‘Maybe. He certainly did not bring one of those nasty pieces with their heads swollen outside and inside like the meat and feathers of overfed turkeys. Ah, Allah!’

‘What is it, Setu?’

‘Zirigu, I am thinking of those girls.’

‘My wife, it is because you have nothing to do. Are you not making kaffa to take to the market today?’

‘No. I have no meal left. And I thought my ears were aching too much last night. Allah knows I have debts like everyone else. But since they will not come and kill me if I do not pay them this morning, I think I shall rest today from carrying agidi; and maybe go and see the doctor. After all, how much does one make?’

‘Hm, hm! And so this is why you have got all this time and mouth to talk about those girls?’

‘Yes. And I think they are a pain. Oh you do not think so, my husband? Do not shake your head with that glint in your eyes as though I am mad for talking like this. Do they not come from homes? Have they not got fathers and mothers?’

‘What are you saying, Setu?’

‘I’m saying, Zirigu, that there must be something wrong when young girls who have seen their blood not many moons gone, go sleeping with men who are old enough to be their fathers, and sometimes their grandfathers. And no one is saying anything. Look, look, ho, ho, look. Everyone sees them on the land, and no one says anything.’

‘But the men are big men. They have the money. They have all the nice things, like big cars and the false hair which come from the white man’s land. And the little girls sleep with them because they like these things.’

‘But what do the mothers of these little girls say?’

‘What can they say? Some of them do not even know that their children are like this. They live in the villages and when their daughters take good things home, they think it is because they are ladies and have got them all with the pay from their work. Some clans learn from the wayside how their daughters are living in the cities. But they are afraid to say anything.’

‘But why should anyone fear her own daughter?’

‘Because she has got a big mouth from what she has seen.’

‘Allah!’

‘But my wife, that is not all. Sometimes they are not afraid of the daughter herself but the big man. Because he has big power and he can ruin them if they do not give him what he wants – their daughter. And Setu my wife, such things have been known to happen.’

‘O Allah, what times we live in. What rulers we have. How can men behave in this way who are our lords?’