Read the first short story from a series of five that have been written by Cameroonian authors, after a foresight workshop organized in Yaounde
I heard a voice echoing in the meadows. lt spoke in vague tongues as if it were revealing some deep secrets only accessible to aliens. I also heard giggles of a wanderer bird in search of liquid juices. I couId see the bird, as thin as a naked wire, its feathers falling off as it fought for survival in the world of the Anthropocene. lt was no longer possible to imagine water around that area. The air was dry, and as the bird wandered from one spot to another, its hopes shrinking into despairing sobs, the pain in its lamentation became an illumination to my harsh ignorance.
“The butterfly that flies among thorns will tear its wings.” The tongues began to make sense to my ears.
“Even your own mind can no longer save you. When you couId no longer see the worms, what did you do? Did you notice their absence? God forsaken worms, right? You were still eating and popping champagne as the master and possessor of the world. The reign of terror continued without relent. Then the bees and mosquitoes melted to dust, and it did not concern you. Do you now think you can be free? Ashes will always blow back into the eyes of the thrower. Even if your chains vary, you are not free if they are not free. The future is always in the past and the past is in the future. You should have known this since, and that a building of sand falls as you build it. Mortal man, what is most important as this must be spoken with urgent boldness because it is not coming from a place of comfort…” the voice continued to speak.
As the words pricked my conscience, a certain window opened before me and I saw the earth desolate, abandoned to natural disasters and occupied by aliens. ln some parts, the air burnt like fire, flickering in the horizon in the form of mirages. ln other areas of the world, the waters raged in violent swashes, swallowing everything on its way. I couId see human limbs and heads and different human body parts appearing and disappearing in the water as the water moved. The aliens couId live in any condition, hot or cold, and indeed they looked pleased with ail that was happening. Henceforth, they will own the earth.
“They did not hear the worms cry.” One alien said to the other in-between chuckles, jumping over lifeless human bodies that decayed on their own, no vultures to savour their cheap flesh.
I closed my eyes firmly, hoping to abort the view of such a horrific scene, but it was a vision. I couId still perceive its forceful display even if I wrapped a blanket over my eyes. I was condemned to cry the cry of a people alone. What was I going to do? I swore to the heavens, I wish I were dead, not a live to see such malice befall the world. I wished my creator couId rescue me from such murderous visions.
I was told that the day I tore the path out of my mother there was a rainbow in the sky that morning, and that though it was February, a heavy downpour breathed new life into our community. Even when the moon had divided into half, it became whole again and remained so till l was a month old. My father said it was a great sign, but none ever explained to me the meaning of such a sign. Each day I asked my mother about it, her eyes would grow deep with water.
“Whoever has been to the mountaintop knows that though from there they can see the entire world, they may not withstand the winds over there if they lose their hold.” She would say with utter surrender.
Gradually, I came back to myself and the window to that tormenting scene closed. I choked back to the world of normal people, and I was pleased that nothing had happened to anyone. There were no dead bodies, no rushing violent waters and no mass desertion of the earth. Even though there was a feeling of horror and panic hovering ail over me, I could still convince myself that nothing had as yet reached boiling point.
Then I saw another vision. A moving machine the structure of a robot. lt could transform into a plant, an animal, a human being, earth or a star. lt spoke the language of each species. When it became a plant, it looked like them in everything. lt grew like them, and communicated with her environment like them. When it became an animal, it felt like them and could detect and communicate the desires and feelings of the animais. If it turned into a human being. it spoke the language of the area where it found itself. lt was a trans-species being gifted with language and super-terrestrial abilities to detect the desires and feelings of any species it could transform into.
I saw it transform into a hibiscus flower in a distant land of vast greenery.
“I am ready … it is me, your brother. Come and suck my juice and transport my grains to my lovers. lt is time for us to multiply our species.” As the creature spoke the mincis of plants, I saw bees and butterflies and different insects visiting the vast greenery, humming ail over the place with joy. A deep fragrance of life filled the air. I felt within me that such fragrance is always a language, the invitation to co-occupants of the universe to visit them with gentleness and cause an amorous intercourse of grains for species propagation.
ln a swift turn, I saw this creature in a different setting. There, the plants looked weary and sick. My eyes opened wider and I saw a movement of fluids from the roots of the plants to the leaves. The multispecies creature looked at the movement keenly, as if decoding a hidden message.
