Refuge (37 page)

Journalists were quick to ask Svritsky about his next legal battle. The asset-forfeiture application – under Cerissa du Toit – sought to seize his nightclub on the grounds of racketeering, and the case was due to be heard in the High Court. ‘Judge van Wyk … he is a very experienced man. A good judge,’ Svritsky said. ‘He will make the right decision.’

Max Bernberg could be seen beaming behind him, his round head straining to be seen over his client’s wide shoulders. A furious Faizal was filmed striding away from the courthouse, refusing to speak to the press.

Richard had moved out of the family home. His separation from Amanda had been sad and filled with regret rather than acrimony. He had tried to explain the complexity of his emotions to his wife, but the exercise had been exhausting and unfruitful. Amanda recognised that they had drifted to a point where the connection between them had been reduced to mundane habit. There were many apologies and few recriminations. They both hoped that some time apart might rekindle their feelings for one another, but Richard felt a growing certainty that the split was irreparable. The upheaval had been so violent and surprising, that little had been left unbroken in its wake.

He now leased a small apartment in the City Bowl. The flat was in a jaded three-storey block and was in dire need of attention. Richard chose it solely for the expansive windows that looked out over the city. At night he lay in bed with the curtains open, watching the lights twinkle and flash. He fell asleep imagining the disparate groups of people, connecting and detaching, meeting and falling out, streaming into and out of the metropolis sprawled out beneath him.

Abayomi had repatriated Ifasen’s body; she did not have the money to travel to Nigeria to bury her husband. That task was left to Na’imah and Hussain, who stood in silent grief at the gravesite as their son was laid to rest. They made no contact with their daughter-in-law after that.

Abayomi would sit on Khalifah’s bed and show him the photograph of her and Ifasen on their wedding day. The smile on Ifasen’s face held all the promise of love and the myriad possibilities for their future. She ached at night and clutched her son to her body as they fell asleep together.

After a week, Abayomi had returned to work. Standing just inside the door, she greeted her new client from the shadows. ‘Hello, welcome to Touch of Africa.’ The grey-haired judge smiled appreciatively as she touched his hoary forearm.

‘My name is Abayomi. It means all the pleasures you can imagine.’

ajebota:
someone who is used to the best; a spoilt person

arrange yua sef:
prepare yourself for something bad; steel yourself

ashewo:
prostitute

babi:
baby; pretty girl

bakkies:
vans

BEE:
Black Economic Empowerment

bergie:
homeless person

boet/boetie:
brother/little brother

boytjie:
little boy

chei/chai:
goodness/good grief

chin-chin
: sweet, cookie-like fried food, popular in Nigeria and West Africa

Chineke:
Igbo word for ‘God’

dundi:
fool

Edumare jomo tuntun o dagba:
May God bless him with old age so that he may reproduce

Efik:
traditional soup; legend has it that maidens feed this soup to their lovers to steal their hearts

egunje:
bribe

feferity:
to show off or pretend to be classy

haba:
why

jiga:
parasitic worm

joke na joke:
no longer funny

kulikuli:
Nigerian groundnut cake

mannetjie:
little man

mei bru:
my brother

meneer:
sir

Mense, dis nou iets om aan te vat
: People, now
that’s
something to grab a hold of

natin spoil:
no sweat

nè:
is it not

Nee fok, jou fokken fairie:
No fuck, you fuckin’ fairy

Net vir jou, my lekker lady:
Just for you, my lovely lady

nko:
so what

no bi:
is it not

obobo canda:
derogatory term for a light-skinned person

odu:
shady business

Olomo lo laiye:
To have a child is to have joy in life

opskop:
big party

oyinbo:
white person

parra:
parasite; freeloader

poes/poese:
derogatory term for female genitalia; also used as an insulting name

Puff Puff:
traditional Nigerian doughnut made from groundnut

salomies:
rotis filled with Malay curry

sebi:
is it not

skommel met die vroumens:
tussle with the woman

slacki:
slow-thinking person; dullard

tapping:
stealing

throway face:
snub or ignore

tik:
methamphetamine; popular drug in Cape Town

Tory don wowo:
The situation has turned ugly

voertsek:
derogatory term for ‘go away’

Wat die fok kyk jy, kaffer?:
What the fuck are you looking at, kaffir?

woes:
angry (slang)

For an accessible introduction to Nigeria and its people, I recommend the informative websites
www.motherlandnigeria.com
and
www.chiamaka.com
. For more on slang and word usage, try the amusing ‘Babawilly’s Dictionary of Pidgin English Words and Phrases’ on the website
www.ngex.com
.

