NYU Black Renaissance Noire Fall 2015 Volume 15.2 | Page 8

Madam Matron

By

VICTOR
EHIKHAMENOR

Holding cell
My fear is not of dying, but the
madness threatening to take my mind.
You probably think I am stupid to talk
like this, but dying is better than going
publicly naked in this cold floor.

But I see the look in her eyes and I
know something is very wrong. That
look is familiar; it is that of new mental
patients brought to Benin Psychiatric
Hospital where I used to work.

Something that started yesterday as
a small talk followed by ordinary
laughter has turned ugly. Gina, one
of the girls in the cell with me had
began talking to invisible people as if
she was in Oba Market arguing with a
wheelbarrow pusher who splashed mud
on her Sunday dress. This afternoon,
things have gone worse. Gina takes off
her jeans right in front of everybody.
Usually she undresses for the security
men in the dark corner of our cell. But
now that her madness has taken over her
head, she doesn’t wait for darkness before
flaunting it all, marching up and down.

“Gina, lahorwowo wear your clothes you
don’t want everybody to see you naked
or catch cold, not like this. Please na.”

6

“Gina what is all this na? You are
disgracing us o, can’t you relax and wait
for night when your white boyfriend
comes?” I tell her.

She looks at me briefly with her sunken
eyes and says nothing. She concentrates
instead on the empty grey wall at one
side of the cell. Gina’s faded jeans lie
crumpled on the floor; the buckle of
her belt rests by a red sweater she slept
on. The other girl, Eseosa, is staring
at her as if she is watching Genevieve
act madness in African Magic. Gina
has always been the noisy one, even a
little crazy ordinarily to begin with, but
this behavior has gone too far. I ask
Eseosa to help me get her back into her
clothes before she catches cold.
“Na me take the clothes comot for
her body? See me see wahala o. If she
wants to be naked, let her be naked.
Na me bring am come here abi you
want make I catch her curse? Wicked
people,” Eseosa hisses and goes to
another corner where she coils up and
fiddles with her dirty braids.

Ignorant goat, she thinks madness is
contagious. Besides she has not forgiven Gina for telling one of the white
women who came here that we were
all ashawo. I too was angry with Gina
that day and I screamed at her that I
was not an illiterate cow like her. I was
going to a nursing school in Venice
and I had all my admission papers and
receipts to prove that I have paid my
school and accommodation fees in the
envelope seized by the immigration
officers, thank you. The white woman,
Gina thought, would get her out of
detention never showed up after she
made her talk senselessly. That was also
the day I knew she too went to Ipoba
River to swear oath and offer sacrifices
before traveling. When Gina started
talking she became possessed like a
caught witch, even I was shocked at
the words that tumbled from her wide
mouth. And Eseosa believes that is why
we are stuck in this place.