Contributed by - Marabout

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Prologue

�In my opinion, this is one of the most disgraceful cases I have ever had to deal with and I fully intend to punish the culprit severely in order to make an example of him for all to see!�

So said Judge Mary Kamanga, an imposing figure in the austere black robe and white wig, which the judicial system of the central African Republic of Azanga had inherited from British colonial days. In the hot, crowded courtroom, hardly cooled by the slowly rotating ceiling fans, there was a hush as the spectators waited eagerly to hear the sentence that Judge Kamanga would pronounce on the sorry-looking white man standing before her.

The prisoner also waited, though somewhat less eagerly, to know his fate. The unhappy William Maze stood there before the judge, head bowed, crushed with shame and remorse, bitterly asking himself for the thousandth time how he had allowed himself to fall into this hopeless predicament. Only two years ago he had arrived in Azanga to take up a teaching post at the country�s elite boarding school. He had been well received and had been happy in his work. He was enchanted with the country, with its lakes, mountains, forests and friendly people. He had learnt to speak Ciazangi, the language of Azanga. Above all, he was enamoured of the lively, curvaceous women of the country. How could he, an intelligent, educated man of forty-two, have let himself be trapped into the drugs smuggling racket? Well, he knew the answer to that one. Greed had been his downfall; visions of riches and a string of voluptuous African beauties had lured him into a partnership with the smooth-talking Lebanese, who was by now at least a thousand miles away, enjoying his ill-gotten gains, leaving William to face the music.

Judge Kamanga, nicknamed popularly among Azangans �The Flogging Judge� on account of her penchant for having criminals caned, male or female, continued to enumerate William�s transgressions and character shortcomings � �abusing his position of trust� � �corruption of our youth� � �greed for lucre� � �immoral lifestyle� � and so on. The spectators listened rapt to this litany of William�s delinquency, interrupting from time to time with choruses of �Yes!� or �That is true!� William himself could not have agreed more with Judge Kamanga when she declared that he had only himself to blame for the predicament in which he now found himself. He had pleaded guilty, expressed sincere remorse and thrown himself on the mercy of the court, in the hope that Judge Kamanga would be moved to treat show some degree of leniency in his case. He hoped in vain!

�I will now pronounce sentence.� Judge Kamanga�s eyes gleamed fiercely behind her brown-tinted glasses, her black skin shone with sweat in the stuffy heat of the courtroom. The court fell silent. William, white-knuckled, gripped the bar in front of him, hardly daring to breathe. �The prisoner will serve five years� hard labour at the State Penal Colony of Malembe.� The spectators burst into applause with cries of approval. The judge rapped the bench with her gavel demanding silence and getting it. �However,� she went on,� in cases involving narcotics the law prescribes mandatory corporal punishment in addition to the term of hard labour. In the case of this prisoner I have no hesitation in availing myself of this clause. I only regret that the law no longer permits me to have this prisoner flogged in public with the ciboko. Therefore I sentence the prisoner to the maximum punishment allowed under the law, which is fifty strokes of the rattan cane and I charge the prison authorities at Malembe to ensure that this punishment is administered with full severity. Remove the prisoner from the court!�

To noisy clapping and cries of approval from the spectators, William was hustled away by two police officers to the cells adjoining the courthouse. He was thrust into a small cell and left to ponder his fate and await transportation to Malambe Prison, which lay on the shores of beautiful Lake Malambe, some fifty miles from the capital city, Changani.

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Azanga is a small central African state, situated on a plateau to the west of Kenya and to the east of Congo. Its fertile soil permits the cultivation of all the staple African crops as well as many kinds of fruit and vegetables. In the eastern region of the country there is dense rain forest, while in the north there are high mountains. Its climate is healthy and its landscape stunningly beautiful, particularly its lakes, which provide a habitat for a wide variety of fish and bird life. Its one million or so inhabitants speak Ciazangi, a Bantu language quite similar to Swahili. On the whole, the people are happy and peaceful, and recently the economy of the country has taken a turn for the better due to the exploitation of diamonds and important mineral deposits in the northern mountains. The money derived from this activity is used wisely by the president and her ministers to improve such areas as health care, education and housing. In fact, Azanga is that rare creature in Africa � a well-governed, stable and relatively prosperous state.

