The Next Bend In The River by C.J. Stevens

By spending time in the Domain with Indar, Salim feels he finally has access to the more glamorous life he has longed for. Indar is working to educate and encourage the spread of new ideas on behalf of the unnamed firm he works for. He is staying in the Domain, a government sponsored complex outside of town with a polytechnic and European style houses. Salim’s friend, Indar, a rich kid from Salim’s coastal hometown, comes to visit. Afterwards, Mahesh opens the town’s franchise of Bigburger. Mahesh asks for Salim’s help in several illegal activities. Salim receives a letter from his father reminding him that he is bound to become engaged to Nazruddin’s daughter.

Peace is restored and the town experiences a boom thanks to the interest of the president of the country. Salim hears that Father Husimans has been killed, his body mutilated and sent back to the town in a canoe. Ferdinand comes to the flat upset that the school has closed because of the increasing violence in and around the town. Salim wishes Metty hadn’t seen where he buried the items, worrying that he isn’t trustworthy. Salim has a premonition of a violent uprising coming to the town and he buries his valuables in a plot of earth at the bottom of the stairs leading to his flat. When a boy brings Salim a fundraising ledger he has stolen from the school, Salim returns it and meets Father Husimans, the head teacher, a European priest with a love of African culture who often travels to villages in the bush to acquire objects of cultural significance, such as masks and statuettes. Boys from the l ycée begin trying to get money from Salim. Salim has lunch with them once a week at their flat. Salim befriends Mahesh and Shoba, a couple who own another shop in town and are also from elsewhere. Metty and Ferdinand become friends and are often out together drinking and picking up local women. Metty works for Salim in the shop, keeps house for him (badly), and keeps him company in the evenings.

He charms the locals, who give him the name Metty, from the French word métis, meaning mixed-race.

Ali arrives full of emotional tales of the uprising. One of their servants, a young man called Ali, has asked to be sent to live with Salim. In the meantime, Salim receives word that there has been a violent uprising on the coast and his family has dispersed. Zabeth has a son, Ferdinand, who will be at the lycée in the town, and she asks Salim to keep an eye on him. Salim begins his new life, makes friends with other expatriates, and meets Zabeth, a local woman who buys items from his shop to resell in her village. When Salim arrives, however, he discovers a town that has virtually returned to the bush.

He has purchased a shop from an old family friend who has filled his head with images of a quasi-European sophisticated town life. Salim travels through the African bush, hundreds of miles to his new home.

The Next Bend In The River by C.J. Stevens