Prix Littéraire Rumuri

Honesty is Personality

By Gervais Nkeshimana

Surrounded in all corners by small stony and sandy valleys and seen in its completeness when you were at the top of Shinge and Rugero mountains, Rubira was a huge and very important forest. All kinds of trees, shrub-lands, and grasslands were found there: Thorny and crawling trees, long and straight trees till to fifty meters, flowering and greenish grasses without forgetting some undersized and big traditional trees nicknamed medicine ones. Besides, there were a lot of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The birds composed at the majority of swallows and owls sang and sang ceaselessly the whole day. In the dawn, once you approached the forest, you had to see a number of old women going here and there looking for some tree and grass medicines and hear a banging of trees caused by the drummers who were making drums from some traditional trees. It sometimes occurred that you had to hear a splashing of water from the valleys when it was noiseless. At noon, you had to lay eyes, from side to side, on some people ordinarily who were gathering tree barks for making papyrus mats. In the rainy season, it was a happier period for children since they expected to pick too many enjoyable fruits and flowering leaves in that forest. In the sunny season, young children were accustomed to playing the football made of shabby clothes in a small grassed area in the middle of the forest. Around two p.m., some children ran in the valleys and took objects to throw in the sky in order to stare at the movement of the bees towards the thrown object. It was very interesting for them because they burst into laughing and shouting. The playground was got because of the fire guns that exploded during the civil war and consequently, the trees and grasses that were standing where the gun balls fell down became swallowed up. Even evening at the moonlight, certain boy children could play but some of them were a bit scared due to the noise of the night birds. Most of the people of the neighboring villages liked going to get supplies of wood in that forest. The majority of parents sent their children to look for the wood of cooking but some prohibited theirs to go. The main cause was that they were used to hearing much hissing of snakes across the valleys and in the grasslands and then feared that they would bite such adolescent children. Toyi is the one among the children who liked to go to look for wood during the holidays. He was said to be a specialist in climbing the trees by his young generation. How big or how long the tree was, he must pull out from it the wooden tree branches that he had seen as dry as a nun' s nasty. When he was in his early schools, one day he went to fetch water with his younger sister Perry. They met in the middle of their way Mr. Buntu. He had been teaching in class one at Rugero primary school for two years but he still remembered Toyi. "Good afternoon, Toyi", Mr. Buntu said. "Good afternoon. Fine and thank you, and you?", Toyi replied. "Fine too, is this girl your sister?”, Mr. Buntu asked. "Yes, her name is Perry", Toyi reacted. "Good. But do you have all your parents, Perry and Toyi?” Touching on their shoulders Mr. Buntu asked them. "Yeah!", Toyi and Perry nodded their heads. "So, I want to ask both of you one question. The one who will answer well will be given some money", Mr. Buntu told them. "Uhm! Bring it perhaps we will find it", Toyi and Perry cried. “Whom between your mother and your father do you love more?" Mr. Buntu asked. Perry answered the first and said: " Me, I love more mum because she always buys for me chewing gums and lifts me in the air or puts me on her shoulder". "Thank you, Perry you answered well". Mr. Buntu quickly said to her. "Toyi, and you? ", Mr. Buntu said again. "I love more my father", Toyi replied. " Toyi, why do you love more your father than your mother?", Mr. Buntu asked him. With tremendous energy, Toyi immediately began to whistle and then melodized saying: - Thank you pap', thank you pap' because you brought mum' here. - Thank you pap', thank you pap' because you married mum'. Gosh, Can you go on singing! Mr. Buntu said astonishingly. "Yes, but don't forget to give us the money you promised us!", Toyi replied. - Thank you pap', thank you pap' unless you brought mum' here I wouldn't exist. -Thank you pap', thank you pap' unless you brought mum' here I wouldn't be born. Dumbfounded, Mr. Buntu went like lightning without saying goodbye because of the thoughts that were in Toyi's song. Perry and Toyi kept on their way to fetch water soliloquizing that wherever they would meet Mr. Buntu they have to ask him the money he promised. Toyi in his childhood liked also asking numberless questions from his parents and these became very annoyed because of how they were sophisticated at his age. He was sometimes beaten but he did not accept to change his temperament anymore. In his mind, the objective was to know at least everything around his community because one of his teachers told all the students in first primary school that "If you grow without asking you become old and die without knowing". Toyi was exceptional even surrounding his whole village. The way he was very talkative to ask questions gave him a chance of being justified as the best clever among children who were dwelling in his village. Certain important chiefs in the village often beckoned him in order to escort them for special circumstances normally tribunal courts and some extra-family ceremonies when they saw him playing with other children." You will become a big time man in your adulthood I swear you", One old man told him. To that statement, Toyi remained as silent as a grave. At home, he continued to help his family as best he could without considering his sisters and brothers. He was very intelligent and all his teachers admired him in different courses, to begin with, Mathematics. The zeal he had forced him every day to go to fetch water or to look for wood when arriving home from school. His parents were sympathetic to him. They were used to forbidding him to do many activities but he refused. In his family, banana wine was prepared most of all weekdays. To invite the neighbors for drinking, the parents always sent Toyi and he did it joyfully. That banana wine was many times drunk in the evening and a speech must be uttered by Toyi's father. In his speech he liked to begin with: "Peace to everyone! Let's have