BEYOND NEGOTIATION

BEYOND NEGOTIATION 3

The king and his warriors had prepared for a combat with the white missionaries and even the natives who had been converted to Christianity but to their chagrin,no one was willing to challenge them.

Majority of the natives had been transformed by whites through their induction book, the bible.The people who fought for the preservation of the culture had started fighting against the same culture and tradition which they so cherished.

when they elders heard about the return of the king he came around to ventilate his new found faith.He had to tear the thick crowds in order to be able to see the king and his entourage. The relations of the warriors who crossed parts with the late king came in their numbers too to see their fathers, brothers and in-laws whom they thought had died long ago in exile. The late king's wife could not come to the scene.she had been battling with poor eyesight which escalated into a full blindness.She was so embittered by that blindness because her movement was to a greater extent restricted.She was surviving at the mercy of the environment.What a precarious life to lead?!

After the dancing session, David stood to address the audience.The people who watched him speak out were able to differentiate him from his father. "This is not our king! No! it is not the king of our kingdom!".The people shouted with confusion written all over their faces.The reaction of David gave the people twice the same reason to believe that something nasty had happened.David was a full grown man, stoutly built like his father but lacked the maturity and confidence for which his father was identified with.

The audience was terrified to the marrows when he stood fearlessly not minding upon the toes he was stepping upon. "This is the return of the late king

He's for everybody and he belongs to no body.Black is a good color

white is good too

Let the white not fall on black

Then come see beauty at its peak,

David had not rounded off his speech when his followers began to disperse.Actually,he had stepped on toes but he cared less.

He sounded as if he was welcoming somebody, Everything sounded'he'instead of 'I'.They warriors were terrified at what they saw when they went round the kingdom.No trace of their shrine any where and their gods were either burnt or disfigured.The great men of the kingdom had gone on asylum or banished leaving the cowards.He summoned courage and appeared in the village square but his subject gave him a cold kind of reception because he had been misrepresented by the warriors who wanted it to be done their own way irrespective of the immediate or the remote repercussion of their actions.

David breezed into his father's court to see his mother whom he was told had gone blind.David ! David! what about the king! his mother shouted as she fumbled around with her walking stick to hug her son. On noticing her intention, David yielded by making himself very much available for her.

"My father had handed his baton to me"

"I asked you my son,where is your father?,he has gone to be with his ancestors.

"when ? how?so the mighty has fallen?! she cried as David cuddled and comforted her.

David reiterated his stand to be to his mother a husband,a son and companion.

Mama,I am but two kings in one kingdom.

His utterance remained cryptical to his mother who was still expecting her husband,the king back home from exile.

Do you mean that you will henceforth be ruling with your father? where has that happened before?

My father has disappeared from this material world but his spirit is in me and his blood runs through my veins. I have so many reasons to believe it .so don't cry your eyes out. the late king lives on and on.

Moment later ,the fury,the anxiety and the fear soon dissipated and mother and child began to deliberate on David's kingship and the challenge there in.she advised her son, David to took in ward and seek measures to fortify his kingdom and appeal to the white pests to restore her sight.

She also enjoined the nascent king to do everything humanly possible to persuade the warriors who were aggrieved to come back and join in the struggle for independence of the kingdom since it was through a concerted effort that freedom would come.

At that point, David became strongly disinclined to believe any more of her mother's pieces of advice.He was convinced that peace will return to the land after the disagreement, because to him,they disagreed to agree.

Whichever way the matter would go, David knew that to restore the dignity of the kingdom was to disinter the gods of the kingdom from the missionaries.He was still at home with his mother when a group of sympathizers and well wishers trooped in their numbers to hail the king.When he saw them,he sought a haven of peace and serenity away from the hustle of the environment.