Other works that readers may find interesting and that were among those consulted when researching for this book include the following:

Toyin Falola,
The History of Nigeria
(Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Paul E Lovejoy and Pat AT Williams (eds),
Displacement and the Politics of Violence in Nigeria
. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1997.

Ikenna Nzimiro,
Nigerian Civil War: A Study in Class Conflict
. Enugu, Nigeria: Frontline Publishing, 1982.

Adebayo Oyebade (ed.),
The Transformation of Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola
. Trenton, New Jersey: African World Press, 2002.

Praise for
Coldsleep Lullaby

‘[A] beautifully assured whodunit … The narrative segues between present-day and 17th-century Stellenbosch, until Brown bends the strands together like two electrical wires that flare up in revelation’

– Michele Magwood
,
Sunday Times

‘[A] cracker of a thriller … engagingly written with a real sense of drama and narrative tension’

– Jennifer Crocker
,
Cape Times

‘An excellent and gripping novel … This is not simply a murder mystery – it is an excellently presented chronicle of the complexities of the human experience’

– Conrad Linström
,
Pretoria News

‘Brown writes with great compassion … and although
Coldsleep Lullaby
opens a Pandora’s box of suffering, Brown releases, too, a delicate butterfly of hope’

– Margie Orford
,
Cape Times

‘[T]his is a book to curl up with and devour way past bedtime, the rhythm of the plot well weighted, and always moving at a steady clip … this is a confident and thrilling second novel from an exciting literary talent’

– Tom Gray,
iafrica.com

‘[A] first-rate thriller’

– Brian Joss, Community Newspapers, Cape Town

‘A finely crafted novel with an unstoppable plot’

– Jenny Crwys-Williams
,
Top Billing

Praise for
Inyenzi

‘One of the best novellas to come out of Africa in ages’

–
Financial Mail

‘An extraordinary, well-researched book …
Inyenzi
is a brave, bold, confident and compassionate work’

–
Cape Times

‘[A]n intelligent, finely drawn evocation of a beautiful suffering country’

–
Leadership

‘This is a valuable book in that it brings down to earth the facts of the post-holocaust century’

–
Cape Argus

‘Andrew Brown is a graceful and eloquent narrator who crafts a delicate blend of devastating non-fiction and lucid story telling’

–
Marie Claire

‘The novel is relevant and it is hoped that it will inspire observers and the people of Rwanda to document a history of what should never have been’

–
Sowetan

‘Read the book. It is a gripping, graphic and exciting story told by a gifted writer’

–
Southern Cross

‘You will keep turning the pages to the very last one, so powerful is the love story’

–
Cape Times

Praise for
Street Blues

‘
Street Blues
… is a must-read … At times hilarious, at others shocking, this compassionate and beautifully crafted book will draw you in and give you a unique portrait of South Africa’

– Margie Orford,
Psychologies

‘Excellent … [Brown] knows how to tell a good story – in this case, several good stories – and he’s as good at humour as at pathos’

– Barbara Ludman,
Mail & Guardian

‘
Street Blues
[has] an urgency, an immediacy that proves totally convincing … Brown has a wicked way with words’

– James Mitchell,
Star

‘Fascinating … A riveting read’

–
Mango Juice

‘Some of the stories will make your hair stand up while others will make you chuckle …
Street Blues
is highly recommended and Brown paints a disturbing picture of the life that the men and women in blue have to endure’

– Brian Joss,
Southern Mail

‘Well written and filled with colourful, sometimes disturbing accounts of the people and cases [Brown] encountered’

– Tymon Smith,
Sunday Times

‘As an imaginative novelist … and a beautiful writer, [Brown] is able to create a portrait of police work that leaves you with the smell of blood in your nostrils and the feel of someone’s slushy garbage under your feet … His book takes you on a roller-coaster ride which will sicken, terrify and amuse’

–
Skyways

Andrew Brown practises as an advocate in Cape Town, and is a reservist sergeant in the South African Police Service. His first two novels were
Inyenzi
, about the Rwandan genocide, and the crime thriller
Coldsleep Lullaby
, which won the 2006 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. His work of non-fiction,
Street Blues
, about his experiences as a police reservist, was shortlisted for the 2009 Alan Paton Award. He is married, with three children.

Published by Zebra Press

an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd

Reg. No. 1966/003153/07

80 McKenzie Street, Cape Town, 8001

PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000 South Africa

 

www.zebrapress.co.za

 

First published 2009

 

Publication © Zebra Press 2009

Text © Andrew Brown 2009

 

Cover photograph © Gallo Images/Getty Images

Cover design: Michiel Botha

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

 

ISBN 978 1 77022 062 1 (Print)
ISBN 978 1 77020 097 5 (ePub)
ISBN 978 1 77020 098 2 (Pdf)

 

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