LAMENTATION OF A WARRIOR

Excerpt from Lamentations of A Warrior

Excerpt from Lamentation of A Warrior
by Angeline Bandon-Bibum

PROLOGUE

As a boy, Joseph was playing hide and go seek with his younger cousin, Theodetta. He hid in one of the many corridors of the palace inhabited by his uncle and aunt, the King and Queen of Rwanda. Joseph heard the footsteps of his little cousin as she searched for him. He heard her voice echoing through the hallways, as she called out for him. He said nothing, but he ran through the seemingly endless corridor of the palace. He then suddenly bumped into the legs of an extremely tall man, the King of Rwanda. The king was called the Mwami. He wore an elaborate headdress, and draped over his elegant French suit, was a toga-like, white cloth. In his hand was a golden scepter that reached the floor. Joseph was terrified. Would he be beaten, or thrown out of the palace? He looked up at the Mwami, and the Mwami's face was serious. Joseph kneeled and bowed down in front of the Mwami. He looked at the shiny black European shoes of the king. Then Joseph dared to look up again. To his surprise, he saw that the Mwami was smiling at him.

CHAPTER ONE
When Joseph woke up, he could smell the rotting corpses that were piled all around the city of Kigali, Rwanda. He sat up on his cot in the barracks. He could never get use to that sorrowful and sickening smell of decaying bodies. Joseph had employed a teenager, Charles, to fetch water for him and to wash his clothing and carry his equipment. The boy went to fetch two buckets of water from a nearby river. Joseph reminded him that the water had to be boiled before he would use it to drink or wash. Charles had lost his entire family during the killings in Rwanda, in the summer of 1994. To Joseph, it seemed that Charles was always in a daze, and silent. Joseph had managed to convince the silent boy to tell his story.

It was a common story of bloody barbarism and horror; Charles was a boy who had watched his family butchered alive right before his eyes. Everyone in his own family was probably dead, too, Joseph thought. However, he hoped that his niece, Valentina, had somehow survived. Joseph felt a sinking sensation of depression as he walked through the military barracks. The soldiers were talking to with a pretty teenage survivor. She was shy and polite. Her eyes looked up at Joseph, wistfully. Joseph discreetly glanced at the girl. He thought to himself. How many times had she probably been raped in the last three months? In spite of her hellish experiences, she still had traces of beauty and charm in her face.

Copyright © 2007 by Angeline Bandon-Bibum