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Real freedom found a new home. She lives in my mind with a housemate called peace.
Officer Tyler sees Julikana out, escorting her to the door as she goes free. Before she leaves, he asks her:
“Miss Tano, why did you choose Four o’clock in the afternoon for this special work of yours? They said you were punctual and precise like Greenwich Meridian Time. These students have an extensive schedule and meet at different moments during the day, didn’t you know?”
“I was waiting for that question Officer Tyler; I thought you would never ask. At first, it was unplanned. I had left work early one day and was drawn to the vibrant social energy of the university campus. It was only when I saw the beautiful gardens there that I decided to sit and observe different groups of students, searching for the kind of relationship my brother and I had. That’s how I found them.
A couple of days later, while sitting near them and traveling through my imagination, picturing people at peace with lives full of prosperity, another vision came to my mind. I saw a land of snows. I could hear mesmerizing chanting voices and sounds over mountains covered with unending white layers. Then I saw faces of men sitting in deep meditation. I did not know who they were. Until the fourth day, a strange revelation came to me”, answers Julikana.
“A strange revelation came to you? Don’t you think Miss Tano everything has been strange at this point? I wonder what could have possibly been slightly stranger than the rest your story so far”, remarks Officer Tyler, with a light teasing tone.
Julikana smiles, and imperturbably replies:
“It is Four o’clock in the morning in Lhasa, Tibet. Around 4:30 am, many of the monasteries start their morning prayers in the great Himalayan Mountains. Their sounds resonate with the source. They sit in the land of snows.”
Placing gently his hands on Julikana’s shoulders, Officer Tyler returns the smile and says:
“Oh Miss Tano, go home and rest. You are a wonderful brilliant young lady. Don’t you want to have a different life? Find a great husband; have a family just like most women your age? You can’t carry on those tiny shoulders of yours the weights of our generation, the responsibility of years of violence and indifference toward your country. You deserve better than that.”
Facing Officer Tyler’s incredulity, sadness and grief well up in Julikana’s heart when she answers:
“Do you think the woman who is mutilated and raped every minute you and I are standing here would want me to stop? She begs me and cries for help. I can’t turn my back on her. And there is so many of them. I can’t turn my back on my people, on those abandoned and abused children.
I may not have all the answers, Officer Tyler. I may not have any money to buy back all those weapons from every armed group infesting the Congo today. I don’t even have significant political influence to talk some sense into leaders of this world. But when I was born, I came to this planet with my share of creative thinking power. So the change will start where it all starts. With me.
Goodbye Officer Tyler.”
“Good bye Miss Tano”.
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“A Kiswahili proverb says “Akili ni mali”: Intelligence is an asset. In other words, knowledge can be used to better one’s life. As I learn to unlearn or relearn, I feel I have always known; as if knowledge or wisdom reveals itself to me without me asking for much, lifting my soul up to familiar elevated heights, only this time I am not afraid.”
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