This happy state of affairs is in no small measure due to the unusual fact that it is mainly governed by women. Its president, Elizabeth Benda, had been running the country for ten years up to the time of William�s arrest, and more than half of her ministers were women, as well as a number of heads of government departments. One of the priorities of this female rule has always been the elimination of corruption, so often the scourge of other African countries, through draconian laws and punishments to which everyone is subject, without distinction of wealth or position. Whereas in most other African societies women occupy a subordinate position, in Azanga it has always been the opposite, Azanga being a traditionally matriarchal society, where men learn from an early age to defer to their mothers and wives, proof of which is the frequency of newspaper reports detailing cases of husband-beating by wives rather than the opposite, which is more often the case in the rest of black Africa.. In fact, women are seldom prosecuted for beating their husbands, whereas a wife-beater faces certain arrest and judicial corporal punishment.

This then was the situation in which the hapless William was unwise enough to allow himself to be caught committing what is considered one of the most heinous offenses under the Azangan criminal code. Sitting on the hard wooden bench in the sweltering cell, barefoot and clad only in shirt and beltless trousers, still stunned by the severity of his sentence, William inwardly bemoaned his foolishness and thought with agonizing apprehension of the ordeal in store for him. Everyone in Azanga had heard stories about Malembe and its harsh woman governor, Captain Florence Nbembe. William knew that �hard labour� could mean working in quarries or fields ten hours a day under the hot sun. He had also heard lurid stories of the effects of the rattan cane on a prisoner�s bare buttocks. Hardly a week went by in Azanga without reports in the newspapers of the sentences of corporal punishment handed down in the courts � ten strokes, twenty-five strokes, forty strokes � more frequently for male delinquents convicted of burglary, street violence, drunkenness and the like, but also for females, usually apprehended for prostitution, the eradication of which was another of the president�s priorities. Yes, William was in deep trouble and he knew it and he knew, as Judge Mary Kamanga had reminded him, that he had only himself to blame.

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Chapter 1 - Malembe


William spent a fitful night in the bare prison cell. It was not only the hard wooden boards of his �bed� that kept him from sleeping, but also his thoughts of what awaited him. Over and over those words rang in his ears � �Five years hard labour!� - �Fifty strokes of the rattan cane!� How would he stand it? Over and over again he saw himself toiling in a field under the hot African sun, urged on by guards with whips. In his imagination he pictured himself being flogged, tied naked to a bench or frame � he was not sure how floggings were carried out � screaming under the cruel lash of the rattan. William was no hero. He knew that he would be unable to behave with dignity and stoicism under such treatment.

Dawn came, early in Africa, and a guard opened the cell door and ordered William to bring out the bucket and empty it in the latrines. A little later the guard brought William his breakfast, which consisted of a tin mug of hot tea with a slice of bread. Then, at around seven thirty, he was taken out into the yard by two guards, who handcuffed his wrists behind his back and shoved him into the back of a windowless prison van to transport him to Malembe. The journey would take about an hour and a half over a bumpy road through lush, well-tended fields of maize and sugar-cane, shaded by coconut palms and mango trees, but William, sitting uncomfortably on the floor of the van, was hardly in a position to appreciate the attractive scenery or the beauties of Lake Malembe, along the shores of which the van trundled for some time before reaching the prison. Eventually, William felt the van stop and heard the sound of a gate opening. Then the car lurched forward again and finally came to a halt. The van door opened and William, blinking and dazed in the bright morning sunlight, was pulled out.

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At approximately the same time as William was being thrust into the back of the police van to be transported to Malembe, Captain Florence Ndembe was talking over the telephone with her old friend, Judge Mary Kamanga.

