Bricks without strawsAlong the African Horizons Amin George Forji The two hills faced each other like fierce lionsOne was the Tefah-nchang and the other, Beh-longIt all started like child play under the moonThe Tefah-nchangs returned from the market and foundTo their greatest dismay their farms set on fire by the angry Beh-longs 5 The damage was as broad as longAnd the Tefah-nchangs vowed. ‘This’ a flash in the pan’They promised to react to the bolt from the blueYes, the Beh-longs had made bricks without strawsBy leaps and bounds, the Beh-longs were already circled 10 The Beh-longs tried Fabian tactics to no availInstead as the wrestling continued, They saw themselves being followed by their own shadowsYes, they saw almost all their ridges running to the Tefah-nchangsThen they realized they’d played to the gallery 15 Pour, the Tefah-nchangs’d even more fishes to fryAnd’d already plastered them to the Queer StreetOh, they’d spoilt the ship for a ha’p’orth o’tarBoth ridges’d become the Tefah-nchangs’And the Beh-longs retained nothing else but their Dutch courage 20 With the King’s only remedy to make a clean breast of the showThey submitted themselves to the Tefah-nchangs as hostages to fortuneThe rest is history; and the story is a long oneThe bone o’ contention was the WhitemanThe Tefah-nchangs ‘d accepted the new man and his new ways 25 And defied the land, even refused to circumcise their girlsRendering inter-marriage impossibleOld brothers became new foesCos o’ the Whiteman’s magicWitch doctors had the last say, 30 Yes; they detected a curse in the ridgesAnd the Beh-longs were commissioned to burn-off the curse with the Tefah-nchangsAnd restore the ways of the landTheir barking had been worst than their bitingAnd so they reaped the price of their pride in buckets 35 © Amin George Forji, 2006