Sanou Niapégué, Tetouan

The Diurnal Wind and the Homeless

“Yesterday,” said the young man, “our leader announced in the national television that, next week, there will be a curfew in all the cities. He said there are difficult days to come.” Another man had a camera connected to the microphone the young man was holding and standing to my friend and me, sitting on an old mat, and waiting for the charitable people of the day. It was there we were also living, in the big street near the big market in the capital. People were coming and going and some of them who passed would still keep looking back as if having lost something.

“Everyone,” the young man continued, “will have to stay home from dawn to dusk, for a new diurnal wind is spreading and may arrive here in a month, which means people without protection will not be able to go out during the daytime. Only the rich, employed by our leader, will be able to do so, being protected then, while the rest of the people will have to wait till sunset be able to see the outside, and this, only to look for what is necessary as food. I think you have heard of this.”

“Yes,” I affirmed. I explained to the young man that when I was begging in the market, I had heard people complain about some passengers who had come from the country of the white man, fleeing the diurnal wind. This wind, they said, was killing people by just blowing during the daytime, the time of activities. Some whispered that the wind was invented or, more plausibly, intoxicated by a yellow man; they whispered because some yellow men were present and listening. Others said it was a divine punishment to warn, test and then purify the believers. Yet others maintained it was neither invented nor divine but the very consequence of a transgression against animals. They said our leader and all his friends were no longer wearing business suits but were now attired in some strange elastic clothes to prevent the deadly wind from penetrating their skin. I also saw some rich dressed in the same clothes. As for the poor, they were afraid, for they would have to stay home, close doors and windows from the penetration the wind and cover themselves from the feet to the head with what they had, that is, blankets. They said they could not digest how people could come from the country of the white man though our leader himself had already declared the borders of the country were closed and no international flight was to be allowed anymore. Perhaps, some opined, it was to import the wind which will replace the police to stop the poor from demonstrating.

Upon mentioning demonstration, my friend went on: “Perhaps our leader doesn't know anymore how to stop demonstrations.”

“Yeah!” I corroborated. “I heard in the market that in the country of the white man and that of the yellow man where the wind started most people now never go out. They said that if wind spreads here in our country, people will ultimately have to stop everything, including even going to market, for not everyone can afford a simple condom here and they said the elastic protective clothes our leader, his friends, and the rich have are condoms in the form of robes covering the whole body.”

“Ah!” my friend exclaimed. "I think this wind is political. If the wind arrives here, only politicians and rich will see the sun? But in this country if you don’t fight, you’ll never be given your right, but how can one fight when one is starving? I was fighting before, but I stopped since have I started starving. I have the strength and time only to beg and not to fight for my rights. Starvation is not good. The wind is a political weapon, I swear. And the consequences of any political instrument are either more advantageous or more dangerous than the instrument itself. Thus, the consequences of this wind are more dangerous than the wind itself. With this wind, the country will then be a cake and shared between a small group who will tell the majority that the cake was spent on preventing the wind. This is what I can understand, power and starvation.”

“Absolutely,” I confirmed. “They will be the benefactors from the wind if they survive. But you know, we may also be benefactors somehow if we survive. In the big market, I was also very happy to hear that thanks to the wind, in the country of the white man, they have brought the homeless and beggars to hotels and are providing them with food and anything for free. I wish the same could happen here. Yes! The same will happen here. Thus, we'll be living as the friends of our leader. We will revive.”

The young man laughed and said, “Aren't you afraid that you may die of the disease?” He was looking at me while the cameraman was filming.

“Why should I?” I said. “I'm already dead, buried and forgotten and maybe the wind will revive me as I said. We are dead in the street, for worms eat us when we are asleep as they eat the dead. A dead man is but garbage and we are garbage, living in garbage, on garbage, with garbage, for garbage and by garbage.”

“Anyway, you have to think of how to leave this street as soon as possible, for you are here at night and daytime when the wind blows. You should know that the wind is too

dangerous and spreads faster than a wildfire, from the country of the yellow man to that of the white man and soon here. To die out of the wind is to suffer the greatest humiliation and misfortune. Even in the country of the white man, poor children cannot see their dead parents and poor parents cannot see their dead children in hospitals, not to mention kissing them. To just see a person dead out of the diurnal wind blow is enough to result in the death of the seer unless the latter has the elastic protective dress. This means if the wind touches you, no one, even your wife or son, will be allowed to see you. And the wind can touch you if only you are outside; therefore, the best piece of advice I give you is to avoid staying outside. Otherwise, you will be the very first victims and no one will see your corpse nor wash it or pray on it and you, though pure and devout, will be buried by sinning prisoners in a collective grave with other sinning and pervert victims without any consideration.”

“Ah! It is really serious. To be buried with perverts, by perverts? Ah? We pray the wind never arrives here."

“It will. You see that the rich and our leader’s friends have started using the protective dress; this means there are some suspected cases from abroad, though they will not announce it now. The wind starts from the smell of infected people, but hopefully, the blow of the wind is not dangerous at night thanks to the trees and animals. You see now how much nature is important? It is not science, it is nature that is the unique condition of our survival. And yet people are daily cutting trees and killing animals without purpose. To avoid such kinds of disasters, we should protect our ecosystem. This wind is one of the very consequences of over-pollution and violation of animal rights. It is thanks only to animals and plants we will be able to go out at night if the wind spreads here. In the evening, the breath of animals contains a chemical substance that renders the wind un-toxic; the strange thing here is that, though man is another animal, man does not have this substance. Trees detoxicate the wind in the evening because they take oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Indeed, this carbon dioxide is very very dangerous for us; that is why we are advised not to sleep under trees at night. However, the strangest thing is that it has been proven that the same carbon dioxide detoxicates the wind at night. Still, I remind you not to sleep under trees fearing the wind; sleeping under trees at night is still as dangerous as the coming wind. So, stay at home.”

“Have you forgotten?” my friend asked. “We have no home.”

“But where are you from?”

"I am from a village," my friend responded and I told the young man that I also came from a village.

"Then the best piece of advice I have for you is that you go to your respective villages," the young man said. "This is even very good since, in villages, there are many trees and animals. You can even sleep among your cattle to be better protected by the chemical substance they breathe. And who knows, bullshit may be a remedy for those who are touched by the wind. I may even go to the country.”

My friend and I had rejected the advice on the spot, but we changed our minds later on as the wind finally started spreading in the cities and only poor were dying because of not accepting the proposal of our leader. At the beginning of the wind, we had found a very good cave to hide in at night near the big market, but one night, we were officially told not to come there anymore since we had also refused the proposal of our leader. We finally went to our villages where the wind did not reach, not because we were afraid of death since we were not given any elastic protective dress or brought to hotels as I had expected but despite the fact that we wanted to die. We just were afraid of suicide and being buried with perverts, for staying in the city would have ended up by accepting suicide which is forbidden by God. Also, in the city, as we noticed, we were obliged to worship our leader and the rich to obey God, which we didn't like. Our leader was indeed helping the poor with food and elastic protective clothes, but the poor were bound to solemnly swear by signing an official document and declaring what follows: “I ACCEPT THIS DRESS AND FOOD, THEREBY PROCLAIMING THAT I SHALL DIE IN YOUR SERVICE AND SO WILL MY SONS IN

YOUR SONS' SERVICE AND SO WILL THEIR SONS SINCE YOU SAVED OUR LIVES

FROM THE WIND.”