The Amulet - Samuel Totten

The familiar drone of an Antonov, a Government of Sudan bomber, high in the sky created a frenzy of motion on the ground. Dark black women and girls flung down their hoes and fled from the fields for their homes or headed towards the wadis where they could crouch down alongside the high banks of the dry riverbed. Their colorful tobs – a veritable rainbow of color – billowing with each stride they took looked like a flock of gorgeous birds about to take flight.
 
Before even reaching her family’s tukul[1], the bombs of the Antonovs were already exploding in the nearby fields. Mustafa and their small son, Ibrahim, were already awake and dressed by the time Fatima had reached their home. Mustafa cradled their little boy, who was wailing and shaking, assuring him that they would be all right and not to worry.
 
As soon as Fatima entered their tukul she scooped up Ibrahim, and the three of them fled into the desert. The frightening whoops, screams, and profanity–laden threats of the Janjaweed[2] lacerated the air as they raced their horses and camels across the tiny farms destroying the crops, the product of backbreaking labor under the relentless sun by the black Africans of Darfur. Circling around the village, they began entering families’ dusty compounds. 
 
Continuing to fire their automatic weapons in the air, some Janjaweed jumped off their mounts in mid-flight, tackling women and girls who were rushing helter-skelter from their tukuls and compounds in an effort to get away.  Other Janjaweed pulled their rides to an abrupt halt, leaped off and smashed their way into the tukuls in search of black Africans. Where they failed to find anyone, they overturned the beds and tossed aside blankets and pots and pans in search of any riches they could steal.
 
Mustafa and Fatima had just about reached the wadi when three Janjaweed rode up on horses and blocked their way, screaming epithets and firing their semi-automatic assault rifles in the air. Jumping off their horses they menacingly advanced towards the small family.
 
Smirking at Mustafa and then grinning salaciously at Fatimah, one of the Janjaweed threatened to rape Fatimah in front of Mustafa and their son. Furious, Mustafa, wiry but strong, swore at the Janjaweed and advanced menacingly towards him as he whipped a razor sharp knife from its sheath. The Janjaweed swung the butt of his rifle through the air, smashing Mustafa’s right shoulder. The knife flew through the air as Mustafa thudded to the ground.
 
Mustafa rolled on the dusty ground moaning as he gripped his knee.
 
Screaming at Mustafa, the same the Janjaweed who had attacked Mustafa ordered him to get back onto his feet. As Mustafa inched his way up, groaning, the Janjaweed wildly swung the butt of the rifle at Mustafa again, just missing his head. 
 
As soon as Mustafa managed to get to his feet, the Janjaweed smirked as he jammed the barrel of his AK-47 into Mustafa’s chest.
 
Holding his chest, Mustafa screamed at the Janjaweed, “You don't frighten me!”
 
“You sure of that, zureg[3]?” one of the other men asked, gruffly.
 
“Aye! I am protected!” Mustafa shot back with absolute certitude, grabbing the tiny, blackened hand-tooled leather box hanging around his neck on an equally dark leather necklace.
 
The three horsemen broke out in scornful laughter.
 
The one who had shoved his rifle into Mustafa’s chest glanced at Fatima, “You’re with a fool!”   
 
He then raised his rifle, training it at Mustafa’s head.
 
“Now what do you say?” the horseman asked.
 
“Inshallah (“God willing”), as I stand here I am protected,” Mustafa shouted brazenly.
 
Before Mustafa had completed his statement, the horseman shot Mustafa in his abdomen, sending him sprawling to the ground.
 
Screaming, Fatima fell atop her husband, clutching at her husband’s head. Screeching, Ibrahim fell beside his mother, clamping his tiny hands onto the fringes of her tob.
 
“Can’t kill you?” the horseman, screamed menacingly, as he stepped towards Mustafa, violently shoving Fatima out of the way.
 
Mustafa bellowed in pain as he squirmed on the ground.
 
“Inshallah, shit! Feel protected now?” the same horseman screamed at Mustafa, mocking him.
 
“Akhras!” Fatima screamed at the horseman to shut up.
 
“Get these two away from me,” the horseman ordered the two other Janjaweed.
 
When one of the horsemen grabbed Fatima’s arm, she struggled to reach out to Mustafa. Violently slapping Fatima, the Janjaweed grabbed her around the neck and dragged her away. Her little boy followed along after them.
 
The Janjaweed who had shot Mustafa, glanced over at the other two horsemen, nodded towards Mustafa, and gruffly blurted, “Hayu’s nyieun ieu anak tina janggol tari[4]!”
 
All three of them jerked their AK 47s towards Mustafa, and opened up on him. As the shower of bullets hit Mustafa, his body jumped and twitched while simultaneously being shredded.
 
Screaming, Fatima buried her face in her tob.
 
When the firing came to a stop, the Janjaweed who initially confronted the family drew a razor sharp knife from a sheath stuck into his waist band, bent over Mustafa, grabbed the black necklace from which the amulet hung, squeezed it into a loop, and with a quick flick of his wrist, sliced the necklace in half.

Ibrahim ran over to his father and fell atop him, continuing to screech.
 
Grabbing the amulet and the necklace in his left hand, the Janjaweed stood up and nodded at the other two horsemen, calmly saying, “Rip her clothes off, everything! We must leave her with a gift.”
 
As Fatima screamed and attempted to fight off the men, she was stripped within seconds of her tob and underclothing.
 
Striding over to Fatima and staring down at her, the horseman who first shot her husband said with a cold calm, “After we use you and plant ours seeds in you to make red tomatoes, we will be sure to plug you up so that you don’t lose any of our valuable juices.”
 
He then mounted Mustafa’s wife and when he was done, each of the other men took their turn, variously calling her filthy names and roaring with laughter as they taunted and mocked her.
 
When the last man was done and rolled off her, the leader tossed the amulet to the man, and gruffly ordered him to shove the amulet up her kus.
 
Laughing, the man snatched the amulet out of the dirt, nodded to the two other men, and as they pinned her to the ground, he shoved the amulet inside her vagina, viciously poking it in as far as he could as she wailed in excruciating pain.
 
 “We ride!” the leader said.
 
The three men mounted up, and as they rode off at a gallop firing their weapons in the air, they emitted an eerie and terrifying high-pitched ululating war cry.
 
 
 
 


[1] Tukul: Traditional home of those Sudanese living in the rural areas of Sudan. Their foundations are generally crafted from natural stone, with the frames of the home crafted from tree branches and a conical roof crafted from tree branches with dried sheaves of sorghum woven in between the branches.
 
 

[2] Janjaweed: The Janjaweed are hired militia serving alongside Sudanese government forces in their attacks against the people of Darfur and beyond. More often than not they were nomadic cattle herders before they became mercenaries fighting in various wars in the region. Notorious as fierce fighters and vicious to girls and women they caught, they attacked villages in Darfur on horseback – sometimes 200 to 300 strong – from various directions while shooting their rifles. Colloquially known as “devils on horseback,” among other names, they are notorious for being vicious.
 

[3] Zureg: A slur directed at times against the black Africans of Darfur. It is essentially equivalent to the use of the term “nigger” by whites in the United States.
 

[4] Arab for: “Let’s make this son of a whore dance!”




Samuel Totten is a novelist and short story writer. His first novel, ALL EYES ON THE SKY, about life and death in the war torn Nuba Mountains of Sudan, was published by African Studies Books in Kampala, Uganda. Recently, he has had short stories accepted and published by History Through Fiction, Frighten the Horses, and New Feathers Anthology based in the United States and The Wise Owl in India.