Shikasta

Our agents all said they expected that it would be found that the two Spaniards had been killed in the darkness, but it was not so.

That was the first normal night. At midnight, they all crowded around the mess tents, finding what food they could. The contingent of whites asked the guards to leave them - and this made a good impression. The two Spaniards had joined them, and it seems that shortly some sort of informal seminar was in progress, on affairs in the South American continent, with the Spaniards and the two Sherbans prominent. The old white was also popular. In fact, for every night of that month, from midnight until four and the start of the morning session, they all, particularly George Sherban, were to be seen everywhere, each the focus of attentive groups. Seminars. Study groups. Classes. These words were used by all our agents. The old white was sought after because I gather the youth were curious to hear about the last days of "British democracy" and the Labour Party - ancient history to them. Also they saw him as a figure redeemed by his willingness to confess his crimes to the People's Tribunal, and to offer the last days of his life to the Service of the Workers.

At four a.m., when the amphitheatre filled, the whites were again escorted to their place opposite the Chinese delegation, but when there, they consulted briefly, asked the guards to leave them, and then dispersed themselves to sit at random among the others. This gesture caused some people, Agent Tsi Kwang, for instance, indignation, as it appeared to her an insult to the Correct Judgement of the Masses. But on the whole, it was well received. The high point of ill-feeling, and the possibility of assault and worse, was in fact passing. Soon the whites mingled freely, but still withdrew to their own tents to rest. And it was not long before even this was dropped.

That day there was a switch in emphasis, much to the a

But racially the temperature was lowered, because there followed a series of "witnesses" testifying to the effects of military preparations, the arms build-up, submarine warfare potential and actual, the fleets patrolling the oceans, and above all, the instruments policing the skies whose very existence threatens whole continents with sudden death at any time.

The evening session was taken up by a series of recitals, or accounts, which sounded like laments, because of the necessarily slow, emphasised, simplified words, of the progress of war - the First World War, a European war, and the way its savagery impacted on non-European races made to fight in it, or forced to give up raw materials; colonies "lost," or exchanged, or freshly conquered; colonies used as battlegrounds for conflicts not their own. The Second World War, engulfing nearly all the world, its appalling devastations, again fought mainly between the white races, but using the other races where they could, or needed to, and the savage culmination when the Europeans dropped the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And then the Korean War, and its total barbarity, its illogic, its destructiveness, its strengthening of the United States - and its corruption of the States. The French in Vietnam. The United States in Vietnam. Africa and its attempts to free itself from Europe. If this is to be an attempt at actuality, then I must report that at this point there were certain veiled references which could be taken as a criticism of us, as well as of the Soviet Union, in Africa.

This litany, or requiem, or lament, on the subject of war took three days. Meanwhile, the moonlight strengthened. The evening sessions were monitored by a brilliant, almost full, moon that dimmed the torches, and dwarfed the arena and its antagonists.

By the fifth day a routine had been established. And a self-imposed discipline: all could see its necessity.

This mostly concerned alcohol. There had been some unfortunate incidents. Again the suggestion was made that it should not be brought into the camp. Meanwhile, the locals were in throngs around the camp day and night, only too ready to sell or barter alcohol, and even a little food. Already the young people had begun to leave the camp immediately after "breakfast" (as the agents complained, the meals were becoming "invisible") and made their way to the sea, some miles away. There they drank wine, ate what food they could cadge or grab, and began to catch fish and cook it there on the shore - knowing of course full well that fish from that sea was not safe food. They swam, rested, made love - and were back by five o'clock. If this had not happened, the camp would have been even more intolerable. It was already extremely uncomfortable, mostly from shortage of water, smelly, dirty, and besieged more and more by the curious villagers, who never took their eyes off these visitors of theirs, nor stopped trying to squeeze onto the tiers for what they clearly saw as free entertainment.

George Sherban seemed not to sleep. He stayed in the camp, for the most part, always available to whoever wished to talk to him. He was often with the old white. His brother Benjamin was much occupied with looking after his contingent of children, who were becoming wild, undisciplined - and liable to turn at any moment into the children's gang of the type we are unfortunately only too familiar with. The energies of many of the delegates, male and female, were devoted to restraining these children.

On the fifth night, there was a brief but heavy shower of rain. The dust was laid, the air cooled, the seats in the amphitheatre washed, the tension eased. The opportunity was taken to fill in the latrine pits, and to dig others. This improved things a little.

After the sessions spent on war, there succeeded four days on Africa. The "witnesses" came from every part of Africa. The days of their testimony again sharply changed the atmosphere. How may I put it? Variegated in type and aspect as they were, nevertheless, all together, they presented a picture of such liveliness and exuberance, such strength, such uncompromising virility, such warlike self-sufficiency - of course it must be remembered that in some parts of that continent governments have been in power which strike some of us as less than suitable, and which have discouraged those parts of the population they disapprove of to the point where only the more martial seem to survive. However that may be - and of course, I am only putting together a picture as it appears to our agents - these nearly hundred delegates seemed to impress upon everyone their difference from the rest. One point, for instance: with rather more to complain about from the white man even than other continents, they were concerned to express opinions about the intervention of others, not all white.

I will return to particularities:

The first "witness" was a fine young woman comrade from Zimbabwe.

She was received with the closest attention, and in silence - not with the hissing groan that so often is mentioned by our informants. This was the first indication of the change in mood, and because of the current situation in Africa, one of wars, civil wars, economic chaos. What she said sounded like ancient history, which, since her starting point was the conquest of Matabeleland and Mashonaland by Rhodes and his lackeys that took place not much more than a hundred years ago - a fact that she lost no time in reminding them of - was amazing in itself. Our Agent Tsi Kwang, for instance, was moved to remark that it made her think.

Her indictment, obviously considered an exemplary one, perhaps because it could be contained within such a short time span, a century being but a moment compared to the stretches of centuries - not to mention the mille