Africa Sees
She senses the scent. The scent of
nourishment; sweet delicious meat and the carnivore in her is wildly out of her
way. The scent is so close, she can feel it. Perhaps it is right at her claws,
why is she not seeing it. Perhaps it is a bit far, but that is still close. Her
dark eyes jump here and there. She looks up in the acacias and cacti as if the
prey can actually hide in sticks and thorns. She clearly underestimates her
quest. And the prey looks at the bitch that senses her presence and prays that
the bitch doesn’t set her eyes on him.
The vicinity is clear but it is dark with fire burns.There are charred acacia logs here and there. Lynched carcasses lie unfathomably on the earth that once had bushes that hid them selfishly from whatever they were meant to hide from. The grass is black, its green having been sucked up in flames and left beige and grey in its suckers. You might actually see a baobab, its fatness is never wrong, but it will be dead. All the way down the seasonal stream, mukuri, and up the once vast pastures of the sheep and goats, tetu wa mburi, the fire has had its territory under strict control.
The prey prays that he is not seen by
the owner of the bitch. He is earnest in this second prayer for he knows that
the owner of the bitch is the worst bitch. The owner is not exactly a bitch per
se but in this context he, the prey, decides to refer to the owner as a bitch
too. Like her bitch, she is also looking around appetizingly to find the prey.
She knows there has to be one. A hare? An antelope? An antelope is a big one,
perhaps a baby gazelle? She’ll eventually settle for a minute hare hiding
inconceivably in the dark protrudes of black and beige grass that clearly is
betraying him.
Truly the owner of the bitch now sees
the hopeless thing hiding right at her toes. What distance is it? Just one
stride, yes. And the thing is right there, having folded itself so tightly you
think it is a piece of shit; a piece of woolen paper, or just shit with fur.
The owner of the bitch first wonders 1) how the hare managed to hide its long
ears and 2) why its snout is not blinking. Maybe it’s already dead. But even if
it is, verification is needed. She can’t touch her with her own hands. And her
bitch is still wondering where this scent-full prey is. Besides she actually
has a rungu she can use to scare the
hare away so that the bitch sees it. The goats and cows are gone, she can’t
think about them especially right now; at this moment.
Or she can use the rungu to knock the cowardly thing on its head and give it to the
bitch. Yes. The rungu is up in the
air and she hopes dexterity works in her favor this time. The timing is wrong.
The hare seizes it and slips away.
“Betty!!” the owner of the bitch is
angry with excitement and disappointment.
She is disappointed in herself and excited in her bitch, Betty. Betty takes on the chase. You silly slut, she seems to say as she sprints and pants her tongue off over the black soil and grass.
“Saa! Saa!” the owner of Betty urges her on.
She is disappointed in herself and excited in her bitch, Betty. Betty takes on the chase. You silly slut, she seems to say as she sprints and pants her tongue off over the black soil and grass.
“Saa! Saa!” the owner of Betty urges her on.
The hare buys expensively more time to
live on the planet by making revolving movements. After three such chases
around an imaginary circle Betty is almost lost of breath and the rungu is still up in the air, having not
found a perfect time to knock the hare.
‘What if I throw it, and I hit Betty instead’ she is thinking to herself. She is in an alien tension, it feels like an alien mission on earth, chasing an alien.
‘What if I throw it, and I hit Betty instead’ she is thinking to herself. She is in an alien tension, it feels like an alien mission on earth, chasing an alien.
Here hare has been starving with nothing
green to his diet. It was a mistake for him to be on this side of the jungle
where there has been a bush fire and there is no food, you see. It is a further
mistake playing hide-and-seek which later turns out to be run and run in a
cycle. Like the way history is said to repeat itself. Eventually unless she escapes
miraculously she is going to make Betty dinner.
The owner decides to slightly join in
the beautiful chasing story developing. Then the rapture happens. It is rapture
because it strikes her how fast and horrible the end of the hare has been.
Betty has nearly swallowed him in her mouth and somehow her teeth have
literally torn the furry skin of the hare. It almost looks as if it was a gown
he had worn and his nakedness is now revealed red and steaming.
Even when he is caught in Betty’s jaws,
the hare now naked without the skin, tries to slip away. Betty bites him
strongly on the neck and the owner knows he is dead. Betty feels it and she
gracefully puts the deserving meal on a patch of black grass and sits down,
having her front limbs next to the dead hare, just in case.
She then pants profusely this time
pouring a lot of saliva and she looks like a ticking bomb almost exploding. She
doesn’t look at the prey, she looks at her owner. The owner wants to go to the
bitch and the bitch slightly pulls the dead stripped hare towards herself.
‘This is my meal’ she seems to say ‘no
invitations’.
Betty doesn’t look at her owner anymore
and the owner decides to follow her goats and cows, they must have reached home
by now. As she turns back, she likes Betty’s zeal and the confidence that bitch
has mustered. She sees her bitch as the king of the jungle. Betty’s a dog that
knows what she wants. She sees.
