The world has changed since Evie and I were first thrown together back in the summer of 1954.
Father was in the diplomatic service and served the hon Charles Bainbridge as administrator to the District Commissioner in the Kumbala district in the disputed territories of Africa, disputed in the sense of impending independence.
But I knew little of this, my life revolved around school, where I boarded from thye age of seven, initially near Sevenoaks and later near Windsor in England and Aunt Frieda and Uncle Charles's home in Folkestone where I spent my holidays except for the long summer break when Father and Mother came home for a fort-nights annual leave, flying home to regale me with tales of Lions and Tigers, which I found tedious while failing to even notice whether they flew in a York or DC4 or Constellation, "Oh it was an aeroplane!" Mother insisted as if I might think they flew on the Queen Mary.
But in 1954 it was decided I was mature enough to fly to Africa for the summer break, I would fly out by Comet, the bad news being it would be an RAF Comet with no pressurisation, and unbeknown to me the flight was really arranged to suit the hon Charles Bainbridge's spoiled daughter Evaline May who had insisted she should be allowed to spend time on the veld.
I disliked her on first sight, she sneered at everything, "Oh you're Daddy's man's boy aren't you?" she said when we were introduced, and then she just dismissed me and wandered away.
It never occurred to me that she was any great beauty, yes she was slim, dark haired, long legged almost as tall as I in her fashionable high heels and knee length skirt, and as I later learned she was only a month younger than I, but while I was obsessed with cycling and athletics and the aeroplanes I saw daily flying in and out of Heathrow airport, she was far more mature than I and her interests were more basic as I was shortly to discover.
We flew not from Heathrow but from RAF Brize Norton, and the excitement of jet flight had paled even as we crossed France so I settled down to read, and I took almost no notice of Eve except it did seem curious the amount of attention the dark skinned steward paid her on the final leg of the flight, he alone of the passengers and crew made her face light up in a dazzling smile quite unlike the scowl she reserved for me.
The last few hundred miles we flew in an Avro Anson, an obsolete twin engined light aircraft with eight seats and I said not a single word to Eve throughout, not that that would have been easy with the racket its two tiny radial engines kicked up as they struggled to keep the aircraft aloft with the heat and high altitude robbing it's already meagre power.
There was quite a reception committee as we landed, Eve's parents, the hon Charles and his wife Lavinia took precedence, as indeed did Eve while I was left to quietly dismount and seek out my parents who seemed as annoyed at my presence as I was at being dragged from England to be with them.
My family and I took a definite second or was it third place in the reception held in the "Ball Room" at the District Commissioner's residence that evening, The top table was reserved for the Bainbridges and the Tribal Elders while we sat with the lower orders but above the native staff as protocol demanded.
The "Residence" was one of only a hand full of two storey buildings in the Village. The Ball room was a great barn of a red brick walled iron roofed monstrosity draped for the occasion with what looked like a collection of oversized hearth rugs which had its own entrance off the dusty village high street, or was it a town, a community of what seemed to be a thousand or more residents with a market and a colonial store and garrison building.
Half way through the meal the hon Charles stood to make a brief speech, brief, that is, by his standards.
"Gentlemen, and Ladies," he began, oddly to my ears, "Welcome," I switched off around then and let him drone on, then he said something which made mother shudder.
"Disgusting!" she hissed.
Charles stopped, distracted, "Ah, yes," he exclaimed, "Yes as I said tomorrow we celebrate fertility, in the old tribal way, but Ladies and Gentlemen," he got it the other way round this time, "Now in accordance with the transitional agreement we shall ensure that the partnerships shall be recorded and will."
"Barbaric!" Mother muttered, "Savages!" I just wished she would shut up, the food wasn't too bad, a bit exotic but the "beef" was very palatable.
I noticed the way Eveie smiled at the natives, especially when the fertility was mentioned, had I been more astute and worldly wise I would have recognised her smiles as lust rather than excessive politeness, but actually I was too bored to notice.
The reception just fizzled out around eleven and we went home.
