One at a time the Bambuti turned from him and disappeared back into the forest as silently as they had come, until only Sepoo remained.
Because of what you have done the forest god will sen the Molimo to us, said Sepoo, and Pirri stood with despair in his heart and could not raise his head to meet his brother's eyes.
Daniel began a review of the videotapes as soon as they reached Gondola.
Kelly set aside a corner of her laboratory for him to work in and Victor Omeru hovered over him, making comments and suggestions as he compiled his editing notes.
The quality of the material he had gathered was good. As a cameraman he rated himself as competent but lacking the artistry and brilliance of somebody like Bonny Mahon. What he compiled was an honest sober record of the mining and logging operation in the Wengu forest reserve, and of some of the consequences. It has no human warmth to it, he told Victor and Kelly at dinner that evening. It appeals to reason, not to the heart. I need something more. What is it you want? Kelly asked.
Tell me what it is and I'll get it for you. I want more of President Omeru, Daniel said. You have presence and style, sir. I want much more of you.
You shall have me.
Victor Omeru nodded. But don't you think it is time we dispensed with the formalities, Daniel? After all, we have climbed the sacred honey tree together. Surely that entitles us to use each other's Christian names? I'm sure it does, Victor, Daniel agreed. But even you won't be enough to convince the world. I have to show them what is happening to human beings. I have to show them the camps where the Uhali forced labour units are housed. Can we arrange that? Victor leaned forward.
Yes, he said. You know that I am the leader of the resistance movement to Taffari's tyranny. We are growing stronger every day. At present it is all very much underground, but we are organising ourselves and recruiting all the-most important and influential people who reject Taffari.
Of course, we are mostly Uhali, but even some of Taffari's own Hita people are becoming disenchanted with his regime. We will be able to get you to see the ]about camps. Of course, you won't be able to get into the camps, but we should be able to get you close enough to film some of the daily atrocities which arc being perpetrated. Yes, Kelly asserted.
Patrick and the other young resistance leaders will be arriving here within the next few days for a conference with Victor. He will be able to arrange it. She broke off and thought for a moment. Then there are the Bambuti. You can show your audience how the destruction of the forest will affect the pygmies and destroy their traditional way of life. That's exactly the type of material I still need, Daniel replied. What do you suggest? The Molimo ceremony, Kelly said. Sepoo tells me that the Molimo is coming and he has agreed that you may witness it. Patrick, Victor Omeru's nephew, arrived at Gondola a day earlier than was expected. He was accompanied by a retinue of a dozen or so Uhali tribesmen. The pygmies had guided them through the forest.
Many of the delegation were also relatives of Victor Omeru, all of them educated and committed young men.
When Daniel showed them the tapes he had already filmed and described the material he still required, Patrick Omeru and his men were enthusiastic. Leave it to me, Doctor Armstrong, Patrick told him.
I'll arrange it for you. Of course, there will be some danger involved. The camps are well protected by the Hita, but we'll get you as close as is humanly possible. When Patrick and his men left Gondola, Daniel and Sepoo went with them.
The two of them returned to Gondola nine days later. Daniel was thin and gaunt. It was obvious that they had travelled hard and unremittingly. His clothing was mud-stained and tattered and Kelly saw at once that he was near the point of exhaustion as he stumbled up on the verandah of the bungalow.
Without thinking she ran to greet them and the next moment they were in each other's arms. It startled both of them. They clung to each other for a moment, but when Daniel turned his mouth down towards hers, Kelly broke away and shook his hand instead.
AVictor and I were so worried, she blurted, but she was blushing a deep rose colour that Daniel found enchanting, and she released his hand quickly.
That afternoon, after Daniel had bathed and eaten and slept for two hours, he showed them the new material. There were sequences of the forced labour gangs working along the logging roads. They had obviously been filmed, from a distance with a telephoto lens.
The Hita guards stood over the gangs with clubs in their hands, and they struck out seemingly at random at the half-naked men and women toiling in the mud and slush below them. I've got much too much of this, Daniel explained, but I'll edit it down, and keep only the most striking sequences. There were sequences of the gangs being marched in slow exhausted columns back to the camps at the end of the day's work, and other shots, taken through wire, of their primitive living conditions.
Then there were a series of interviews, shot in the forest, with prisoners who had escaped from the camps. One of the men stripped naked in front of the camera and displayed the injuries that the guards had inflicted- upon him. His back was cut to ribbons by the lash, and his skull was crisscrossed with scars and half-healed cuts where the clubs had fallen.
A woman showed her feet. The flesh was rotting and A young falling away from the bone. She spoke in soft Swahili, describing the conditions in the camp. We work all day in the mud, our feet are never dry. The cuts and scratches on them fester like this, until we cannot walk. We cannot work. She began to weep softly.
Daniel was sitting beside her on the log. He looked up at the camera which he had previously set up on a tripod. This is what the soldiers in the trenches of France during'World War One called 'trench foot'.
It's a contagious fungoidal infection that will cripple the sufferer, will literally rot his feet if it is not treated. Daniel turned back to the weeping woman and asked gently in Swahili, What happens when you can no longer work? The Hita say that they will not feed us, that we eat too much food and are no longer of any use. They take the sick people into the forest. . .
Daniel switched off the VTR and turned to Kelly and Victor. What you are about to see are the most shocking sequences I have ever filmed.
They're similar to the scenes of the Nazi death squads in Poland and Russia.
Some of the quality might be rather poor. We were filming from hiding.
It's horrible stuff.
You might prefer not to watch it, Kelly?
Kelly shook her head. I'll watch it, she said firmly. Okay, but I warned you. Daniel switched on the VTR and