peace, love, justice, and unity in families". After he had finished his speech, the invited people always replied in accordance with what had been uttered by the titleholder of the drinks and thanked the manner they took the banana wine. Sakubu, a nonagenarian, toothless and hairless man, with his wrinkled face, had to be the first to reply. He was very respected and while he began to speak even small talkative children must keep silence. He most of the times wore a dotted hat, a black T-shirt, a purple pair of jeans, reddish shoes and a watch on his left arm. Once you meet him somewhere without knowing him, you would know him without any help because of his manner of existence. When they were about to finish the served drinks, some began to sing and others to dance. Toyi liked to grab his hands and move right and left his head and most of the old people adored him for his behavior till some of them called him " our hero" because of the way he always went to invite them. They admired him and desired to have children who might behave like him. After several years studying the primary and secondary schools, he passed the national test and luckily became the first to have many points in his whole nation. His parents became ecstatic and hoped that one day their child would represent them in the foreign countries. After only two months, the government announced that they should supply with a special scholarship the first five pupils to go to continue their studies in foreign countries. As he was the first, his father and his mother fell in great amusement when they glanced at their child. "We are blessed", Toyi's father said. Some of his sisters and brothers sorrowfully acted. They thought about the activities that were done by their brother and felt discouraged. Almost one month to take a trip overseas, very dreadful information came into the mother's ears from the radio she was listening to. It was about a dangerous illness called Ebola. "My beloved child", said the mother to Toyi. Did you hear such a pandemic and killing illness called Ebola in those countries where you are preparing to go to study? I am terribly afraid you will leave. "Mum, I had known that before you knew it, do not be frightened", Toyi replied. Assuredly, it is a pandemic disease and it kills many people in a twinkle of an eye but keeps your heart peaceful because of no matter on me. Ebola is next to our country not there where I am going to study. "Could you call my brothers and sisters just now in the order I inform you very well about this fearful illness?", Toyi addressed to his mother. When his four brothers and sisters together with their mother have just been around, Toyi began to say: " My wholehearted mother, brothers and sisters, you all know that I am about to leave. As my mother has just told it to me, in these days there is an awful illness called Ebola. Listen carefully to me and try to tell it to others. Ebola symptoms are a severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and after many days, a rash and bruising or bleeding without any injury like from the eyes or gums. Till now treatment researches are being dealt with. Without forgetting, its transmission between humans can occur through direct contact with the blood, urine, sweat, secretions, organs and other body fluids of infected people. Next, transmission can also occur during burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased. Furthermore, exposure to contaminated objects including needles, knives, and blades, etc. and indirect connection with environmental contamination with such above-mentioned fluids, and so on". Please, force yourselves to announce it to everyone and once you hear anyone having some of the symptoms I come from telling you, call at once medical care bearers. After those pieces of information, he then went out to see his friends for advertising them that he was about to leave his native country. Some old men and women who had heard kinds of information concerning the going abroad of Toyi directly began to lament. "Our beloved child, will we see you once again when you fly abroad?", some old men and women said. “The white men will eat you", they added. In that period, the government had planned to construct primary and secondary schools where the important Forest was dwelling. Carpenters fell and sawed the biggest trees which were abundant in Rubira. They all come from the Northern provinces. They terrorized a lot many people who lived near the forest because they ate animals including cats, moles and all kinds of birds. Some indigenous people run as quickly as they could once they met those carpenters. The plank was transported in long trucks which had never been seen in the Rubira. Children became very afraid and began to cry when they met any of the trucks that were loaded with the plank to be moved. At home, when some clingy children began to cry in order to follow their mothers to the work, these directly told them things about the trucks. Then those children must have fear and close their mouths without much ado. After two years, the forest became a full wilderness. No grasses were found except in the rainy period. People lamented till they missed what to do; including herbalists and other traditional medicine bearers. People became ill and remained unhealthy many days for the modern health centers in that period were few and very far. Domestic animals including cows, rabbits, goats, and sheep began to die day after day due to the lack of medicaments. Toyi and his comrades were preparing themselves for their sojourn abroad. But Toyi knew only one candidate from among the selected candidates. Kim became an intimate friend of Toyi for he was the one who would go abroad together with Toyi. The big day then was approaching. Toyi began to go to his relatives and family members to announce his leave-taking. The majority of the parents did not accept that he would leave. "Will you on earth go overseas? We don't believe it", They liked asking him. He always replied without adding any word "YES". In their minds, they thought that he was joking. It was in July, on his way to the international airport to take the airplane, the whole family and many of his neighbors accompanied him until the bus station. When looking at them, they seemed like the ones who have missed theirs. Only depression, confusion, and frustration any Voyager could observe. The time they arrived where he would take the bus, their habitual driver had