Diary of a Wanderer

Tag: Childhood

  • sticks in my ears

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    a wet rug was placed over the hot lantern chimneywhen the rug had soaked up enough heat and could no longer breatheit was placed over the fresh wound on my legI squirmed, screamed and tossed in painThick arms gripped me, so that the wet, hot rug could engage in a long lick of my woundmother’s…

  • End of play

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    We had been rehearsing for weeks, although I had no clue what it all meant and for what occasion. But from the repeated motions day in day out, I figured out some pieces of the puzzle : it was a play about a baby who was to be visited by shepherds. Who this baby was…

  • A little boy behind a window

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    A little boy stands behind a window, watching passersby. First comes a grandma with her granddaughter and a dog, moving past the window pane, like characters on a giant TV screen, moving from left to right. Their steps fade away, together with the constant grunts of grandma. Boy couldn’t tell whether they were meant for…

  • Village river

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    I remember the river in my village. It was on the outskirts of the village, behind stretches of thick bushes beyond which lied no man’s house. Our house was among the last leading out the village. From our house, you meet a shrine belonging to one uncle, and from the shrine was one old man’s…

  • Fascinating science

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    Mother came back from a hospital checkupShe said the white man is a wonderFor with a machine she knew not its nameThe doctor looked into her wombAnd saw all the babies she was going to have! The current one, and the rest to come years laterWe were stunnedHow could this be?Amazing the things happening in…

  • The Outcast (Page 45)

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    Finally I traveled back to the city to prepare for my final exams of high school. It was the first time I was living on my own. I was to stay in a new hostel. The joy of living as I please without any parental control was overwhelmingly intoxicating. Joy beyond description, beyond measure. Little…

  • The Outcast (Page 32)

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    I was young. Not only physically, but also mentally, and emotionally. A costly weakness. Diana was into me. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t read. Perhaps because she was about five years older than me, my little mind never interpreted what she did as love. I had no emotional intelligence to play along till my time…

  • The Outcast (Page 31)

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    One day I returned from school and discovered that we had a visitor. But this visitor was unlike the others we’ve seen so far. This guest seemed to be everywhere…in the kitchen, living room, even in the bedroom of the head of the house. Who could she be? Then I heard the teenager call her…

  • The Outcast (Page 30)

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    My new house was a relatively quiet one. The only mouth that spoke there was the head of the family. He speaks all the time and when everywhere was quiet, you knew he wasn’t around. It was a house of a man, his wife, a little boy (his nephew) and a teenager ( his niece).…

  • The Outcast (Page 29)

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    by

    Benjamin Nambu
    in

    I still remember the first day I stepped into that house. It was a Sunday evening. We had finished taking supper and dad asked me to pack my belongings, he had spoken to an old friend and I could stay with his old friend to write my final exams. It would be just for a…

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