‘It began on Thursday,’ Adegbite said. ‘You were here, weren’t you? We were stopped in the streets, halfway to the military governor’s house. We were going there to stage a peaceful demonstration, that was all. They appeared from nowhere in their trucks, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at us. At first we scattered, but we rallied ourselves and returned. They were not much, just a truckful of them – about thirty persons. We broke their windscreen with stones, and we also seized their truck, but reinforcement came for them, this time with real bullets. One student was shot in the leg. When we saw the leg shattered and bloody we decided to call it a day. But the bastards followed us to the hostels, chased us to our rooms. The air was so thick with tear gas we couldn’t breathe. They went from room to room, breaking doors and looting. When we heard the girls screaming ‘rape!’, our courage was rekindled. You should’ve seen Sankara directing us at the basketball court, like a fucking general. We soaked our handkerchiefs in kerosene and tied them over our noses to neutralize the tear gas. We made petrol bombs – then we advanced to the girls’ hostels. Taking cover from block to block. Running across the open spaces. They started firing when they saw us coming, but that crazy guy Sankara ran right at them, two flaming bottles in his hands. He hurled the bottles at their truck and it caught fire. That really made them mad. They flushed us out of the hostels into the streets. But that was to our advantage, because the Area Boys and park touts soon joined our ranks. Christ, it was brilliant. The street was like a fucking war zone, filled with smoke and darting figures and fire and gunshots. One student died. He was shot in the head – a chemistry student. The Area Boys captured a policeman and doused him in petrol and set him ablaze. More policemen came – that was when I decided it was not safe to stay. I escaped through the back streets. Later, we heard on the radio that all students should pack out of the hostels. The school was closed. We also heard that Sankara and two others were taken by the police. It is only today that I worked up the courage to come and pack my things. Man it was bloody.’

‘Our room has been broken into.’

‘Yeah, I saw it. A great mess. I saw this bag there, untouched. I was going to drop it with the porters. Is it yours?’ He pointed to it under the table – zipped and locked.

‘It is Bola’s bag.’

‘Where is he?’

‘He… he couldn’t come,’ I said. ‘I’ll take it to him.’ I picked up the bag and started out.

‘Hey, wait for me. Let’s leave together. Give me five minutes.’

‘O Κ. Meet me when you are through.’