original plan had been to explore the country around Lake
Malembe, but now that he was prohibited from leaving the college
grounds, he had to try to find another way of occupying his time
usefully and of taking his mind off the ordeal that awaited him in three
weeks� time. He decided to set himself two tasks. The first was to
prepare a series of lessons for the coming college term, using the
college library, which, in order to ingratiate himself with Miss Moyo,
he had also offered to take care of during the long summer holiday. His
second idea was to make a serious effort to study the language of Azanga,
Ciazangi. He had already acquired a couple of grammar manuals and a
small dictionary, but he found that he was able to make real progress by
visitng Mrs Kirembe every day in her office and practicing with her. She
had little to do during the holidays so she was glad of Eustace�s
company. In fact, she regularly came to his house in the evening to
teach him and to bring him a pot of tasty, spicy Azangan stew, which she
had made especially for him, �to make him strong�, as she put it.
Mrs Kirembe was a good teacher because she enjoyed chatting and was
always full of fun. She told Eustace all about her life in London twenty
years ago, and about her daughter, Veronica, a nurse at the women�s
prison. Eustace also learnt a great deal about Azangan customs and
attitudes. From listening to Mrs Kirembe, as well as Mrs Mbele, who
sometimes joined in these sessions, Eustace began to understand the
Azangan mentality. Wrong-doers must be punished and must be seen to be
punished. Those who offended against society must be shamed and made to
understand that they had offended and why they were being punished. He
realized that, unlike most other African societies, Azanga was mainly
ruled by women � not only in the government but in ordinary family life
as well. Women had held the authority and maintained order in the
traditional society. Hence it was a simple step for women to assume
authority in the formal sense by involving themselves in the politics of
modern government. Thus Azanga was now ruled by a woman president ,
while most of the ministers were women, as were the majority of judges,
magistrates and directors of government institutions. The main thrust of
President Benda�s rule was towards, law and order and honesty in
government. The law was draconian and any form of corruption, either
from male or female offenders, was severely punished � the Women�s
Section of the Azanga National Party made sure of that! Both women
reminisced with some relish about the famous case of a certain Esther
Langana, the richest woman in Azanga, who had been found guilty a few
years back of tax evasion and attempted bribery of a judge. They had
both, it seemed, witnessed her flogging, and both remembered seeing her
toiling stark naked in the village with shackles on her ankles,
subjected to the derision and teasing of the village people, who took
the greatest of pleasure in making this fat, pampered woman suffer her
humiliation in full measure.
To Eustace it seemed a totally anomalous situation to be sitting with
these two middle-aged African ladies, knowing that he too was shortly
due to receive a humiliating thrashing in their presence, whereas Mrs
Kirembe and Mrs Mbele acted as if this was merely a normal social
occasion. To the two women, witnessing corporal punishment was evidently
a totally routine matter. To them, as to all Azangans, a flogging was a
perfectly normal occurrence, of which they thoroughly approved as a
necessary deterrent to misconduct of any kind. To their way of thinking,
Eustace had committed an offence and so he must be punished and they,
like the majority of their compatriots, considered it a matter of social
duty to witness the punishment. At the same time, it could not be denied
that it was a source of entertainment, and the fact that the culprit in
this case would be a young white man only served to add a certain
piquant novelty to this entertainment. Indeed, without any sense of
personal ill feeling towards Eustace, as they freely admitted, the two
ladies looked forward with glee to the prospect of seeing his white
buttocks reddened by Miss Moyo�s birchrod. In Azanga, everyone enjoyed
witnessing a good flogging, which was always accompanied by much
good-humored joking and laughter at the expense of the unfortunate
culprit�s backside.
One evening, Mrs Kirembe came alone to Eustace�s house, with a pot of
her stew and half-a-dozen bottles of beer. She seemed to be in an
especially frisky mood and after they had eaten and drunk a couple of
beers, she turned the conversation towards Eustace�s love life. Eustace
was, in fact, a virgin, as he shyly admitted in response to her
pressing.
�What? You mean you have never fucked a woman, Eustace?� Mrs Kirembe
exclaimed in amazement, slightly shocking Eustace by her use of the
crude colloquial term. She laughed heartily. �Well, come! We will do
something about that!�
So saying, she stood up and grabbing Eustace by the arm, led him to the
small bedroom adjoining the sitting room. He stood docile and blushing
as Mrs Kirembe briskly undressed him, then watched as she quickly took
off her own clothes.
�Come, Eustace!� she said, pulling him by his penis towards the bed,
where she proceeded to teach him the most exciting and pleasurable
lesson he had ever had in his life, a lesson which was to be repeated
several more times in the coming days, as Mrs Kirembe completed
Eustace�s education with expertise and gusto!
Eventually, however, the day of �execution�, as Mrs Kirembe called it,
arrived. Mrs Kirembe and Mrs Mbele came to Eustace�s house one evening
with the usual food and beer, they informed him that the Headmistress,
Mrs Tembe, had returned that afternoon.
�So you must report to Miss Moyo�s office tomorrow morning at ten
o�clock for your punishment, Eustace,� Mrs Kirembe said cheerfully.
�Don�t worry � it won�t be so bad! Just do as you are told. Take your
clothes off and bend over and it will soon be over! And Mrs Mbele and I
will be there too! We�ll take care of you afterwards, won�t we,
Margaret?�
