THE TRAVELLERS Paul G. Aclinou

Jo the mechanic was happy this morning . It resumed the sea on board of " le revenant " . An old freighter on which it works ; it is the mechanic. It Maintains the machines and it is responsible for its smooth running. It participle equally, as the other sailors, to various works that allow to lead a normal life on the boat board. The mechanic took thus its activity share in loading and unloading operations of the freighter. The preceding night had been nice ; Jo had past it on town, at Cotonou, after having accomplished its duty; the freighter was ready for fit the following day to the dawn.

To drink, to eat and to amuse ; great program that had its conviviality‚ to the generosity of the girls; Jo also was generous with them and with the brave fellows that are inevitable in all ports of the world. After Benin, Jo waits for the next stop point , Abidjan ; an other port, and a city that it knows well. There, it is going to find old friends, cafe owners or various trade manager with which it is sure to pass of hours of feasts and fun. Some hours that will amuse it change it from the monotony of the life on boat board. With one hand, the mechanic pulls the door of the machines room to close it while with the other it is rid instinctively a rest of grease on the pants to the level of buttocks. By raising the head, Jo was found face - to - face with two fellows, rather thin, that it saw for the first time on the boat; one of them was bearded. The two men seem will penetrate in the room that it deserts. Jo was surprised ; it apostrophised them before they have the time to open the mouth.

" Who are you ? " Tells - it ; the question was posed mechanically ; one would have told that it sought to be spend a rest of time whose it don't knew what to make ; it is going to continue the cross-examination of the two strangers when the reply coming from one of them cut it the breath; the bearded tells it, indeed:
" The travellers. "

Two words only were told; but, they would suffice to sharpen the curiosity of Jo. The look focused on one then on the other ; it hesitates. It does not feel in measure to give them an age. One of the visitors, the bearded, had crackling malice eyes ; while for the other, nothing came to the mind of the mechanic - animals attitude or figures of beasts - that would allow it to situate it as compared to it self or to some element of its imaginary. Jo had an instant of hesitation ; but, this was rapidly forgotten. It preferred to begin with the beginning; it tells them:

" Travellers? "

The incredulity was manifest in the tone that it employed. It prepared to pose others questions, in the meantime an explanation that it does not hope truly to receive from the two men that been found in its presence; it feels it thus; without being able to explain this impression. It repeated and completes its thought to the intention of visitors ; it tells:

" Traveller ? Hein ! We are on a freighter; why one has accepted you on board? The commander is your knowledge may be? "

Jo poses the question to the two men ; but, it did not see how its boss (after God) could have be the friend of two Negroes. Always, It had seen him distant and grumpy. The commander appear to wonder constantly why others men exist. Jo was reassured by the reply that came it from the same person that had presented it two words previously.

" Non. " Tells the visitor.

This time, Jo had receive only an alone word for all reply ; a " no " Hard, definitive, and a vocabulary parsimony of the two men that annoyed the mechanic ; it reacts brutally to the discretion of the two intruder ; it tells them:

"One would tell that you are avaricious of words. And your friend, it does not speak? "

"Who told you that it is my friend? "

"Oh! Don't irritate you ; I don't always know who you are, neither why are you on this freighter. "

"Its name is Ifa or Fa. Me, one calls me Lêgba or Eshu. "

The explanation comes once again from the bearded ; it had interrupted the mechanic to furnish it these some indications ; but ,this was insufficient. Jo do it to know to its visitor at its manner, haughty. It tells, interrupting the visitor to its tour:

"I don't know. "

"I know. " reply the visitor.

"Your friend has a name then? "

Jo make the remark while it insuring that the door of the machines room is well closed. It lends attention in the same time to purposes of the bearded. That - here told it :

"Sure, it has a name. it is silent ; but, it is identified. We are going to Europe ; in France precisely. It is there that you go, is isn't it ? "

" Oh yes! I understand ; you are stowaways on this boat ! ..."

" Keep cool, please. We are, and we are not. "

"What ? "

" I say that it is simpler than what you imagine. "

" It is to - do? I don't understand you. You are on a freighter that, in principle, does not carrier travellers. You tell that you are not the stowaways on this fleeting ; you are non more guests of the commander that I knows? "

"Here is ! We are the guests of the men. "

The bearded rejoiced by giving this reply; it stares eyes ; its pleasure was Evident ; it had to anticipate the reaction of its speaker that reacts immediately ; the mechanic howled :

" What ? Happily that your friend is silent ; otherwise, at you two, I don't know what nonsense would you have debited me. Good, that suffices ; I am going to see the commander with you. "

Jo was grumpy; it is ready to take ahead when it was nailed on the stop by what it hearing then.

" If you want. "

It was Ifa, that comes to express for the first time since that Jo was confronted with the two visitors ahead the door. It did not in believe its ears. It noted with surprise that the three words that Fa comes to pronounce had calmed it ; it feels quiet. It feels a sudden interior joy, and it does not explain why this sentiment took birth in it; it become conciliating with the two strangers. It is with a calm that contrasted with its preceding state that it tells them:

"Well ; if you explain to me a little on your situation ; what ever be the case, you have to be going to see the commander ; if, as you tell, you are not clandestine travellers. "

One would have told that it supplicates these involuntary hosts to help it to help them ; the problem is that these - here does not feel in peril ; they do not give this impression ; on the contrary, the two men made proof a disarming insurance. Jo some had confirmation immediately by the reply that it receive to its request:

"It Is made, since always. " Tells it Ifa with serenity. The mechanic tries desperately to orient the purposes in what it considers as the norm ; it tells again:

"You met it already then? Why you does not tell it to me? "

The reply was as incomprehensible as previously; it heard to reply some thing that it could not understand ; Ifa tells it indeed :

"Non; we have not seen it ; but, it knows us since always ; and we also, we know it. "

Eshu was silent since that Ifa had taken the word. The god of the head observes the two speakers ; but, at this point of the exchange, it judged preferable to intervene before the mechanic, perplexed by purposes of Ifa, does not sink in the insanity. It carried voluntary and tells :

"I am going to explain to you, Jo ... "

"You know my name? "

The intervention of Eshu does not arrange truly the situation of the mechanic. It is surprised that its name was known by the two visitors. Eshu confirmed it the fact by presenting it a " yes "of the head ; In the same time Ifa specified : "since always" . Eshu start the explanation that it was ready to give; it tells :

" Ifa or Fa and Eshu, elsewhere, one tells also Lêgba, are two divinities that initially been venerated in the golf of Benin ..."

Jo thinks to find an exit door in this explanation ; it pulled immediately the conclusion that seems it to be required without waiting the end of the explanation; it told to the god:

" And you have taken their identities ; it is that ? "

"No; It is we. But, leave that side for the moment. What Ifa is liveliness to tell you is not other thing that what Spirits teach to the men since the night of times ; and what they teach is that gods are in the man . They are in you, but, it is necessary to hear it. You understand ? "

The mechanic preferred to abandon ; because, it seems it impossible to find a point of convergence with the visitors. It abandon.

"Non ; and I do not risk to understand. "

"I in am not sure ; " tells Eshu.

"Finally, me, Jo, the mechanic, I understand especially that it does not seem you necessary to present you to the commander. It is although? But then, what do you do here? What do you do on my territory ? "

Eshu would listen it with cheerful, while Ifa would wear an immobile look on the man ; the god does not seem decided to exit from its silence ; the muteness goes it well. Ifa contemplates, seems - it, the hindrance, and soon, the disarray that seize the mechanic. An indefinable sentiment earns Jo indeed. It was habituated to confront clear situations ; situations well definite at the time and in the space ; and that it knew to process with the atavism of his. Here is that two intruder exit from null not to knows come tell it a history without tail neither head. It had the conscience that it remain it to formulate what think the two individuals. It was necessary to tell a history that it does not know; but whose - one tells it that it is his history. Jo declined the head ; it tells mechanically in an effort of concentration: " I have seen two men. Non ; ... "

It be silent after this uncertain debut; it lifted eyes on the two strings ; Eshu smiled. Ifa would remain impassive. Jo looked them a moment ; then, it come back to its reflection, as an attempt to make the point for it self ; it tells again in a murmur that was an internal reflection : "I have seen... Yes, it is that ; I have seen..." Eshu burst laughter to this moment - there ; the god followed the desperate effort that made the mechanic to situate, first as compared to what was its existence ; then, may - be, as compared to what it lived. The hilarity of the god put it to change notice; it renounced to understand and sends the two visitors to stroll ; it tells them :

"Good ; unravel - you. Make as you like. Me, Jo the mechanic, I am going to inform the commander that two intruder are on boat. "

After these words, it go away, and abandoned Ifa and Eshu in the narrow corridor. Upstart to the end of the passage it hears again the laughter of Eshu ; it raised shoulders and continued its road while pushing a grumble.

Gods held on the bridge of the freighter; behind them, the stack of containers form as a modern city; a city to tours square. It was as if the man wanted to take the sky of assault. It had to be ten - hours the morning; can - be eleven. The sun had conquered the firmament for a long time and it darts all its fires. The sun would not leave to humans that the choice between the heat and. the heat. The two visitors do not seem to suffer some. They observed what one could again see the city of Cotonou that deletes slowly ; now, the place signals as a halo only. Eshu turned the head to its companion and tells it:

" They have not observed the spectacle of the country that escaped. "

" No ; at their place, even if you had the leisure, you believe that you would have the yard to the meditation ?"

Before Eshu would reply, a voice increase behind them that covers the ambient noise ;

" Ah ! " Cried - the voice. It was Jo the mechanic that directed in their direction after, seeming - it, to have sought them everywhere on the freighter. As it was more near, it launched them a tone angered:

" You are here finally; I sought you everywhere. The commander is furious ; it wants to see you immediately. "

" that can wait. " Reply Ifa. It was as imperturbable as the morning ahead the machines room.

"Ah ! Good ? " Say Jo; it would ask to this moment - there if the two men do not seek problems deliberately. It considered them an instant ; then, it chooses to know them better. It asked them with a voice in which one no longer perceived the lesser irritation signs

" What do you speak before my arrival? You had the preoccupied look. "

"You know the history of the city? The history of Cotonou? "Asked it Eshu its tour.

"Non ; not at all. It is a colonial city as an other; it is all. I don't remember even to have heard to speak Cotonou when I was to school. One spoken us the Dahomey, as one of our colonies; But Cotonou? Non, I don't remember. Good blood ! That is - what I tell me; the colonisation, is finished now! "

"You believe? "

It was Ifa that poses it the question ; But, Eshu did not want that the conversation was committed on this point. It told to its two neighbours:

"Leave that ; return to Cotonou. The city was only a village of fishermen; the hamlet was situated more to the interior of the land ; oh! not very far. The actual site was, with Ouidah, a center of embarkation - if one can tell - of the slaves that the trade delivered in Americas. Ouidah was a more important trade center at this time - there ; Portuguese had been established there since many years before French colonists arrived. This locality had to lose little by little its importance to the profit of Cotonou that was to hands of French; Eh yes! The international competition ! The city of Cotonou has its current name to this sinister remember. One told then " Kou - To - Nou " ; it is - to - tell, the river mouthpiece of the death. Indeed, these that one embarks do not leave in holiday "

"Oh! Yes, the slavery! You have not shame ; To sell your brothers, and may - be even your son. "

"Gently, sir" ; tells Eshu to the mechanic that comes to interrupt it; " to the box of defendants, we will be two accuses: you, as buyers and we, as salesmen. Believe - me, in a role as in the other... "

Ifa that had remained silent until then inserted in the discussion; it interrupt Eshu and it tells:

" To the box of defendants? "

Hardly had - it begun to speak that the god of the head revolts ; it tells: No, it howled :

" What ? You do not think nevertheless that this history is going to remain eternally under silence? Me, Eshu, I will do all in order that it is not thus ; it will be necessary that all there pass in discussion ; Valladolid as the Black Code, as the rest... "

" Oh! I know ; I can count on you in order that it is thus "retorted Ifa with irony to the god in anger. It tells it again:

"You think without doubt, that it is finished ? Do you believe that the slavery stop to a sale and purchase history ? If you hold there truly, it will be necessary then to go more far, far more far... "

"Oh ! you two ; " intervened Jo the mechanic that begun to wonder what it do in company of these two divinities. " If I am too, suitable - to know it me. "

While it speaks, it feels a movement of persons behind it; it returned briskly and it see three of its sailor comrades that observe it with an hampered air. One of them asked it on a calm tonality that however, does not suffice to conceal the fears of the sailor:

"Feel you well, Jo? "

"Forgiveness? " Tells Jo that did not understand why its comrade poses it the question neither the object of anxieties of its friends that it feels well.

"Yes, one wanted to know if you feel well; you speak alone then... "

The mechanic returned with vivacity once again to look visitors; Eshu comes to burst laughter indeed ; a resonant laughter that annoyed it. Jo addressed to sailors ; who have always the mask of the anxiety on their faces; Jo tells them:

"How all alone? What suitable - you of the two stowaways whose I spoke this morning ? "

"Jo ? "

It was Ifa, that heckles it.

" They do not see us. " Tells it. Eshu no longer could laughter meanwhile ; especially when the mechanic stunned asked them:

" You mean that I am alone to see you? "

Eshu do sign of the head that " yes " .

" Good blood ! " Exclaimed Jo, while distancing on the point of feet ;The looks of sailors accompanied it ; one of them declared to its companions:

"Provided that it knows again to maintain machines. "

"One had inform the commander, may be. " Adds an other. The three men disappeared in the gangway a later instant.

The freighter continued its road on a sparkling sea.

Jo the mechanic had a lot of difficulty to lull the next night. It does not cease to shake on its bed. Jolts that shake it annoy its barrack-room companions, but, no sailor dares to pity. Little by little, all lulled some after others ; alone Jo watches. It had never arrived it to have so pain to find the sleep after a day of labour. The rolling and the pitching of the ship, by rocking it, facilitating regular the arrival of the sleep. It likes its movements the boat ; it told : " it is for that, that I am never constipated when I am in sea. " This evening, the two visitors haunt it ; Jo worries to be the alone to see them on the ship. It feels ridiculous beside its comrades. It knew the distrustful commander and demanding as for the conduct of sailors on the freighter; may - be, risked - it to lose its job place. " It is simple, tells - it to high voice; I become crazy ; it is all ".

Until this day, Jo, the mechanic was persuaded that one would ask it to only live ; it thinks to have exited so although badly until then. One had traced it a road, that the society, that his. It is a life of anonymity in which one does not demand it that it understands absolutely the senses of each that it do ; one had never taught it to make the tour of it - self ; one had never asked it no more. It had not knew until were goes the conscience that it possesses at its person as element of a totality having its imperatives and that had objectives to reach. A totality that had a reason to be. Jo feels first an individual, and it is contents some. Its happiness, if so is - it, that it could define this concept with sufficiently precision, was made a girl by - here and a girl by - there. Its happiness was made also goods meal in company of peoples as dull as it, and that compensate their non - existence by noisy laughter; but, a laughter that could not have depth; this was not necessary; because, to drink, to eat and to amuse would ask no voucher; it is thus; to exist.

In one night, Jo the mechanic had to review the trip of its life ; some decade statement that seem it suddenly disappointing. It realised that it had not even again born to the life; and that, because in the morning, it has had the misfortune to cross the road of two someone exit from null does not know where. Two someone that claim to hold the senses and the non - senses of all things. Jo feels confusingly that it is not going to continue without damages, the trip in company of the two new - come. Paradoxically, that does not worry it; is - this because visitors had told it that the man has never renounced and never will renounce to make one step again when it has persuaded that it is to the forward it made it ; and it doesn't matter what would reveal this future.

" You see, " had told it Eshu, the god of the head ; " With what the man knows, it can construct the future ; but, with what it believes, it can father the Eternity. " " It is a motto of Ifa. " Adds the divinity ‚ to reference its adage. " Yes, may - be; " had retorted Jo ; " my problem, this is not the eternity; it is today; it is now; it is immediately . You seize ?. " By verifying the good functioning of machines in the first hours of the morning, as its work demands it, Jo repeated to regular intervals: " To father; to father; to father "; then it finishes by wondering: " it is what that again ! " The din of machines seems to bring a reply ; but, the man could not understand it. Later, when it arrived on the boat bridge after its breakfast, Jo observes that the horizon has hallooed again with a light haze ; although the sun already valiant, it had not again succeeded to start some the relative opacity. The freighter advanced in a regular engine purr ; listened this resonance is always a pleasure for Jo, the mechanic. It told at low voice, for it -self: " I am there for some thing" ; it expresses - there, the pride of all man that contemplates a well executed work. It saw to the same moment by the lateral vision the visitor Eshu ; the god was leaned to the bulwark; Jo had not noticed its presence until this moment - there; the god observes it ; Jo don't know to tell since how much time, neither if he had already, this morning, the snide smile that it raises constantly the last day. Eshu was alone. The mechanic hesitates. It decided to approach him; it be facing to the visitor ; then it directed in its direction. When it was beside

Eshu, Jo asked it:

" It is you already. "

The "already" was barely audible ; Jo had recaptured indeed. It glance around it; it launched then an anxious look to the god. The Spirit of crossroads reassured him; it tells it :

" No; there is not anybody other that you on the bridge at this time. "

"And you also, no? "

"Yes, if you want. "

"Why are you alone? Your friend is sick ? "

" You can not speak friendship; I have told it you yesterday. As for your question, I reply to you that I am not alone; Ifa is present equally. "

" Go ! You are not going to resume as yesterday ; OK ? If it is present, Ifa, how is does it made that I see only you? You can explain me that ? "

After a short silence, and as Eshu does not reply; it added:

"That is better finally ; may - be that from some days, I no longer see you also."

The mechanic had in mind the look of its companions when it penetrated in

the mess for the breakfast ; evidently, each would ask if Jo had found its balance. For all companions indeed, the mechanic had hallucinations ; " the sun of Africa ! " left to escape someone in the diner - room when it penetrated there; Jo seemed to have not heard it. The man was on its wards ; but it desire to learn some more on these unusual visitors was too strong in order that it take seriously consideration the sentiments of its friends. It was disappointed this morning to see only Eshu on the bridge ; but it does not dare to express its disappointment.

" Disappointed, hein ? " Launched it the god, as if it read in its mind. Jo would remain silent; it was not surprised by the question ; it hatcies a sentiment of resignation in him ; a sentiment that transforms slowly into an acceptance wanted. It approached more Eshu and it take place to the bulwark beside the visitor. The two men turn the back; Jo faced the ocean; it thinks that thus, none of its companions would suspect that it was in conversation with imaginary visitors, for them.

"You admire the sea? "Asked it then Eshu, without returning, and after that the mechanic has well installed on its observatory. Once again, the mechanic did not reply to the purpose ; it wanted to leave a silence to weigh between them, in order that by resuming the word then, it gave the impression to drive the discussion. It reflected to what it is going be able to tell, when it heard the voice of Ifa ; the god told:

" They Could contemplate the sea only some instant each day. The rest of the time, men, women and children would remain chained in holds. It was a kingdom of odours, fears and intersected groan wailing ; Oh yes ! The misery as the suffering never are totally silent. "

From the beginning of the god telling, Jo returned briskly ; but it does not see anybody other beside him that Eshu ; it was decomposed. During an instant, the man would ask if some sailors arrived since on the bridge had not heard them also, the voice of Ifa. Then, more seriously, it posed the question to it self to know if its comrades had not reason ; it wondered with anguish if they were not in the true, when they would leave to hear that it Jo, had become mad. It had the temptation to abandon the bridge and Eshu to regain the machines room. Jo decided to stay , it turned to the alone Spirit that it saw and asked him :

"- Why did you tell yesterday that a trial would have to take place ? The slavery no longer has course ? The entire earth invite that this are the bad ways of the past of men ; we have taken some conscience at the same time that the value of the human has been required on us, no ? "

" - You know, " tells him Eshu ; "value" is the word ; the men have some always attached one to the man. What has changed, it is the measure that you suitable it today. I mean that the notion of "value" , applied to the man is again a relational concept ; or if you want, a concept of exchange ; and as such, its meaning has not varied fundamentally. The notion of value applied on the

human has not again become, for a lot too men again, a concept of membership. What has evolved, it is the manner whose this "value" is exploited today; I believe that it is on this evolution that you base your conclusion. Can we think for as much that nothing, absolutely nothing, has changed ? Not at all, because, increasingly voice lift to combat the old idea ; there is therefore the hope. I want tell that the refusal that one observes, and that generalises in all layers of all men societies means that there is more harmony in each man and between individuals. But, if the aware man would close eyes on the past, its spirit is not less impregnated it ; and when arrive days of storm, its action is due as much, otherwise more, what is buried in the depths of its soul, that it is dictation by the fear and the hatred of the other. This are there, bad refuges of the personality; perilous refuges for the individual and for the group ; refuges that can be only a spiritual misery. You know, Jo ; it is necessary that the man is, all the man ; and gods serve only to that. To finish, here is a motto : To rise up against the wrong is not to rise up for the right ; it is necessary to do the two, distinctly and consciously. "

" If I understand well, tells Jo after a moment of silence, you are liveliness to tell me that the slavery is more actual than ever. "

" Slavery of the man by the man, yes. " Tells, to conclude, the god Ifa that had rejoined them, Jo can not to tell how.

With a same movement, as if the three men had given the word, they carried the look to the open sea. The boat advanced at full speed ; that translated into various noises. It was in reality a din that includes the purring of engines and rattling of metallic pieces of the boat ; these - here had work free with the age. One distinguishes equally vibrations of the containers. Whole that been added to slamming of the water whose mass opposes desperately to

the moving of the ship. The universe of Jo bathed under a sun who is so surly that one could wonder if it arrives a moment where one would see it to disappear out of the horizon. It was not the hour.

"This evening, we will arrive to Abidjan ; " tells Jo without leaving the look from the line of horizon. Its spirit was more far again. The mechanic would leave its imagination to wander on a market of the Ivorian's capital ; or then, its thought been lingered over the frail and shining body of a woman that was wallowed on a bed whose sheets are undetermined colours. At a moment, Eshu turned the head to it direction ; the god scrutinises the profile of the man, in silence ; Jo feels the look that weighed on it ; it returned and look the god ; Eshu tells it, without leaving it eyes :

"- You are going to stroll in the town I think ? "

"- I am going to the city indeed ; I go there in company of the nurse that is our doctor on the boat... "

"- It is serious ? "

"- No ; but, I have a badly placed abscess that prevents me to sit. "

Ifa entered into the dialogue at this moment - there and it tells:

"- Bring - me some fresh leaf of tomatoes. "

" - It is the sacrifice? " Questioned Eshu. The mechanic was surprised. It seem him to divulge the irony in purposes of the god of crossroads for its peer. It does not very well seize the senses of the exchange ; but, the leaves of tomatoes, it knows what it is ; it turned to Ifa to protest and to ask him precisions by the same opportunity; it told to the god:

" - Where do you want that I am going to take fresh tomato leaves? And then, that do you want to do some? "

The god would remain silent. The mechanic was despaired. It understood less

in less its speakers ; but, despite that, it does not arrive to take the distance with them. It is sure to be the alone, among the three, to have a physical reality. " I have to be mad " tells - it to low voice at the same time that it abandons gods to regain the machines room and to do there what was its reason to be on the freighter.

The freighter entered into the port of Abidjan at the same moment where the city illuminates. Some hours of work would remain again to do for the crew before each sealer go to its favourite occupations. It was necessary to prepare the even evening, the loading and unloading operations for the following day: Jo do its share without states of soul. It felt in communion with the other members of the crew during these hours of collective works ; In this time, it forget the strange adventure that it lived since the departure from Cotonou.

 

Jo was laid down on the stomach ; it was widened on the unique bed of the infirmary of the boat and would listen the nurse discourse on its abscess.

It posed him calmly the question, while with the pinches who holds a piece of cotton, it cleans delicately the sore ; one feels that its thinks shared between this activity and the wait of what it is going, may - be learnt. It tells:

"- How do you have suitable, Jo ? "

"- Oh ! Me, nothing. "

The mechanic is going to give explanations on the utilisation of tomato leaves that Eshu had obtained, it does not know how, from their arrival to the port of Abidjan. It reminded that its comrades consider him as a madman since their departure of Cotonou. The nurse feel that the man does not wish to give explanations. It thinks, as the other sailors, that the mechanic had certainly mental failures ; it was contented to tell :

" To the big abscess, it remains only a small sore to nurse ; this will be do rapidly. "

It threw again a look to its patient; it hopes that the mechanic is going to tell him finally how was resorbed the abscess ; but Jo does not tell word.

 

Jo do its share of tasks to unload the freighter and to embark what had it to be to the port of Abidjan. By moments, its comrades surprised him liveliness to speak alone at low voice. To others instants, they find him an interrogatory look without being able to tell to that goes the interrogation neither to know the purpose that had aroused it. All were convinced of its madness and think that he is greatly to be pitied.

Jo passes nonchalantly from a displays to the other on the great market of Abidjan; it strolls there. He was to its joy in the coloured and dense crowd of peoples that animates the market. He was slacked; he was happy in this atmosphere where the life would ask only to continue without being preoccupied to know what was the slope of the path. Moments while null does not put existential problems ; Jo comes to remark it, he recognised by there - even that henceforth, it is not going be able to be contented to be an element without great importance on a freighter. He would remain again a piece without importance indeed, but one proposes him to enter the swing of the human. He was serene ; this was normal, after the visit that he rendered to its friends. Jo had found them with pleasure. He is always thus to each of its passages in this port. Sometimes, he discovered there new heads ; he meets a new to smile, a new softness. Ifa and Eshu were also on the market. The two divinities go from a merchant to the other. Gods look, feel then abandon goods without exchanging a word with merchants. These - here observe them, the air surprised ; one was surprised indeed, that the two individuals do not reply to even solicitations to discard them; they would not participate in bargaining that each proposes them to hope to see them to retort with a purchase in the arm ; nothing, it was unusual ; Ifa and Eshu offered only the silence and the serenity.

" You are well to the joy in this crowd for persons that are not from here. "

Tells their Jo after a moment.

" We are from everywhere and at all time. " Replied Eshu, while Ifa keeps the silence.

" You know therefore... "

The mechanic changes it's mind. He remembers that its speakers claim to exist in all man ; but he had envy to speak ; he had an irrepressible desire to exit from it self ; he changed then subject and tells them, now that all three have become deaf to mercantile calls :

" The Ivory Coast Republic has a lot changed since the period of the independence. We consider, we French, that this country is a succeeded example of the co-operation with us... "

Hardly had - it begun to speak that Eshu burst laughter ; the god did not leave to the mechanic the time to develop its reflection. The mechanic was surprised by the hilarity of the god of crossroads ; it looked around it ; it insures as well as it was not the object of the curiosity of the vicinity as this was the case on the freighter. It was first reassured by observing that nobody seems to take it for a madman who soliloquised. Then, abruptly, it had fear ; each of persons that surround it would have rendered account that it speaks all alone and aloud. This absence of curiosity seized it anguish ; taken panic, it sought the contact with the real, it seizes by the arm the first person that been found in its reach. It was a merchant of vegetables, a womanly fort and well fattened.

" Good blood ! " Cried that - here ; what do you have to clutch me as that ? Buy tomatoes if you want ; but do not jostle me. "

After these words, and after having adjusted its appearance, the woman try to tidy its slack some bit shaken by the abruptness of the gesture of Jo. The mechanic was confused ; the real also escapes it. It feels lost. It no longer saw neither Ifa nor Eshu in the crowd ; it look around to the research of known heads ; nothing ; the divinities had disappeared, abandoning it in full disarray. It apologised clumsily while distancing to retreat the stall of its victim ; it finishes by smelting in the crowd. Meanwhile, the woman had resumed its spirits. It grumbled by following by the look its assailant that distances. She tells, with a strong voice : " They are mad this French men. "Jo the mechanic heard it; its panic earned in proportion, and it played elbows in the human mass to distance as quickly as possible the matron ; but, this was not easy, the crowd was so dense.

Meanwhile, the merchant finishes to arrange its merchandise ; she grumbles again when she heard someone to ask it by behind:

"Who you told that it is French ? "

The merchant returned briskly. She had to lift the head to stare a bearded, too great for its anger, and that comes to pose it the question. She replied with vivacity by an other question ; the woman demonstrates thus its bad mood. She tells:

"Why ? You are French you ? "

"No, replied Eshu ; but, that has not importance. "

" Important or not, it had not to fall me over as... " She begun to disclaim its protest when she see the finger of the bearded that points some thing on its stall. The woman carried the look in the direction of the finger and lives that the appendix of the visitor indicates a potato on the trestle. The woman burst laughter with generosity ; Eshu also made similarly. The god tells it:

" French or not, it is especially a human ; a man that lives a moment of disarray ; but, it does not know it again. "

"And you, you know it ? Who are you therefore ? "

" Eshu. "

" A human also ? And who is not in the disarray, without doubt ? "

The bargains and the god laughed again when a client appeared ahead the

display.

 

A pale gleam watches wearily on Abidjan and its port ; it was to the beginning of the day. Jo followed, since the bridge of the freighter, the movements of

the boat to leave the roasted and to earn the high sea. The day is not going to delay to drown the world under a wave of hardly bearable lights. For the moment, a diffuse fog, probably, the early beginning of rains to come, give to the atmosphere the impression to wait. Jo the mechanic followed the wake that the boat would leave its passage ; in reality, the thoughts of the mechanic wandered in an other world ; a world in which he would have liked to find from points of anchorage as luminous as these myriad of water spheres that, by hanging the light signal the passage of the freighter. " Fog outside ; fog inside. " finishes - it by telling to high voice. Later, when the day lifted entirely, he found with pleasure, and surprised its happiness, the two visitors that it had not revised since the incident of the market.

 

" Next stop : Dakar ! " Launched - he with a jovial air to gods to commit the

conversation. He does not worry more than its companions take it for a mental invalid. Eshu asked it, as a reply deviated :

" You well slept, Jo? "

It lies:

" Very well, as always " ; replied - he with the convincing air. Ifa exclaimed :

"Dakar ! ";

It was a meditation. The Spirit of the prediction had the back turned to Eshu and to the mechanic. The god observes the journey of the freighter. Eshu rubs the beard ; and, without ceasing to tease its hair, it tells:

"Dakar ! but before, there will be the Sierra Leone, the Liberia... "

" Yes " tells the mechanic ; the god be quiet to leave it to speak.

" One will not stop there ; " continued Jo :

" Our freighter has never accosted in ports of these countries. We have stopped some times at Conakry, in French Guinea ; but at the Liberia and in Sierra Leone, non, ever. On the other hand, we make stop at Dakar at each of our passages. "

After a silence, it continued :

"And then, you know, with what unfolds at this time in these countries, it is

better to not render there. "

"You abandon men ? "asked it Eshu, when he had finished to expose its viewpoint. The reply had come from Ifa ; up to there, the god had held at a distance to the conversation ; it came there, after having turned to Jo and

Eshu, it tells :

" It is necessary, justly. "

The silent god did not go more far in its intervention. These three words would suffice, it knew it, to make react and Eshu and Jo. It was this last that expressed the first. Surprised, Jo asked precision ; he tells indeed :

" How that ? What do you want to tell ? "

The retort had come from Eshu this time. The mechanic begun to seize the thought process of the visitors ; it had already rendered account that a question posed to one of gods could entail a reply from the other, without that he being able to anticipate that from the two divinities that is going to intervene. The mechanic thinks that a co-operation had been established between Ifa and Eshu ; but it was incapable to measure until what point that gone. Eshu gave an explanation, knowing that that - here would not come from Ifa ; it tells :

"Bravo ! Jo ; you have returned among men. My companion dreams to other thing that to abandon these that suffer the war ; patience and serenity, you will understand. "

" No ; and I doubt that I could get understand you two. "

The mechanic appeared sincere by expressing ; it was distressed equally. Eshu come back to the first subject that made the object of the conversation ; it tells:

" To return to our trip, why your boat does not stop at Conakry ? It is calm by - there, no ? "

" Yes well sure, " replied Jo. " We have rarely charges to deliver or to take there - low; I do not know why ; it is thus. And then, you have to know that relationships between France and Guinea have been tended during long... "

" You know some the reason ! Now, things happen best manners... "

"Yes, yes; but this is not my problem. It is necessary to ascend to the period of the independence ; and especially, it is necessary to ask chiefs. Me, I have not anything to see in all that... "

" You have wrong without doubt ; but, leave that... "

" Not at all ; I have not wrong. Look Senegal for example or better, the Ivory Coast that we come to leave, that was past very well. Even economically, one can tell..."

" Ah non ! You are committed in a direction that is not that is situates my purpose. "

The silence is established in the group after this exit of the god ; one would tell that protagonists give until later the debate on this point

Three pairs of eyes scrutinised a moment the horizon. Jo the mechanic regained then the machines' room ; there where waits it its work. The coast of Africa paraded imperturbably a long moment. Two later days, the peninsula of Dakar appeared to visitors.