�Yes, about that Englishman in the drugs case, William Maze,� the judge was saying. �As you know, I sentenced him yesterday � five years hard labour and fifty strokes. They�ll probably be sending him down to you some time today.�

�In fact, I�ve just heard from Changani,� Captain Ndembe replied.� They�re on their way now. They should be here in about an hour�s time. Do you have any special instructions regarding this prisoner?�

�I do indeed. I trust you will make sure that he gets the punishment he deserves, no special favours, no leniency. Let him suffer his punishment in full. An example must be made of these drug traffickers!�

Captain Ndembe smiled. �Oh yes, Mary, I quite agree, but don�t worry. I have something interesting in store for Mr. Maze. I am going to keep him here in the female punishment block under Sergeant Mbenge�s tender mercies for a while. She will know how to deal with him. Why don�t you come down here for a visit and see for yourself?�

�I can�t make it this month,� said Judge Kamanga,�but I�ll certainly come and see you next month � and yes, that�s an excellent idea. Shame and humiliation as well as pain are what he needs! I�ll look forward to seeing him get what he deserves.�

Captain Ndembe leaned back in her chair. �That was Judge Kamanga, Jane,� she remarked to the pretty young prison officer who acted as her secretary. �She thoroughly approves of my ideas for our new arrival.�

The young woman smiled. She knew what Captain Ndembe meant, for earlier that morning she had been present when the captain had outlined her plans for poor William to Sergeant Patience Mbenge. The sergeant was in charge of the women�s punishment block and was known as a formidable flogger. A female inmate who committed an offense against prison discipline was sent to the punishment block for a period of strict punishment regime under Sergeant Mbenge�s charge... This meant a week or ten days of hard manual work, stark naked and in leg shackles, around the prison or even outside the prison grounds in the area where the guards and their families lived, subjected to the mockery and derision of the wives and children of the guards or even of other prisoners, with the pleasure of a daily thrashing to look forward to every morning and evening.

The sergeant, like Captain Ndembe, was tall and in her mid to late forties, but whereas Captain Ndembe was slender and athletic looking � indeed, she had played volleyball for Azanga when she was younger � Sergeant Mbenge was built more like a female weight-lifter or wrestler, wide-hipped with massive thighs and haunches, large breasts and brawny, muscular arms. No woman dared stand up to her and few men. She had chuckled when she heard what her chief had in mind for William. This was just the kind of job she liked.

�Judge Kamanga has recommended special treatment for this prisoner,� she explained, �so I have decided to keep him here in the women�s section until further notice and you will be in full charge of him. He will be on full punishment regime, the same as the women inmates. � naked parade, shackles, outside labour � oh, and he�s due for mandatory, judicial caning � fifty strokes. This punishment will also be administered here by you after Doctor Patel has seen him. And I will arrange for some of the Presidential Party ladies and some of the officers� wives to come along and witness the caning. I�m sure they will enjoy watching a white man get a flogging!�

The young secretary felt a thrill of anticipation when she heard these words. It was part of her normal duties to attend canings and stand by the punishment frame counting out the strokes, so she was sure to enjoy a close-up view of the action. She was looking forward with curiosity and no little excitement to the unusual and entertaining sight of a white man stripped naked, bending over the punishment frame to undergo a flogging at the hands of big Sergeant Mbenge to a chorus of humiliating taunts and laughter from the assembled women spectators.

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Immediately on arrival at the prison, William had been handed over to Sergeant Mbenge, who had led him off unceremoniously to the reception block, where, without more ado, he had been ordered to strip naked in the presence of three younger women prison officers and a middle-aged female inmate. The women had stared in silent mockery as he had shed his clothes and had been subjected to a humiliating body search, carried out by one of the young officers under Sergeant Mbenge�s direction. She had carried out the search with great thoroughness, taking particular care over the rectal probe, much to William�s discomfort and the amusement of the other women. Following the search, he had then had his head and pubic parts shaved by the female prisoner. This procedure had necessitated the woman manipulating William�s genitals as she plied the razor, which had provoked an uncontrollable and embarrassing erection and more mocking laughter from the watching women. William had then been marched along a corridor to the bath-house, where he had been required to stand and be hosed down by the women prisoner and, finally, he had been led back to the large reception room and made to stand exposed to the amused gaze of the four women guards.

