11

“He died on Friday,” Mrs. Meji repeated, crying. “He was in the office and he pulled up the window to look out and call the messenger. Then the sash broke. The window fell, broke his neck, and the sharp edge almost cut his head off; they say he died at once.” 

“My papa had a scarf around his neck,” Asi shouted suddenly. 

“Hush,” said the crowd. 

Mrs. Meji dipped her hand into her bosom and produced a small gold locket and put it around Asi’s neck, to quiet her. 

“Your papa had this made last week for your Christmas present. You may as well have it now.” 
Asi played with it and pulled it this way and that. 

“Be careful, child,” Mr. Addai said, “it is your father’s last gift.” 

“I was trying to remember how he showed me yesterday to open it,” Asi said. 

12

“You have never seen it before,” Mrs. Meji said sharply, trembling with fear mingled with anger. 

She took the locket and tried to open it. 

“Let me have it,” said the village goldsmith, and he tried whispering magic words of incantation. Then he said, defeated, “It must be poor-quality gold; it has rusted. I need tools to open it.” 

“I remember now,” Asi said in the flat, complacent voice of childhood. 

The crowd gathered around quietly, and the setting sun glinted on the soft red African gold of the dangling trinket. The goldsmith handed the locket over to Asi and asked in a loud whisper, “How did he open it?” 

“Like so,” Asi said and pressed a secret catch. It flew open and she spelled out gravely the word inside, “A-S-I.” 

The silence continued. 

“His neck, poor boy,” Bola said a little wildly. “That is why he could not eat the lovely meals I cooked for him.” 

13

Mr. Addai announced a service of intercession after vespers that evening. The crowd began to leave quietly. 


Musa, the magician, was one of the last to leave. He was now very old and bent. In times of grave calamity, it was known that even Mr. Addai did not raise objection to his being consulted. 

He bent over further and whispered in Bola’s ear, “You should have had his bones broken and mangled thirty-one years ago when he went for the sixth time, and then he would not have come back to mock you all these years by pretending to be alive. I told you so. But you women are naughty and stubborn.” 

Bola stood up, her black face held high, her eyes terrible with maternal rage and pride. 

“I am glad I did not,” she said, “and that is why he came back specially to thank me before he went for good.” 

She clutched Asi to her. “I am glad I gave him the opportunity to come back, for life is sweet. I do not expect you to understand why I did so. After all, you are only a man.” 

Making Meanings 
Life Is Sweet at Kumansenu 

Reading Check 
a. How does Bola explain the death of her first six sons? 
b. What does Musa tell Bola to do with the corpse of her sixth son? 
c. What does she do instead? 
d. What does Meji say is his reason for suddenly coming to visit his mother and daughter? 
e. What shocking news reaches Bola near the end of the story? 


First Thoughts 

1. When did you begin to guess the truth about Meji? 

Shaping Interpretations 

2. Nicol uses foreshadowing to hint at what is going to happen later in the story. Go back and see how many clues you can find that foreshadow the truth about Meji. Make a chart like this one: 
Clue What It Foreshadows 

3. Which passage in the story do you think best sums up its main message? 

4. What do you make of Bola’s final comment to Musa, the magician? 

Connecting with the Text 

5. This story takes place several years ago in a village in West Africa, where beliefs and visions of reality may be different from those of your culture. Despite those differences, how does the story suggest values that all people share? Talk over your responses with other readers. 

Extending the Text 

6. Think of other persons, from real life or literature, who, like Bola, have defied authority or the law (maybe even the laws of science) in order to save a loved one. (Refer to your Quickwrite notes.) What do these people and Bola have in common? How are they different? 

7. Modern social pressures and changes are breaking down many of the old customs in Africa. What evidence of this do you find in Nicol’s story? Do you think such changes are taking place today all over the world? Why, or why not? 

8. Compare Bola with the father in “Distillation.” How do both stories illustrate the power of love? 

Challenging the Text 

9. This story asks you to accept as a fact something that most people would probably find unreal. What is that “fact,” and how did it affect your reading of the story?