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| Pecking order | |||
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The river buoys me up, in a pirogue - a cutout canoe - gently punted fore and aft. It carries me through a landscape of high dunes.
The River Niger rises in the swamps of Guinea - the White Man's Grave. Turning its back on the Atlantic it arcs far up into the Sahara. |
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At sunset we all disembark. On the riverbank, we cook rice with the catch of the day. It is eaten from a communal bowl, with the right hand only - the left is unclean, toilet paper an unheard-of luxury.
Someone brews tea in a tiny teapot - green gunpowder with lots of sugar. This produces one sweet glass, passed from mouth to mouth. As a white man, I'm right down the pecking order with my Bororo herdsman friend, and there is little left for us to share. Hunger is my sleeping partner. |
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This haibun was awarded a HM in the Nobuyuki Yuasa international haibun competition 2004, and was published in the anthology Brushwood 3 |
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