This is a brief but interesting story about societal change in Nigeria that has a ring of the first military coup. It brightly illustrates the corrupt and affluent lifestyle of a rags to riches minister, who lived in a luxuriant haven among a mass of suffering poor people, and had contempt for the have-nots. In contrast his daughter was against the changed corrupt life and his white mistress, and fought him to show sympathy with the poor people.
When a coup takes place the new rulers come to arrest the minister. While he and his mistress are afraid and frantic for an escape path, his daughter is more concerned for the well-being of a poor boy whom her father had caused to be flogged. An ill-treated servant hatches a plan, for the minister’s escape on one part (the minister is to be disguised as a beggar and be singing with some beggars when the soldiers come), and for his own revenge on the minister and his mistress on the other (the minister turned beggar is to perform some wonderful tricks for the soldiers—cleaning a pimple on his ass with his mouth while in the nude, and he would also take the mistress to bed or else...) Unfortunately, the coup is short-lived: The major that started it is shot, the vengeful servant threatened with castration and the joyful masses are sent back to their gloomy old lives.
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