already gone. But in a few minutes, Cargo express took place where they were standing. "Bye, bye, bye", Toyi was saying by waving his hands addressing to his relatives and friends who were seeing of him. His father followed him till the airport. When the driver restarted his bus, some wives and his brothers and sisters poured tears down. Others were holding their jaws with the two hands. No voice you could hear from them while returning back home. But his father, sweating and puffing, arrived home after hours and hours. He then told the story to his family around the fire how the journey passed till the airport. "It is terrible, uncontrollably terrible! The plane which they had taken is greater than our house; I don't understand how it stays hours and hours in the space without falling down". His wife and children stayed closed mouth that night. According to the old men and women whom he liked to invite for drinks, they accurately confirmed that the left child was more important than some adults. "Even if he was still a child, he had adult qualities", the very old man than others stated it. Some of his friends that he was accustomed to chatting during the night or during the day became most of all miserable. They told that they missed a Titanic storyteller and a big counselor of people normally his age fellows. When Toyi arrived at the foreign University, he met too many different people. White people, red people and even other black people like himself were represented. He had no fear to talk to everyone because the majority of them spoke English that he had already studied and known. After one week, he published a communication inviting the students from his country to meet at the entrance of their university on Thursday. It would be the 25th in July. That appointment was strictly obeyed. All his natives massively attended the meeting. They were sixteen. They happily exchanged too many things and while looking at their faces you could say that they are in their homeland. As it was the first time getting together, the natives who had been to that institution more than one year cordially thanked Toyi for his sense of calling upon a meeting. They became since that day warm brothers even if no one was sharing the same subject with another one. In Mathematics auditory, Toyi was with six white people, ten red people, and four black people. In total, they were twenty-one. One day, their associate professor came into a lecture and found some students blabbing just as though they were in an unsacred place. "You are going to do an orally unexpected test just now because I entered and found the auditory noisy", after greeting his students the professor said. Many students became at that moment chill. He added: "Don't be disturbed! The question is not only easy but it easier". It is structured as the following: "If I come to your country as a tourist, what are the nicest things will I adore? Minimum fifteen minutes". In responding, they told and told but no one reached even ten minutes except Toyi who exceeded even those fifteen. To do it, Toyi began chanting a patriotic song that he used to sing in his childhood with other young: "Burundi of Unity, Work, and Progress Burundi of White, Green, and Red Burundi of three Spears and three Stars Burundi of our ancestors and the heart of Africa You are my real homeland You gave me life at night In the high and lowland Because you are a right light As you gave me a land Since my birthday I give you my hand Until my dying day..." After that melodious breath, he kept on doing the question that the professor had asked. Here are some of his talks as answers: "Hello everyone!", In front of his classmates and shaking his hands he said. "Hello!", The attendance feebly replied. "My name is Clovis Toyi. I'm a full Burundian. My country Burundi is a calm country I ever saw. It first has nice and friendly people and you would be pleased with their charming behaviors if you visit them. My country Burundi is famous for many extralakes, many beautiful mountains, and flatlands, some well-supplied national parks, a thousand of rivers, springs and streams without forgetting a dozen of historical sites and monuments. Beginning by the Lake Tanganyika, it is located between four countries including the Republic of Burundi my nation, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Zambia. It is first of all the longest fresh water in the world. It is very wide and it is among the first ten wide lakes. It is also among the most profound lakes in the world and if l am not mistaken it is the first profound. It has pure water and you can see the fish and other objects in it. Its water is somehow warm and when you look at it from a further distance in the morning, it is greenish. In the evening, the reflection of the sky gives it a heavenly look and many people go there for too many events. Thousands of tourists each month come to visit my country and the Lake Tanganyika is the first to be visited. Apart from that lake, my country has huge national parks in which we have various animals which are the main attractions for Tourists. It has also a River National park called Rusizi and many different hippos and birds watched. Next, we have a natural park called Ruvubu. Here, you marvel at animals such as crocodiles, hippos and buffaloes. Another hotspot for amazing is a variety of welcoming flora and fauna. If you are a birdwatcher, you visit lakes which are in the northern borderlands of my country. And if you adore trees, there are many national parks where you could find trees and small animals which are not found in any one of the world countries. Without forgetting, there is in my country, a drum sanctuary which explains the culture of my country, the source of the Nile River which, as its spring is made of the stone pyramids to mark its location, also plays a valuable role both in my country and in other countries. I can't state all things to adore in my native country. They are numerous and once I try to state all of them, it may take at least two days. But I end by inviting all of you to take one month to come to my country. There is everything. It has salubrious weather and Beaches, motels, hotels and super resto- bars cannot be counted... “Come to my country, come to our country, and thank you". During his talks, the present students and their teacher had big ears and were astonishingly looking at him. When he had just finished the teacher ordered the whole attendance to clap hands.