The Man Who Did the Right Thing: A RomanceJohnston, Harry
General
The Man Who Did the Right Thing: A Romance
Johnston, Harry
British -- Africa, East -- Fiction; Missions -- Tanzania -- Fiction
_Roger_: "Well: there you are. _That_ is a justification for your being
here, as in other parts of Africa.... If you and we can only give the
Negro _something else to think of_. He is like our labouring class at
home. It is the only pleasure he knows of. Give him education,
ambition, sports, remunerative work, an interest, even, in better food,
in better houses, pictures, music, theatres..." (Mrs. Stott shudders.)
"Well: there you are, making a face at the theatre. You won’t distract
the Negro—or the European—from indulging sexual desires by prayers and
hymns and the reading of ancient scriptures: _that’s_ certain. I know
we differ there, and you must be already worn out with this lengthy
conversation. As you’ve stayed so long, stay a little longer and have
lunch with us? Lucy was only saying this morning she never sees you
nowadays. You can go and have a talk to her, while I glance through
these reports. See, by the bye, they give your donkey a feed, and put
it safely in the stable. The other day one of ours disappeared. Of
course, they said it was a leopard——"
At luncheon. The dining-room at Magara House is a fair-sized apartment,
with walls of well-smoothed cement surface of pinkish tone, due to red
ochre being mixed with the cement. On the walls are hung a few clever
pastel studies done by a talented German horticulturist who has an eye
for colour and design; there are trophies of shields and spears; there
is a dado of native matting; and a smooth floor surface of red _chunam_
plaster, made by Indian masons from the coast. In a pleasant bay which
looks on to the front verandah a magnificent lion’s skin lies between
the window-seats....
A Swahili butler and footman clothed in long white _kansus_, with white
"open-work" skull-caps, and black, gold-embroidered _visibao_,[#] are
serving the luncheon, cooked admirably by the still surviving husband of
Halima, the Goanese Andrade. The meal consists of chicken broth,
flavoured with grated coco-nut and red chillies; curried prawns (out of
tins); kid cutlets and chip potatoes; Mango "fool"; and a _macédoine de
fruits_—fresh pineapple, bananas, sliced papaw, and oranges. [A little
Rhine wine flavoured the fruit-salad and was served at table with
Seltzer water.] Then, in the alcove with the lion skin [the door-window
opens on to the verandah with the petunia beds below in carmine and
purple blaze] the servants place Turkish coffee and cigarettes. Mrs.
Stott only drinks Seltzer water and declines a cigarette; but thoroughly
enjoys her lunch and congratulates Lucy on the flower-decorations of the
table....
[#] Sleeveless waistcoats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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