“Drought. .. famine … thirst… hunger.” The creature screamed, and I saw plants closing the pores on their leaves. Sorne grew wax-like substances over their leaves in the form of a coat. Others shaded off their leaves or reduced their sizes. So, I began to understand the behaviour of the plants. They were reducing transpiration in preparation for difficult days ahead. But the human world was dead in slumber and plunder.
“You lie if you think their suffering does not concern you.” That voice spoke to me again with much authority.
“You cause their pain in your blindness which you think is intelligence; but as they wither, so shall you. As they are losing water, that’s how you are losing it too … Do you think you are very special?” The voice laughed, and a feeling of panic came over me in the same way it did when I saw the aliens.
“If a dead tree falls, it carries with it a living one. When they die, you die with them, even though you think you are surviving. I am telling you again that their pain is your pain. Work for their joy, because their joy is your joy too.” I felt as if my soul was moving out of my body. lt was like a great magnetizing force was drawing my soul out of my body in a way I couId not fight back.
“Oh dear!” the multispecies creature cried out and turned into earth. Different voices of long-lost organisms were heard talking. They were recounting the sorry tales of their murderous deaths and strongles in the world of the Anthropocene.
“Our silence can no longer guarantee our existence. lt has caused us the deepest injuries.” ln their death. they spoke vengeance to their surviving kind.
“Speak out our pain, lest they wipe our variety off the surface of the earth”.
“I am tired. I do not want to be seeing ail these things. Take this gift of vision away from me if you will not tell me of what purpose it is. I can no longer bear it. Let me be.” I cried out.
“That is my gift to humankind.” The voice spoke to me as I gazed at the multispecies being. lt changed into different types of existing and ever-existed beings simultaneously, at the speed of light. displaying its competences. The commanding voice began to talk to me again …
“You have been blind and deaf to the pains and messages of sister beings. I am restoring continuity between species. Henceforth, you will hear them when they talk and receive the messages they send out for the right actions. When they cry that you are stepping on them, you must retract. because if they cry today, you will cry tomorrow. Since their pain is your pain, their cry is also your cry. Through this gift, you must make apologies to them, that they may silence the vengeance they are speaking against you. Speak to them through it, tell them your worries and wishes and ask to know what they want. Do not be forceful on them, and what you want from them, you must henceforth obtain only through negotiation, not grabbing.”
“ln your sittings … “ as the word “sittings” was uttered, I saw different parliaments ail over the world.
” … you must have this creature among you. You must let it speak the minds of your brothers and sisters, for if their pain and joy are yours, who then are they to you except brothers and sisters? You must listen with genuine intentions. for even your malicious sense of manipulation cannot save you from their vengeance if you provoke their wrath anymore. Anything you want to tell your brothers and sisters, tell this creature. and she will carry it to the right quarters. Before, you talked about the world, and made decisions about it alone as if you are the only occupant. That will no longer happen. From now on, you must consult fellow co-occupants. You must listen to them. Again. you are still free to act in self-proclaimed blindness. You know. when you have opened the eyes of the blind, they want to return to their darkness. However, it is good you have seen everything from the beginning. You will flee from this place and save the world of the stupidity it has endured for too long.”
I saw parliaments in the world speaking and listening to the multispecies creature. lt foresaw with insight, and spoke the views of other beings with soothing eloquence. lt took from the world of humans and communicated to the rest of creatures and took from all other creatures back to the human world.
As I began to ask myself questions about the nature of its existence, its origin and where it had been ever since, I got a tap on my back. That was how I was awakened from a long dream.
How can anyone ever know at any point in time if they are not dreaming? Could this whole life be a dream? Should our dreams inspire us or plunge us into fear? What about those who do not dream or imagine dreaming? Are they dead at birth?
The end.
Stanislaus Fomutar
This text has been written after
two participatory foresight workshops on
#CongoBasinFutures and
#RoyalAnimalsFutures in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Saturday 7 September 2024. It
has been edited by Nsah Mala and published by Next Generation Foresight Practitionners.