The unfortunate William stood stark naked, feet wide apart, hands on shaven head, gaze fixed on the floor, in the centre of the long reception hut. The room was bare except for a long table to one side, on which lay William�s clothes and a couple pf chairs. Sergeant Mbenge and the three women guards strolled casually around the room, examining William�s naked body with an expression of amused boredom, giving him a casual slap on his bare behind from time to time, causing him to wince slightly. The female prisoner, shaven headed and clad in the shapeless brown prison dress, stood against the wall, watching proceedings with amusement. William stood there, dry mouthed and shaking with nervousness, wondering what was in store for him. The women grinned, relishing William�s humiliation. He certainly did not present a very dignified appearance, standing there as naked as he was born with his hands clasped behind his head, helpless and vulnerable. He was of medium height with a thick roll of fat about his midriff, heavy womanish breasts with rather prominent nipples, broad hips and ample buttocks, which quivered at each slap.

After a while Sergeant Mbenge left the young women in charge of the prisoner. They up a constant flow of humorous chatter in Ciazangi at the expense of William�s sorry predicament, emphasizing their remarks with smacks and pinches.

�Look how fat he is,� one of the women said, slapping William lightly on the belly and squeezing the roll of fat about his waist. �I think he drinks too much beer.�

�Look at his titties �just like a woman,� another guard said. She squeezed one of his breasts, tweaking and twisting the nipple painfully.

�Maybe he is a woman,� said another. �Let us look!� She flicked William�s genitals with her fingers, causing him to gasp and squirm more in fear than in actual pain, which brought a gust of derisive laughter from her companions.

�He has a fat bottom like a woman too,� another remarked, with a smack on William�s buttocks. �The sergeant will have to cane him extra hard to make him feel the strokes through all that fat!�

�Look how he is shaking! I think he is very scared. He is thinking about that rattan cane! Oh, I hope I will be on duty at the flogging! It will be very funny!�

Indeed, that was precisely what William was thinking about, as he stood there, naked and vulnerable, submissively enduring his humiliation. Eventually they tired of the sport and ordered him to kneel in the corner of the room, hands on head, while they chatted in a desultory manner about other things, totally ignoring William�s presence.

About half an hour later the Sergeant returned. �The Captain will see him now,� she announced. �Handcuff him.�

One of the guards motioned to William to stand and placed the handcuffs on him behind his back. Sergeant Mbenge than marched him out of the room and across a yard towards a two-storey building on the other side. The yard was shaded by tall trees on its four sides and as they crossed it, Sergeant Mbenge urging him along with jabs of her rubber stick between the cheeks of his buttocks, William saw a young woman prisoner, stark naked, her head shaven, shackles on her ankles, sweeping leaves and watched over lazily by a female guard who was seated under the shade of a tree. William could not help noticing with alarm that the prisoner�s buttocks were covered with swollen weals, evidently the result of a recent beating.

They entered the building, where, in the wide entrance hall, another naked, shackled prisoner was scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees. The woman, a typical Azangan �market mammy� figure, looked to be in her forties. Her fat, bulging buttocks and heavy breasts shook as she vigorously rubbed away with the wet cloth. She was toiling under the stern eye of a young woman guard who greeted Sergeant Mbenge and stared mockingly at the wretched William, making a humorous comment about a �nice boyfriend�. The sergeant laughed and prodded William up a flight of stairs and along a passage. She stopped at a door which bore a plaque marked �Captain Florence Ndembe � Governor�. Sergeant Mbenge knocked. William heard a woman�s voice call: �Come.�

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At the same time as William was undergoing his �reception�, Captain Ndembe had been at her desk in her office telephoning the government doctor, Doctor Patel, who visited the women�s prison three times a week. The doctor was of an Indian family, established in Azanga for several generations. Captain Ndembe usually spoke to her in English.

�Doctor Patel, you are due to visit tomorrow, aren�t you?� � �Well, I have a prisoner who is due for a flogging tomorrow morning at eleven. I want you to give him a check-up first.� � �Yes, him � it�s a male prisoner. You know, that Englishman who was convicted of drug trafficking. I am having the punishment administered here in the women�s block. I want you to be present at the flogging too.� � �Fifty with the rattan.� � �OK, see you tomorrow.�

After that, she had made another call, this time to her friend Charity, the head of the Presidential Party in the District of Malembe.

