A Story In Chain Part8
By Mr.Abdellah Sallo
A twenty-five year old young man called Nourdin, a thin body, a brownish oval face, with dark rounded eyes, a standing nose over thin long lips; his looks give the impressions of being clever and intelligent. This young man descended from the Rif Mountains. One of his interests is to contact tourists coming from foreign countries like British, American black tourists. He is keen on speaking English; therefore, he usually brings information and news about people in the surrounding where he resides.
Nourdin has just arrived from Nador. One of Abdo’s colleagues encountered him in the street in Yaacoub El Mansour. Jamal told him what had happened to Abdo and his friends. Nourdin gave him a quick response saying:
“Did Abdo let El Younsi In? Strange!”
“What do you mean?” Jamal asked
“Haven’t you ever heard about him?, I wonder how Abdo is unaware of that” Nourdin said surprisingly.
“What’s wrong?! Do you know him?” Jamal requested
“Very well, this kind of people is a crook, clever like a fox. He shows politeness and a delight, but behind he hides all types of ruses and tricks for his companions” Nourdin clarified and added “How is it that Abdo got into such a trap? I think he knows El Younsi well, they haven’t met each other for a long time.”
“I have no Idea” Jamal responded, “Let’s go home Abdo is going to tell you about him”
On their way home, they were walking side by side on the pavement. The streets were nearly deserted since it was noon, the day was quite warm. They got home. When Abdo and his colleagues came back, they welcomed Nourdin, so their main topic was gossiping about El Younsi. Abdo said that he hadn’t met El Younsi since our primary school, it’s about fifteen years.
“There was a big change” Nourdin expressed. “ I know this man well, his family is well known, but he became an outlaw. It’s a long story, in fact” Nourdin said. His grandmother is called Hlalia. She got married to Antonio, a Spanish soldier. Her parents were obliged to give her to that Spaniard. The grand- mother was a maid; in fact, she had served them for a long time. So many members from Rif joined Spanish towns, they followed their aunt hoping to get work, El Younsi himself tells stories about his grand-parents and Spanish people; he said Spanish people are crooks and misers. They treated Rif’s people severely, and Spain, at low Pesetas, took young Riffians to war without being trained, It gave them arms; most of them died or mutilated. Some of them fought bravely, but the majority never returned to their wives and children. Most of them remained orphan, women remained widows; they fought for nothing. That was because of poverty; poor men who were at the mercy of hunger and colonialism. So many people in 1930’s and 1940’s perished daily.
