Chapter 10 - ...

The video continued:

"After being trained to be independent, these women will be sent to take their place back in the world and live again amongst others but now making an impact. This is how they will change the world by establishing non-government organizations, women's clubs, businesses, and women-led political parties. They will be one with us: The League of Phenomenal Women. These phenomenal women will change the perception of the world towards women and through them; we will gain our deserved respect as the gods of mankind. No one else gave birth to it, we are the creators. In the Island of Queens, we are creating future heroines whose names will be written next to the names of Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr, and many others. They must be leaders in their fields like Richard Maponya, Patrice Motsepe, Prophet Shembe, and Shaka Zulu to name but a few. I'm telling you we will even have our woman messiah, a lady Jesus. Through our programs, by the time they go back to the world, these women will be capable of achieving any of these because not only we will train them physically, but we will also unlock their mental capacity, and even more, we will restore their confidence to dream big. Our potential partners, the men folk whom we've entrusted our faith to, should be patient with us with our plan. For such a virtuous kind of women are only fit for men of honor. Those are the men who will be proven good enough to succeed through our system of identifying men of honor. Those who make it are fit to be kings for these queens. Such are men who are peacekeepers, protectors, and providers who always find a way to make a living; selfless family men with vision. Strong men who never kill their own, the brave and the healthy; wise men who can think outside the TV box of the system, men of truth who stand by the truth and not tremble; brothers' and sisters' keepers who are reliable and accountable; men of culture who stand their ground for they know themselves, their history and identity; critical thinkers who can use their words and heads instead of violence for no reason; leaders, men with good hearts who loves and cares for their children. Stable men who know what they want; those who are not shaken by fake winds are the only men for us; the men of purpose, the patriots who are loyal to their forefathers' land. Don't you worry about dog men; we have a plan in place against them. They will be eaten by dogs that are like them." She finished it off in high spirits. When the woman finished her speech, I gave her an invisible standing ovation.

"It's a massive plan. Who comes up with these things?" 

"It's her. Madionna, this is all her movement. She is a rich African American woman who came here and started to recruit people to help her with her plan. She presented it and after we heard what was offered for the salary, we couldn't resist it. You know how it is in the township: No jobs, too much poverty, and no support for business, arts, or sports from the government. It's either you drink, do drugs, or do crime because your addictions will also need to be financed. So, to me, this was nothing but a good opportunity. You know I don't blame those people who sell their souls. The soul is your humanness, what makes you. Without it, you are an animal. Your soul is your moral values… You know prostitution is selling your soul because you do something you don't like which is devaluing you. You give away your most precious part. It's a morality crime and the worst thing about morality crimes is they affect the conscience; they can eat you from the inside. Eat you from the soul, meaning you can lose your soul in sacrifice for money and it's only you who knows this. With such crimes, it does not matter if no one saw you. It destroys you only by you knowing it. Maybe we were never meant to keep secrets… So, at first, we were doing it as a job to put food on the table but now we are part of it. We support it. It is now our desire to be good husbands to the superwomen she is preparing. We can't leave them to the ordinary men out there; that would be reckless," he said with his almost worried-looking face. "So, what will it be like? Will we go there by ship and then stroll around touring the town and when I see a woman I like, I approach her, and boom I'm good?"

"I'm not sure about the ins and outs of that but I think it will be a transitional thing. I imagine we will talk with our potential partners even before seeing them with an eye of the flesh. Once we are ready, we will use a social media platform that will allow every one of us to see every one of them. The profiles will have our real photos, names, ages, and brief biographies. Maybe sometimes there will be topics to be debated upon then through one powerful argument you'd see their mental strength and intelligence. Then people will ask each other to talk privately trying to study each other and see if they are compatible. If their relationship doesn't go well then, they should be honest and good enough to let each other go and continue to look for their true soul mates. In a situation where it goes well then, they will go on until the day we are delivered to our wives... What I cannot be sure of is whether when we go there, we will go all at once or a ready couple will be united until all are united. And don't ask me about breakups and changing couples. I don't know the laws of the new world," he said with a half-smile which was a precious stone so rare to see. I didn't mind having heard less than the whole affair, but I already backed it. During the rest of the ride, I locked my eyes deep into the ocean as if to see this mysterious island maybe from afar. I did not thou. We drove past Truckers Inn towards Wells Estate, and that's when my eyes got detached from the ocean's horizon. The chauffeur brisked through the road, and seeing that silence doomed the car he switched on the radio. A Hugh Masekela song seized out the tension for a moment: "The coal train that brought us to Johannesburg, Stimela."

Now we were entering the camp. The two guards who opened the gate greeted us as we passed through. I kept quiet, looking around like a child's first day of school in a new town. It's more like a tiny pet fish in a large ocean. Elijah must have noticed me drowning myself in my breath at the sight of the armed guards patrolling on the roof of the old factory.