I learnt these particulars, not from Mr Gall, but since I have left him, and from a non-Government man, who, as is the way in this country, had not been sufficiently interested in the incident to be able to tell me what was the provocation. “I have my own business to attend to and cannot bother about such details, like you journalists who want to know all of everything; in fact, it was Gall’s splendid fairness to the poor devil that made me notice the thing at all. And good luck to you for putting it down.” So spoke my informant.
CHAPTER XXV
TROUBLES OF THE TREK
Philosophers’ test—At the back of white men’s minds—Human calculations—Blows to plans—Oje leaves—The servant problem—Short, severe rations—Doki boy Kolo—A Pagan pony—Its performances—Injury to insult—Human and equine elements.
If anybody endowed with an unflinching philosophic spirit wishes to have that spirit tried to the utmost, if anyone desires to test whether his heart will break at unexpected, unavoidable, exasperating delays and disappointments, then let him come to Northern Nigeria under such conditions and limitations as I and endeavour to carry out a time-table of moving through the country. Nobody I had met in England seemed to have any idea of the difficulties, each appearing small in itself, yet, accumulating, presenting an absolute bar to progression, a bar that no will could overcome.
A Governor, Resident or other high official in the public service is able to bend the resources of each district to his requirements. Rightly so, for matters of high importance may depend on the celerity of his movements. A Director of a large company or a member of a mine staff finds everything arranged. Horses and servants, previously provided, meet him at railhead and an ample supply of food boxes is sure to be included in his equipment by those who made the arrangements on this side. The sooner a good-salaried man gets to his task the quicker his employers are likely to turn dead outlay into a living profit.
But in the case of the journalist whom nobody knows, a stranger within the gates, nobody’s child, perhaps misled by well-meaning folks in England who, in full belief, assured him there would be no special trouble in getting about; one who has to work out one’s own salvation almost from stage to stage. Him, my readers, bear with in his efforts, wearing efforts, more wearing than any physical exertion, bear with him in delays which to you may seem inexplicable. You in that other part of the globe, away from this West Africa where transport and movement are distant from railroad or river, you can go from place to place by probably half-a-dozen alternatives should one fail.
Here there is no alternative; you must wait. You must depend on yourself absolutely. A man whose property you visit may give you some help to get on the way; it were unreasonable to look for anybody to do more.
Here as in other parts of the globe one must not expect too much just because one is a journalist. The journalist may at considerable outlay go to a country for the purpose of making the work of the men there known to the larger world outside. The men may care nothing for that knowledge being propagated nor for the opinions and judgments of the larger world—in which case, if I dare say so, they are foolish and make a gigantic mistake—or they may live in a little world of their own which takes count of little beyond. Their all-in-all is bound up in the place where their lives are spent, and nothing else matters. A visitor from abroad may be more an object of curiosity than of interest. In the course of pilgrimages through lands as Special Correspondent for the African World I have met some peculiar characters but never, I think, more—or as peculiar—as in Northern Nigeria. Certainly they are the exceptions. I make no complaint personally. These reflections are simply put down as observations on the workings of minds so unusual that they must be noted. There are frequent speculations as to what is at the back of the black man’s mind. I have occasionally wondered what moulds ideas in some white men’s minds in Northern Nigeria.
What has been stated can be read in connection with my own situation. That situation was this. I had settled to leave Naraguta on November 4 for the southward trek to Jemma. Everything had been arranged to the utmost detail. It was to be the last chapter, though not the last stage, of this portion of the journey and, bearing in thought former delays, I was firmly determined nothing should detain me a day. So much for human calculations.