Source

Introduction

Welcome to my blog. It's another week of the story "The Wounded Captain," and in this episode, I will be writing about
The White Master
At the end of the story, please visit other episodes for a better understanding of this story.

The White Master

Amongst the ideas imparted unto Abia by Ndopnda, the one that struck Abia most was how the first lawyer, engineer, and doctor were trained. The question "Who taught them?' repeated itself so many times in his memory. Abia felt that wisdom in understanding could be likened to strength. He considered himself a little boy. He understood very little and had very little strength, unlike his father, the cook, and the steward. And that when he would grow into adulthood, he would also understand and would be educated with enough strength like an adult. He could not differentiate between education and wisdom.

He didn't also know that wisdom or common sense differed from education and wisdom developed with growth and exposure. He was yet aware that education required sacrifice in terms of time, energy, and resources. These were the thoughts of an infant.

When he was in school, thoughts vanished, and during holidays, they came again. Now Ndopnda was separated from him. Yet, they met at night when he came back from work because he was still staying with his father. But the rate at which they discussed changed. They could only discuss very little at night before Abia slept after dinner.

Abia was forced to sleep soon after dinner, and he was used to it. The only time they could discuss was less than thirty minutes before they ate and went to bed. And Ndopnda often went for an errand that sometimes lasted till bedtime. Their long separation didn't please Abia because they hadn't sufficient time to elaborate on various issues as before.

There was a habit that Abia developed. He was instructed not to sleep in the parlour. But whenever he went to watch the television, he dosed off within a minute. While he slept, he soliloquized or spoke loudly all that he did with his friends in school.

Again, he sometimes wetted his bed. At most times, when he wetted his bed, he always dreamt of removing his pyjamas before urinating on the field, but when he woke up, his bed was always wet. For fear of bed wetting, he had been woken up and guided at midnight to ease himself before he was taken back to bed.

Abia was not free with the new gardener. Above all, the new gardener didn't entertain him. with stories like Ndopnda, Abia saw him with overused trousers. 'I will tell my father when he comes back,' said Abia. 'Tell what?' asked the gardener. 'That thing' answered Abia, pointing to the trousers. The new gardener had put on his worn-out trousers in which he had used to secure fodder for his mother's goats. The gardener was not happy that week because his mother's she goat was separated from its kids by a thief, the day it gave birth.

The gardener wanted to use the trousers to do some work in the compound that afternoon. He didn't know it was a taboo to use trousers in the compound by servants. All the servants wore shorts, whether the master was in or not. It was a standing order. A servant who flouted this
order has a dozen strokes of cane to receive or stand the chance of being thrown of service. Although their pay was small, they were dead sure of three good meals daily. Therefore, their trousers were deposited right inside their boxes for church and market outings.

Akpatta copied the act from the white man whom he had served. He hadn't worn trousers even during an outing when he had served the Whiteman for four years.

The Whiteman was a Briton. This Briton had believed that wearing trousers by a servant in the house portrayed equality with the master. Akpatta felt that his policy was a bit different on the grounds that he didn't put into practice some of his master's acts.

After all, he allowed them to wear trousers during outings, ate the same food prepared for him, and wore rubber slippers in the house. These were the things he had been longing for when he had served the Whiteman but hadn't been given the opportunity. This white master had considered that walking on bare foot by a servant following a master or mistress depicts the position of a servant and master to on-lookers. Whereas Akpatta had condemned the Whiteman's mentality with regards to the treatment of black servants, he still trapped some into practice long after he had left Whiteman's service.

As a matter of fact, Akpatta hadn't time to instruct the new gardener on the mode of dressing since his engagement three months earlier.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading to the end. I believe you enjoyed the story. To understand this story better, please do well to read other episodes below.

• Episode 1, Taboo on Playmates
• Episode 2, Hocky the dog
• Episode 3, The Gardener
  Episode 4, The-master
• Episode 5, The gate man encounter with Itina
• Episode 6, Thieves in the warehouse
• Episode 7, The Cook and The Steward Imprisoned
• Episode 8, Reward For Honesty