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Rate This Contest Entry: Contest: June 30th, 2005 Author: Lanre Mabawonku Every evening, like a tradition or religion, we sit in front of his mud hut, expecting him to come out. His seat, isolated beside the threshold, while we placidly anticipate his arrival. It was Dr Khumalo the missionary from the city that confirmed his story in awe and our doubts disappeared. Initially we thought he made up his tales of adventure, now we are convinced he lived it. What you about to read is queer and at the same time its true, Mahmoud Albakshir, an illiterate peasant, known to be erring, lived all his life in our little village. He doesn’t have a record of being in the army or a traveler nor a hunter he lived in his little hut, where he saw it all. It started three years ago, on the eve of the Ramadan. Other towns and villages had sighted the moon while we were yet to sight it, Mahmoud fell into a deep slumber everyone thought he was dead, but heard him breathing softly. Three weeks after Ramadan, he woke up in the village clinic, suddenly his skin was dusty and his cloth grungy while his feet worn out and his face wrinkled, we were amazed by the sudden changes in his outlook. Mahmoud was surprised to see us gathered by his bed, he heaved a sign of relief then smiled. The chief accompanied by the village elders paid him a visit to inquire of his health. He replied by telling us this story (in his own words) “I slept after eating dinner, then I woke up, but this time, it was somewhere…Different, quite strange, we wore metals, I belonged to an army, pardon me, but…. I belonged to a large band of warriors traveling on foot; I think our leader was ‘Hadrubal’, yes. Cathage, I was in Cathage, as an infantryman; we reopened the war against ‘ront’ in two-nineteen, we held down a large number of ‘romnant’ soldiers down in ‘sparyne’. Yes, ‘metarus’ river, the ‘romnant’ attacked, ‘hadrubal’ was killed, we escaped to meet ‘anibal’, God! It was awful, we almost died, thousands of us, we made our way up to ‘saguntum’ were we caught up with our new leader ‘anibal’, a great military genius-ha…The long journey, terrible and arduous, we had to cross the alps, three score thousand with lots of elephants; cold treacherous mountains, we marched on it on foot. A terrible journey, the elephant slipped and slithered down the mountainsides into great drifts of snow screaming and trumpeting. By the time we reached the other side, a land called ‘itly’ all the animals were dead, so were thousands of men, but many thousands survived and were refreshed by a long rest at the foothill with words of encouragement from ‘anibal’. We marched into ‘itly’ and we conquered all the ‘romnant’ army at ‘ticinu’, ‘threbie’ and lake ‘trasimen’ also ‘cannae’, were we unleashed terror and fury on ‘romnant’ troops, about four score thousand ‘romnant’ army died. We were all dead tired after four successive victories when words came that cathage, was under attack by a ‘romnant genman’, ‘cepayo publys’. Near zama, we were defeated by ‘cepayo’, cathage was conquered and I was taken prisoner, marched off to ‘ront’, where I became a gladiator in the province of ‘itly’ for the amusement of ‘romnant’. Years later spatclus a gladiator teacher organized a rebellion, thousands of us accepted his leadership, we defeated several ‘romnant’ armies, it was crassiors that finally defeated us, then the crucifision began, several of us were hung, I believe as a lesson to others, I was dangling on the rope fighting for air, suddenly I woke up inside that white brick house klinik’’ The chief and the elders were embarrassed. They thought he was delirious. No one believed his tale; his story was bizarre, metal clothes, mountain climbing, with lots of incoherent names. Mahmoud’s strange behaviour spread around the village, people started to call him the living dead. To keep him busy and his mouth from running, the chief appointed him as the court jester to entertain his guest. Months later, he fell into a series of slumber, waking up with a story to tell, he talked about being in the army of Attila, whom he called a ferocious Hun chief, how a terrifying earthquake prevented them from attacking Constantinople, which he called the richest city in the world. Months later, he came up with another bizarre tale, about helping a white man named Guy ‘fakkes’ blow up an assembly, but was arrested with a man named ‘Robrat catesbie.’ fakkes and him both died on a gibbet. Later he claimed he had been a student under ‘paganini nicolocolo’ playing and composing instruments. All this stories with incoherent names continued till Dr Khumalo visited the chief; he was fascinated with Mahmoud’s tale and the incoherent names, he wrote down all the names to confirm the authenticity of his tales. Grotesquely, it all existed in the past, but, how come? Mahmoud knew about it? He couldn’t read nor write, never left the village, it was absolutely impossible for him to have traveled into the past –far past, it’s a mystery, but the chief was glad. Dr Khumalo was going to publish Mahmoud’s tales of adventure. Overnight living dead brought our little village into limelight, people came from all over the country to listen to him, he became a source of revenue earner to our village, his face was on the pages of news papers and magazines. Mahmoud became a headliner. A topic of debate and discussion among historians and health practitioners, series of medical examinations were carried out on him. ‘’A mystery’’ people call it, ‘’a phenomenon’’ we call it. It was when Dr Khumalo published the story, that we understood what he meant that Aniba meant Hannibal, Hadrubal: Hasdrubal, Ront: Rome, Romnant genman: Roman General, Threbie: Trebia, Trasimen: Trasimene, Spatclus: Spartaclus, Itly: Italy, Crassiors: Crassius Licinius Marcus, Genman: General, Cepayo Publys: Scipio Publius Africanus, Guy Fakkes: Guy Fawkes, Robrat Catesbie: Robert Cates by, Paganini Nicolocolo: Paganini Niccolo, Sparyne: Spain. Now we believe in Mahmoud’s tale, he has indeed been in the past, far past. Since then, we sit in front of his hut, anticipating his arrival for we know indeed that Mahmoud is a man of mystery, a man of medieval period. 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