Kidnapped

By Ruperake Petaia

I was six when Mama was careless She sent me to school alone five days a week One day I was kidnapped by a band of Western philosophers armed with glossy-pictured textbooks and registered reputations ‘Holder of B.A. and M.A. degrees * I was held in a classroom guarded by Churchill and Garibaldi pinned-up on one wall and Hitler and Mao dictating from the other Guevara pointed a revolution at my brains from his ‘Guerilla Welfare ’

Each three-month term they sent threats to my Mama and Papa Mama and Papa loved their son and paid ransom fees each time Mama and Papa grew poorer and poorer and my kidnappers grew richer and richer I grew whiter and whiter On my release fifteen years after I was handed (among loud applause from fellow victims) a piece of paper to decorate my walls certifying my release.