Conspiracy Theory (Part Two)
By Baba Galleh Jallow
The room into which Moses Mijofa was escorted looked more like a long, wide
corridor, completely dark except for the flicker of two candlelights on
either side of the wall halfway inside. Just before the flickering candles
in the middle of the room stood an empty chair looking eerily like the
chairs in which dead row inmates are electrocuted in the movies. When he
reached the chair, he was asked to please sit down Mr. Mijofa. He walked
over and sat in the chair, facing the dimly visible wall of the long dark
corridor of a room several meters away. His two escorts stood behind him,
their arms folded across their chests, as if they were waiting for somebody
to appear or something to happen.
A deep ominous silence fell on the room, except for the dim noise and
chatter of the outside world, which seemed to come from some other strange
planet. Strange how the world could be reduced to such dark, restricted
spaces Moses thought. He remembered Agamben’s spaces of exception - created
by law yet outside law, in which human beings are reduced to mere bodies
that can be killed but cannot be sacrificed, mere homo sacer. He still hung
on to the many assurances he had received that everything would be just
fine, even though events since he stepped off that plane had proven
otherwise so far. Was this a torture chamber, an interrogation room, an
execution chamber? He remembered gruesome details from the stories of
victims of this regime’s torture tactics. They spoke of being soaked naked
in ice-cold water in the mornings, followed by severe caning,
tongue-pulling, violent tooth-uprooting by pincers, electrocution of the
ears, the nose and the genitals. But he could see no electric outlet in this
dark corridor of a room, and that gave him some kind of strange relief.
“Oho oho, so this is our famous radical Moses Mijofa!” The booming voice
seemingly coming from everywhere made Moses start. He glanced back and
peered ahead into the semi-darkness from where he thought the voice came.
“Welcome, welcome Mr. Moses. We are very happy to have you here with us
tonight. Well, let me introduce you to our chat room where we are right now.
Our boys like to call it the dungeon, but I prefer to just call it the chat
room because that’s all we do in here, chat with our distinguished guests
like you.”
Moses could still not see the source of that voice. He glanced up at the
faces of his two
statue-like escorts but could not catch their eyes. They seemed totally
unconscious of his presence or the booming sound of that strange voice. Yet
he knew they all heard it. He was not dreaming.
“Relax, relax Mr. Moses,” the voice continued. “You cannot see us from where
you are but we are seeing you just fine and that is the important thing. Now
tell us Mr. Moses, what brings you to our corrupt country as you like to
call it in your speeches and lectures and writings?”
‘This is my homeland,” Moses said, trying to sound as composed as he could
in the circumstances. “I have a right to visit my homeland.”
“Ho ho ho ho ho. Oh yes, I almost forgot about your human rights and your
rule of law. You like to use those words Mr. Moses. Yes, yes you have your
rights and your rule of law and you always use those rights and rule of law
to insult His Excellency the President of this country; and you use those
rights and rule of law to call us animals – no, sorry not animals, what’s
the word I’m looking for - ehm - oh yes, you call us dictators and depots or
something like that. And you say that we have destroyed this country and
that we kill people and even that His Excellency himself kills people with
his own hands and gives them to his crocodiles and steals this country’s
money. Did you not say all those things Mr. Moses? And were you not afraid
that as killers we would kill you if you come here? Just a friendly chat
here Mr. Moses. Just a friendly chat.”
Moses Mijofa was stunned. He was in a complete daze and did not know where
or how to begin talking to his invisible interrogator. He had imagined that
things might get difficult, but this was beyond his wildest nightmares. He
tried to resign himself to his fate. If he must die, he must die with his
integrity.
“No I was not afraid. I have the right to express my opinions about things
going on in my country.”
“All right, you have the right to express your opinions Mr. Moses. But can
you prove that we kill people in this country and that His Excellency kills
people and gives them to his crocodiles? Who told you that His Excellency
has crocodiles in the first place? If you have your rights to make
accusations Mr. Moses, you must be ready to provide evidence to prove them
when required by your rule of law. So, do you have proof to back up your
serious allegations against all of us in this room and even against His
Excellency the President of this republic?”
Moses Mijofa stayed silent. In spite of himself, he was almost trembling on
the chair. Drops of cold sweat plopped up on his forehead and he felt as if
he was being suffocated. He just could not believe what was happening. And
he could not think of any sensible answers to give that insistent
interrogator. He had not expected any of this. He had trusted in the many
strong assurances he received that nothing would happen to him. That
everything would be just fine. Now, his life seemed to be hanging by a tiny
thread.
“And just so you know Mr. Moses,” the voice continued, “we have many, many
files and documents about your activities in Europe and around the world.
You think we don’t know what you are doing out there but we know. We also
have our rights and our rule of law. We know about your connections with
some bad elements planning to overthrow the democratically elected
government of His Excellency the President. And we expect you to tell us
more about that in the morning. But we will let you get some sleep for now
if you can. Take him away boys.”
The two men grabbed Moses Mijofa by the armpits and roughly lifted him up
from the chair. They pushed him before them and marched him towards the
entrance to that ominous corridor of a room. He wondered who the man with
the booming voice was and what the hell all that nonsense about connections
with bad elements was.
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