�Listen Charity, can you come over to see me here tomorrow morning? You will see a good show!� � �Yes, that�s right, but there will be a special surprise this time!� � �No, I won�t tell you now or it will spoil the surprise. Get in touch with Anne and tell her to come too.� � �Eleven o�clock but be here by ten thirty.�

After completing this call, she had turned to her young secretary. �Jane, arrange for three or four of the senior wives to attend the caning tomorrow. They will enjoy the show!�

Shortly after this, Sergeant Mbenge had arrived to announce that the prisoner had been processed and Captain Ndembe had ordered her to bring him to the office.

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�Come!� The door opened and an unhappy William was propelled into the room to stand before Captain Ndembe�s wide desk. He stood, head bowed, feet wide apart, as he had been instructed by Sergeant Mbenge, fidgeting nervously under the steady gaze of Captain Ndembe and the mocking smile of her attractive young secretary. The Captain, clad in her crisply ironed white uniform blouse and dark blue skirt, her hair combed back and gathered in a tight bun at the nape of her elegant long neck, sat straight-backed and tall behind her desk.

�The prisoner Maze, Captain,� announced Sergeant Mbenge briskly. The Captain continued to gaze, still and silent behind her brown-tinted glasses, at the naked figure standing before her. To William it seemed even more humiliating to find himself in this spacious, bright and well-appointed modern office of the kind he had known so well in his previous life, standing stark naked and in handcuffs before these two smartly uniformed women. He felt unreal, as if he was somehow living through some awful nightmare from which there was no escape. Indeed, William had often had disturbing dreams in which he found himself in some public place, in a street or a supermarket, for some reason naked, experiencing a feeling of deep shame, knowing that he should be clothed, yet, at the same time, feeling that it was somehow normal to be nude. Now the dream had come true; now the shame and humiliation were real.

Captain Ndembe addressed him in correct, clear English. �Prisoner William Maze, I am Captain Ndembe and I am the overall Governor of Malembe Prison. You have been convicted of an extremely serious offense and you have been sent here to serve your sentence of five years hard labour together with mandatory corporal punishment, in this case fifty strokes of the rattan cane. Normally a male prisoner is sent to the male section of this prison. However, in view of your background and circumstances I have decided to keep you, until further notice, here in the female block. I am placing you in the �special prisoner� category under full punishment regime in the female punishment block. This means, among other things, that you will not be allowed clothing. We believe that the shame and humiliation of being permanent nudity is an effective means of punishment which contributes towards making an offender understand the true heinousness of his offense against society. So you will remain completely naked, as you are now, for the duration of your sentence, or until I decide otherwise. You will perform hard manual work under the direction of my officers, who are authorized to administer any disciplinary measures they think fit. You will also be required to work outside the prison grounds as well as inside and for such tasks you will wear leg-irons. As for the caning, this will also be administered here in the female section by my experienced women officers and will take place tomorrow morning at eleven o�clock in the presence of several female witnesses after the doctor has seen you. At Malembe Prison we believe that a prisoner is here to suffer punishment, so we will make your life hard. We have three chief rules here. They are obedience, respect and work. If you observe these rules, you will make your life a bit easier. If not � well, we know how to deal with stubborn and troublesome prisoners. That is all. Take him away, Sergeant.�

With another sharp prod from Sergeant Mbenge�s rubber stick, William was marched out of the office and down the stairs. The two naked inmates were still at work under the watchful eye of their guards. William supposed that they were undergoing some kind of punishment. Indeed, he was able to confirm this supposition later when, having been a guest in Sergeant Mbenge�s punishment block for a while, he became quite accustomed to the sight of naked female prisoners of various ages, shapes and sizes on the receiving end of various forms of �corrective treatment�. Furthermore, judging by what Captain Ndembe had just told him, he feared that similar treatment was in store for him.

He was led back through the reception hut and out across another wide yard to a smaller compound which was surrounded by a high fence topped with razor wire. The sergeant unlocked the stout metal door and shoved William through it and into the small yard. This was the punishment block for female prisoners, where William was to spend the few uncomfortable weeks of his new life as an inmate of Malembe Jail.
 

Chapter 2 - The Punishment Block