Something of Value

Darling.

- Papa, have I kept you waiting? - No, that's all right. Come on.

- Why isn't Peter here? - He's playing with Kimani, Papa.

That brother of yours and that Kyuke are inseparable.

Can't he find a white playmate?

Why?

You can't treat an African like a brother

and expect to have a good servant.

When Caroline died, Kimani's mother raised Peter.

In a way, they are brothers.

When do you leave for England?

Tomorrow, worst luck. I'm homesick already.

A few years of school...

You won't let him marry anybody but me,

Mr. McKenzie, will you?

Has he proposed?

No, but I have, quite often.

Which of you stole the rifle? Step forward.

Your religion says it is evil to steal.

Your own medicine shall name the liar.

If you tell the truth, this will not burn your tongue.

He who lies...

...burns. Peter?

Kimani, my son, shall be the first.

Did you steal that gun?

Did you steal the gun?

Did you steal the gun?

Did you steal the gun?

I will find the weapon and bring it to you.

Punish him yourself.

The city teaches bad ways to young men.

How does it go with your wife? The wife with child?

Tomorrow, the day after... The time is near.

Papa.

- How does it work? - Plain old witchcraft.

The Kikuyu is a very religious man.

He fears God, but he trusts him too.

- But hot steel is... - Will not burn a wet tongue.

But the liar's spit dries up.

Him it will scorch. ha.

I think you know more about black witchcraft...

...than you do about the Bible.

Let me have my way with these devils...

Poor old Jeff is the perfect colonizer.

What's his is his and what's theirs is his too.

Well, have a good shoot.

We're not raising cattle to feed a maverick lion.

Kimani, Lathela.

Tell Kimani not to gut him.

We'll leave a smelly calling card for the lion.

Kimani, open the animal, but don't clean him.

Then you'd better service the guns.

When it comes time to kill the lion, I want to shoot the gun too.

It's Jeff's show.

And you know how he feels about Africans and guns.

I want to shoot the gun too.

I'm sorry. Lathela.

Always when we hunt it is the same.

You have all the fun, I do all the work.

When we were little and played together...

But we're big now. And things are not the same.

Hit him.

Hit him. Hit him hard.

Do what he says, now.

And in a hurry.

From now on, when he tells you to do something, do it.

Don't think about it, just obey. Understand me?

Well?

Come on, Peter.

I really should've slapped you.

Might have been better all around if you had.

Forget it.

You had no right to hit Kimani.

Peter, how many times have I got to tell you?

Blacks are blacks and not playmates.

One thing you can never do is argue with them. Never.

You tell them.

Oh, sometimes you can joke with them...

...you can boot them in the tail sometimes...

...look after them when they're sick.

But you never, never argue with them.

- The world's changing, Jeff. - Not in Africa it isn't.

Kimani's mother raised both of us. We grew up together.

You'll never live together on equal footing. Not in our lifetime.

You can't spend the first 20 years of your life with someone...

...sharing bread and secrets and dreams, and then one day say:

"Sorry, it's all over. We live in different worlds."

I don't believe it and I don't like it.

Wait till you settle down and marry Holly

and have to deal seriously with the wogs.

Have you heard from Holly?

A couple of letters from London.

She mentioned coming back?

Just stuff about school, things like that.

Well, we'd better break camp and go after that lion. Lathela.

Get Kimani to help you load.

Kimani not here.

Where?

Forget that lion, Jeff. We're gonna find Kimani, and right now.

All right, all right, all right.

You want Lathela with you?

No, you'll need him to track.

I'll meet you back here at sundown.

- Are you all right? - Yes, bwana.

- Does it hurt much? - No, bwana.

You're lying.

- And stop calling me bwana. - What shall I call you?

"Boss"? "Master"?

Yes, it hurts. Not where the trap cut me...

...only where Jeff slapped me. That is where it hurts.

Well, then stop thinking about it.

No one ever struck me in anger before.

Not even my own father.

It wasn't in anger. He's already forgotten.

Can you forget it?

I cannot forget it either.

We are alike in many things.

You talk Kikuyu same as me. I speak English same as you.

But you are white and I am black.

And you are the bwana and I am the servant.

And I carry the gun and you shoot.

- Why is shooting the gun so important? - It's not the gun, it is...

What is it, then? What?

We cannot talk as friends.

Why?

You said it yourself.

We are not children anymore...

...so we are not friends anymore.

I saved your life as a friend.

I'll always be your friend.

Kimani...

Does it hurt much?

No.

The child doesn't come easily.

It is a curse. This morning, I saw the dung of a hyena.

Just now a vulture passed over us.

Don't you talk like that. Just don't you talk like that.

- Suppose the child is born feet first. - Then it must be killed.

When that child comes, don't you touch it. You understand?

It is you who do not understand.

I'm gonna fetch my father.

White magic will not remove the curse.

- Perhaps the curse is in your son? - What evil did he do?

Suppose a snake came into his bed.

Suppose a man struck him and he did not strike back.

Suppose he broke a law.

The child enters life feet first.

Do what must be done.

Kimani.

Swear him in.

- Which god, please? - The Christian God.

I worship Ngai, the god who lives on Mount Kenya.

I will swear by our sacred Githathi stone.

- Your word will suffice. - Oh, no, no.

If I lie before this symbol of God...

...my children and their children and my home and my land will turn to dust.

And when I die...

...I will have no life hereafter except to live forever in eternity...

...by the cursed hyena, cowardly eater of the dead.

I speak the truth.

You're the father of the dead baby in question?

- Yes. - Did you tell the midwife to kill the baby?

Yes. It was born feet first, it was cursed.

Then what was done?

What is always done according to custom.

Tell His Honor what that is.

We smothered the child and buried it under a pot.

- You know that killing is against the law? - God says to murder is wrong.

And when you had that newborn baby smothered, was that not murder?

No. A child cannot join the tribe until he is one year old.

Therefore, he's not really born until his second year.

What was killed was a demon, not a child.

Yes, yes. And then what did you do?

- What? - Then what did you do?

We sacrificed a young ram.

And that, I suppose, got rid of the curse.

No. No, sir. Not yet.

I am still here, therefore the curse is still at work.

Would you do the same thing if another child were born to you feet first?

Yes, yes.

It would be my duty.

What in the name of Almighty God are we trying to do to these people?

Preserve the law, Henry, that's all.

Law? Whose law? Not theirs, surely.

All men are equal before the law.

Except some are more equal than others.

That man is an accomplice to murder. He's admitted that.

But can we make him understand it?

We take away their customs, their habits, their religion.

We stop their tribal dances, we stop them circumcising their women.

Then we offer them our way of life, something they can't grasp.

We say, "Look how clean and rich and clever we are."

For the Africans...

...different wages, different life.

We mock their wise men.

Take away the authority from their fathers.

What are the children going to do?

They'll lose respect for their elders and fathers...

...and when they do, look out.

Maybe they'll lose respect for our white Jesus too.