It began with a woman called Loraine Quist,
a Fanti, born at Cape Coast. She attended School in Achimota and later, had her
B.Sc. in Economics at Legon. As you will already have guessed, there was
something unusual about this woman. Our records described her as thick set,
five feet tall and rather good looking. She was however, what you would call
the female equivalent of a misogynist. She hated men. Her friends do not
remember any time when she had had anything to do with a man. In fact, we have
it in our records that she beat up one or two boys who attempted playing around
with her while she was in school. Such people often tend to get attracted to
their own sex – Loraine Quist was not. She just had no sense of sex about her.”
The S.B. man began to drum softly on his desk. He could see he was making his
audience intrigued.
“Had she any sexual irregularities?”
“Now Doctor Mensah-Sarbah,” said the big
man, “our men investigated all that. No hair on her like a man or something
like that. She had everything that makes a woman—and perhaps just a little bit
too much.”
Drumming,
drumming and a few minutes’ silence. “She came out of the university to join
the sisters of the Holy Orders. Got stationed in her home town. Not long after
she had become a sister, her friends suddenly noticed that she was expecting a
baby. Remember she never liked men. That was why she took the sisterhood. Anyhow,
she expected a baby. About this time she inherited some money from an uncle, a
timber merchant. Then, nobody knew how, she disappeared from Cape Coast—pregnancy
and all. It was thought that she had committed suicide. Now we know she went to
Bongo, the town I showed you on the map. We know because she kept a diary all the
time she was there. Here it is.” The Big man raised high the leather-bound
book. “It is not the original one but a word for word copy of the original by
one of our agents. Well, she changed her name to Hawa and with the help of the
money she had acquired, she was able to set up a place for herself in Bongo.
Not long after, she gave birth to a baby girl. Annabelle she called her.” The S.B.
lit another cigarette and blew a small and a big ring and
wiped a bead of sweat from his large face. “She sent Annabelle to the
Primary school in Bongo not long after the child’s first birthday. About nine
months later, she made the following entry into her diary.” The Big man began
to read: “How does Annabelle learn things so fast? She’s taken six months to
learn what took me years to learn. How does she manage?” “She did not answer
her own question. She died when Annabelle was already a full grown woman and
seven years old! In her ninth year, Annabelle too had her first child. No male
was involved. Two years after the first, she had another hermaphrodite and kept
on reproducing more until she was too old. She died at twenty-five leaving
behind a train of children and grand children! Today, these and their children
form a secret society called the Hawa Sisters. They all live in some sort of
convent in Bongo. You have never heard of anything about them because they are
careful. They have their own school, a hospital, shop and all they need. They don’t
allow anyone into their convent. None except the agent we managed to get into
their camp. She is the only link between them and the outside world. Occasionally,
some of them, like Miss Susanna Hawa, come out to learn things they cannot
learn in their camp and also to earn some money. There are five of them who are
not in the convent at the present for this reason, and it was these who led us
to the whole gang because of their very close resemblance to each other and
because of an accident one of them had a year ago. After every year, those who
have come out of the convent go back to reproduce their share of the
hermaphrodites. They are very well organized indeed by their present leader. They
called her Queen Diana.”
The
Big man paused for a few minutes. “So
you see,” he continued, “they realize they are not like ordinary humans and so
try to keep together and live wholly for themselves. Until now, my department
had feared the contrary—that they would break up and spread all over the world.
Because of this we have always had the camp watched day and night and the
movement of those outside the convent traced every second. For, as you can see
they have certain peculiarities which tend to make one feel uneasy. First, they
reproduce without mating. Secondly, they are very intelligent. Experiments with
them have shown that they are more than five times more intelligent than the
normal being. Then thirdly, they live very short lives and die.”
“Reports
have shown that our fear of these women has not been groundless. The hermaphrodites
have started doing some research on their own. They are fed up with having to
hide themselves all the time so they want to find a means of changing all women
in the world into hermaphrodites! Remember their high mental powers would all
the real women, who would be changed into hermaphrodites. Hermaphrodism does
not allow old age. Then all that would remain would be these fast-living
creatures. I wonder what sort of life there would be then.”
“The government, therefore, wants you to
find a way of stopping the hermaphrodites from displacing us. I would just have
bombed these lousy bitches but the government does not want any mess. All you
are to do is to find a way of stopping them from reproducing any further. Then their
short lives would kill them off. My department would see to it that all of them
receive the treatment you would device.” The Big man drew a long breath on his
Tusker. He said:
“Is
there any question? Is there anyone who does not agree with the government’s
decision?” there was none.
“Good.
In an hour’s time you will all leave by plane for Bongo. From then, it will be
a fight of sexes!”
THE END.
KWAME
ADOGBODA
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