Monday, January 12, 2009

Iwomba

My sister has written about him here.

I'm adding to that, with this portrait of the man, written in 2006. It appears elsewhere, but I wanted to put it here as well.

He really was a magician.

Iwomba

Breakfast is slices of paw paw scored in a neat grid so you can scoop it onto the spoon easily. A squeeze of tiny hard limes from Malawi. Sometimes, its eggs and toast. and Iwomba asks, sclambala or flie? and sometimes, he shyly suggests, ‘what about eggie bread?’ Eggie bread is bread with a hole in the middle, and an egg fried in the hole. For some reason Iwomba thinks this is a special treat for me, and when I am home for the holidays he always offers it to me proudly.

After breakfast Iwomba asks me with anxious concern, ‘what’s for lunch?’ The cupboard is bare again. I am exhausted at the thought of searching the market on a blistering morning. Is there something in the freezer I ask, vague and non-committal. Lunch appears miraculously – slick cabbage salad and chicken pie.

Supper is soup and bread. Iwomba the alchemist, who can turn a couple of withered green peppers sagging on the bamboo shelf into a rich fragrant soup.

How do I write about Iwomba Zulu? Iwomba the herbalist, who knows leaves that make a scorpion sting disappear - but he’s not telling which leaves. Iwomba, whose memory archives store subtle combinations of allspice and cinnamon, bay leaves and clove. I’d love to take him to Zanzibar, to read the wind like he reads the steam rising from a curry.

Soup and bread. Iwomba’s made his preparations early. The soup is ready, cooked and cooled, balanced on a wobbly shelf in the crotchety fridge that we’ve had to tie up with legen* to keep it closed. The bread is cooling in the dark pantry. Iwomba’s going fishing.

When I was younger, I’d go too. I loved sitting on the bank watching Iwomba haul in hefty Cornish Jack and bottlenose while I struggled with the occasional wriggling squeaker and lots of roots and branches. Iwomba’s not a big talker. But he shows me how to tie hooks to line (twine, he calls it). And how to pierce the tiny frogs onto the hook and where to throw the line – where the water eddies and curls and the big fish are feeding. My line is always dead, or it tangles on the first cast. Frustrated teenager, I want to cut off my hook and start again. But Iwomba sits with the patience of a leopard and untangles it till the sun goes down. Lets me hold his line.

Iwomba never laughs when I don’t catch fish. Concern in his brown eyes. But when he guides them onto his own line with alchemy magic he smiles at me. And that’s the best part. Waiting for the smile.

Making Iwomba smile is a secret goal for each day. Actually it’s easy – compliment his cooking and his face cracks open with delight. All the natural worry that lines his face, all the kindly anxiety of no ingredients and ‘borrowing from the lodge’ melts like butter in a blackened pan. How do I write the life of Iwomba Zulu? It’s just my memories, marinated in woodsmoke, shot through with weevil dust. Iwomba using page after page of Delia Smith’s Book of Cakes to light the fire in the old Dover stove, coz he can't read it anyway. But his lemon meringue pie is like clouds with an underbelly.

1970’s: His early career. A dish-washer in the Chibembe kitchen, absorbing the recipes around him, he is patient and gloomy-faced until the day they are short of a cook. Iwomba do you know how to make Isaac’s green pepper soup? That big, cracking smile. Yes. He does. And it’s good.

1980’s: Norman moves to Mfuwe, to the all weather roads and all season prospects. Iwomba asks to join him. When Kapani opens, he loses the chance to cook for foreign guests, becoming instead a cook at the Ruins*, for Norman and family. This means no luxury ingredients or fluffy steam puddings. Cooking for Norman is like painting for a blind man. Soup and bread and eggy-bread and the occasional jelly and custard.

When we have guests he beams delight for they bring new recipes, spices and combinations. With closed eyes he smells the open spice bottles. In about 1987 Iwomba perfects his world-class curry.

1990’s: Iwomba returns to the world of safari guests, and lemon sponge cake for tea. Nsolo bushcamp. He joins a team of the golden oldies – John and Rice Time and a clay wood oven. I visit him there before he retires, driving the long powdery drive towards khaya trees that swallow me gratefully. And the tongue-smacking lunch that I swallow gratefully. I visit Iwomba in the back kitchen. He’s ready to receive guests – a slightly grim look on his face. But when he sees me the smile breaks like dawn. Hello Iwomba. Thank you. Thank you for lunch.


* legen is strips of bicycle inner tubing, universal fixing/strapping/binding material in Africa.
* The Ruins is my home. Its the family / behind the scenes / staff quarters counterpart to the Lodge.

12 comments:

Miranda said...

I'd hoped you'd post this story. J and I watched the big fat moon sailing above the mountain today and toasted him. He was a wizard and the fact that he just disappeared is quite fitting, no?

Lori ann said...

I think you just made him smile again.

such gorgeous words tam.

xxx lori

Anonymous said...

Written with such love. Thank you for introducing us to such a man.

Angela said...

Three cheers to Iwomba. He surely was part of your family and loved you. And knew (and knows) you girls loved him back! He has such a good face (seen on Miranda`s). I am glad he got such sweet obituaries from you!

Val said...

RIP Iwomba - such a beautiful eulogy - a man of such dignity and soul. He will live on forever in your hearts minds and stories xx

Reya Mellicker said...

What a beautiful portrait. Do you have photos?

I love eggie bread, too. It's one of my favorite breakfasts.

wow, what a guy, what a magician. And you - what a great word painter. Thank you.

tam said...

Reya, there's a photo on Miranda's.

Miranda, its mysterious, but I'm not sure yet how I feel about the mystery of it (weird that the same thing happened to his wife's mother) and wish I had details. Was his mosquito net intact? etc.

I like to think he took a wander down to the river.

Well, I guess we'll never know.
What I do know, now, is how my play ends.

Lori, thanks. It was a miraculous smile.
Mud - thanks for the comment. He was (almost) the last of a generation of great Luangwa gentlemen. There are a couple still living.

Angela, three cheers indeed! Alas, his green pepper soup recipe vanishes with him.

Val, thanks, he will indeed always be a part of my story.

Janelle said...

hey darlin' tam...what fabulous writing..had to race through it fast coz of school and kids and blah..and i am coming back again..to savour it..so so sad about iwomba and i know you'll make me well up...i know. he was a wizard for sure...xxx j

Anonymous said...

Beautiful.

karen said...

Tam, this is such a wonderful story - i'm blown away reading it! and the stunning photo on Miranda's post too...

Anil P said...

I could imagine Iwomba through your narration. What a wonderful character to know.

The narrative is written very well.

tam said...

Well, its ben a while since I could get back to this spot, and my word verification tells me so too: missin. !!
ok ok, i get it.
Janelle, he was one of the last, eh?
And thank you Rob, and Karen.
Anil, thanks and I'm glad to hear you could imagine him, through this portrait.