Joyce Ashuntantang
INT. TIKU’S COUSIN’S HOUSE – “DIE HOUSE” SCENE - NIGHT
PEOPLE are singing from printed song books, WOMEN/GIRLS come in with food and MEN/BOYS come in with drinks.
An elderly person, PA JOE, stands up to talk.
PA JOE
We all know why we are here. Once
again we have lost another brother
of ours. It is not up to four months
that we lost three others at the same time.
We have to play our parts till
our own turn comes. Tiku was supposed
to be leaving for Cameroon in two weeks
to go and make the traditional formalities
of marriage with his wife, but here we
are today to mourn him. As we all know
it is very costly to send a body back
home, but we have to respect our culture
and tradition to make sure we take his
body to his birthplace. It is our duty
to him. So I am appealing to all of you
to donate freely. We have opened an
account in Tiku’s name so you can write
a check directly to that account. Mr.
Atangcho will be receiving the checks.
He is the gentleman sitting at the
table over there.
(Points to gentleman sitting at
a table on his right) We promise that
there’ll be accountability and we’ll
provide a statement of every penny we
receive and every penny we spend.
Thank you.
NEBA
Pa Joe, I’ll like to speak. What I am
going to say may not please a lot of
people. I know some will say the timing
is not right but I think the timing is
now. How long will we continue to
contribute like this for every fallen
¬
brother? We have preached the issue of
life insurance, but it does not seem to be
going anywhere. How much does insurance
cost a month?
I think we should become responsible and
get insurance. We are in America to stay.
The sooner we accept this, the better.
We cannot keep operating as if we are
back home. As our population increases
so too will the number of deaths. It
puts an undue burden on the community.
Mr. ANYE
(Interjects)
I swear if I have to die and someone
has to talk over my corpse like this,
you guys should just bury me here.
PAUL
Sit down my friend. Bury you where?
You don’t know that it may cost us the
same amount of money to bury you here?
There are no council graves in America.
You must buy a burial plot.
PA JOE
Order! Our brother has raised an issue
that no matter how sour it is we have to
bear in mind. However we have time to talk
about that later, now it is time to give
whatever we have.
EYONG
I don’t know what MR. NEBA is talking
about. In our Manyu meeting we have
bought a group insurance policy, but
that does not stop us from doing our
part. I want to add that insurance or
no insurance, it is our culture and
tradition to chip in money and support
a family that has lost someone. It has
nothing to do with how wealthy the person
is or how poor he is. This is to show
that our dead brother lived amongst
people. Consider this an additional
insurance. If he had insurance, should
we use it all to send him home? There
are things that need to get done. We
need to pay for the funeral home, buy
the air tickets, organize the funeral
mass and wake etc. We are looking at
over $20.000.
MRS. FRU
Order!!! Some of you have time to
argue all day. Some of us have to
leave from here and go to work, so
we do not have time to be going over
these arguments. I am tired of this
talks that come up only when someone
is dead. Why can we as a community not
arrange a meeting at a convenient time
and discuss these issues. This particular
evening is a “die house” which in our
culture is a time to come and condole
with the bereaved family and give them
whatever support we have, both financial
and moral. This is not our culture to be
arguing over whether we should be
contributing or not. So let me launch
the contributions here this evening by contributing a $1000 to the general fund.
PAUL
Hey Hey woman power. Hey this men. You
cannot let a woman challenge you like this.
Make some man move we shame noh?
SAMA
Well since we have decided to get into
proper action, let me also chip in
my own bit. I’ll pay for the funeral
home costs. Do we know the amount
already? Let’s get going so that our
brother’s body can be transported home
within two weeks. At least his family
should see his body intact.
NEBA
If we are looking at taking the body
home in two weeks, then the funeral
home bill is about $7.500.
SAMA
¬
That’s on me.
A LOT OF CLAPPING.
PA JOE
We need more people like you in this
community. If Everyone could just give
this generously in our community our
problems would be minimized.
NEBA
It depends on how one gets the money too.
SAMA
What do you mean? How do I get my money?
NEBA
I did not mean you in particular. I am
talking in general. Everyone gives
according to their pockets, and some
people give their widow’s mite, so we
need to be aware of that.
Mr. ANYE
Massa di one na jealousy. If you don’t
have money to give, sit down.
NEBA
Jealous of what? I am an honest worker
in America. I am a pharmacist and you
all know where I work.
EYONG
Who is not an honest worker? Sama is
a DBA.
PA JOE
Order!!
roll out some more please, where can i read the rest? www.CamerooniansAbroad.Com
Posted by: The Blaze | October 21, 2009 at 12:24 PM