Early the next morning, we woke up and resumed work as usual, but this time around, with a renewed spirit, a spirit of rebellion and determination to be free. The morning sun danced down fiercely on our bare backs and burned us with merciless vigour, forcing us to sweat more than normal. We were beginning to see our shadows with our naked eyes under the hot piercing sun.

But luckily for us, no white man was with us and we used this opportunity to communicate our plans to our fellow slaves. They supported the notion for an independent black nation. Our plot was spreading like a wild fire among the slaves.

One of the many factors that made it possible for us to communicate freely without being caught was the use of our local language. We communicated in English to the ethnic groups with another dialect and this helped a lot. Within three days, all the slaves were aware of the plan and it was egged on by everyone.

Since everyone was conscious of the plan, the next move was the choosing of war lords who would carry out the role of soldiers and defend us during the campaign. Self-defence was very mandatory and we didn’t have any weapon, what would be our fate if we’re conquered? And how were we to get weapons to carry out the campaign we were about to embark on?

These type of campaigns were always bloodier than we might even imagine.

During war blood is shed, people are killed, bones are broken, bodies are destroyed, women are raped, children are neglected and eventually converted to child soldiers. Sometimes they are killed by starvation or a bullet or by the brutal soldiers of the enemies who knew no mercy during war.

War is a destroyer of families, an agent of death and starvation but were we ready to take this chance? What will happen to us all if we lost the campaign? What will happen to our next generation if we are conquered? Is this a decision, a decision of life and death?

All these and more were running through my mind that I didn’t even notice when Boris sat close to me under the temporal shade. It was when he nudged me on the shoulders that I regained myself.

“How are you?” Boris asked with concern.

“Am fine, just that I’ve been wondering…” I began but was cut short by Boris.

“About your girlfriend?” He teased.

“You’re crazy Boris,” I joked.

“So what’s up?” He asked with seriousness.

“Nothing really but the P,”

The ‘P’ was our code word for the word ‘PLAN’

“Are you scared?” He asked with a smirk.

“I’m not scared, it’s just that I’m thinking about some stuff,” I replied thoughtfully.

“Cheer up little bro, in war such things always happen and you must face it. Face it, overcome your fears, or flee and let your fears overcome you. Once embarked on, there’s no going back, that’s what we are on now,” Boris explained.

“You made a point brother, it’s just that am not sure if I can do it,” I managed to voice out my thought.

“Can’t do what? You mean fight?”

“No, I mean taking a life… lives,” I explained.

“You see little bro, this is war coming and during war people allow a monstrous spirit to take over them. For instance, if this war breaks out and we are on different sides, we’ll both be enemies and fight against each other, not regarding the fact that we are brothers. And you might kill me or me you, or the both of us. That’s what you need to think now, you kill to live or live to be killed during a war. So girdle up little bro and put away the saint in you, we are almost in a war era.”

Boris concluded and left me to make a tough decision.

***

Tell us: Do you think Morris will stay and fight or will he flee?