"Dunabi. Some say he is a great Ethiopian prince suffering the fate of an outcast, others a mad Zulu, and others a Hutu demi-god. But he does not say. Twenty hands high, dark as night, at home with lion and leopard. A wild man, you say? I think not. No, in truth I know otherwise. Because I have met him. Met him, I say. I was sailing up the River Kasai -- I had business and that is all you need know. A great rain threatened my boat and I put to shore. I nearly drifted off into sleep when, before my eyes, a great black panther appeared before me. I was terrified. But the panther made no move, and out of the shadows came Dunabi. He sat, and we traded, silently. A silver knife he wanted, nothing more. He stood to leave. And then the most shocking moment: in perfect Arabic, he said to me, 'Rest. It is safe here.' Wild? Perhaps. But so much more beyond that..." |