"Barbaric," mother said, "Henry you should have insisted!" she demanded of father.
"But Joyce it's a tradition." he replied limply.
"What is?" I asked.
"Fertility, go to bed Geoffrey!" Mother insisted, and so the next day straight after the noon siesta I accompanied Mother and Father to the "Racecourse" as they laughingly called the reasonably flat piece of grassland with dilapidated wooden fences and a dilapidated wooden stand just outside the village.
I shuffled along totally bored, and barely noticed the young girls lined up beyond the white painted section of wooden rails that denoted the "Finishing straight," bare breasted young girls who had come of age in the last year or so, their black skins glistening in the harsh afternoon light, dressed in stout shoes with simple skirts to protect their modesty.
I couldn't say I was hugely interested in them and I was even less interested in the young local men penned behind a token rope at the other side of the track each wearing stout boots and shorts or were they loin cloths.
"What do you think of that young Geoffrey?" the hon Chares asked me, I hadn't even seen him until he spoke, but I suddenly found Charles and his wife and Eveie right beside me.
"I suppose we must respect their traditions," I muttered, "Sir!"
"Well we couldn't stamp it out so we formalised it!" he said, "Its a wonderful spectacle, the girls get a head start and run and the men chase them fastest men can choose their mates, but now it is agreed that that counts as marriage do you see?" he asked almost proudly as if it was his idea.
"Oh Mummy look!" Eveie suddenly exclaimed.
I looked, a native youth displayed the fact it was indeed a loin cloth as his erection strained.
"Eve, don't be disgusting!" her mother replied.
"It's not fair," she complained.
"You must remember your position, Evaline, please!" her mother continued,
"But he is so beautiful, mummy don't you just want to melt into his arms?" Eveie asked.
"No Evie, one set of rules for blacks one for whites isn't that right Charles!" she asked.
"Ah, yes we have different standards, Eve," Charles said.
"Standards Daddy, what about rules?" Eve asked.
"Well of course we couldn't enshrine it in the legislation," Charles admitted.
"So I could join the other girls?" Eve said with her eyes nearly popping out of her head, "Have the boys chasing after me?"
"Eve, stop this you stupid girl!" her mother replied.
"Why should I," Eve demanded, "You dismissed Tanbou because he kissed me, I'm of age Mummy I don't have to do as you say."
"Eve don't be ridiculous." her mother shouted.
"Evaline, now stop this nonsense!" Charles added, but Eve was already striding towards the girls pen.
"Charles do something?" his wife cried while my mother tried to keep a straight face.
"What, she'll come to her senses when she realises she has to be bare breasted." Charles insisted, but she didn't, she spoke to chief Imbuku who seemed perplexed, and then she slapped his face.
Mr Kariba stepped forward and assured her the tribal custom required bared breasts and this delicious smile crept across her lips, and she began to unbutton her blouse.
"Hall for gods sake do something!" Charles Bainbridge cried, "She's become unhinged," but it was just raging hormones that ruled Evaline's thoughts and all she could think about was a strong black lover as she peeled her blouse off .
"What sir?" Dad asked as he stared at Eve as she stripped,
"Send Geoffrey after her," Charles insisted, as Eve unclipped her brassiere, "Now thats an order there's a thousand pounds if he claims her and keeps the blacks off her."
"You heard the Commissioner Geoffrey," My Dad insisted, as Eve hung her brassiere and blouse on the fence rail, "You're of age go on."
Everyone was staring at Eve, she loved the attention, flaunting her admittedly modest breasts for everyone to see but it was her incongruous pale flesh amongst the bronzed Africans which drew stares no her beauty. "Oh for heavens sake!" I insisted, "So I just have to outrun these tribesmen and claim Eve?" I asked, "Just like that?"
"Language Geoffrey, now," Mother butted in.
"Yes," said Charles, "Just put one of those strap thingies around her neck, Mr Makuba will find you one."
"Well go on Geoffrey," Mother butted in, and so I wandered off across to the enclosure.
I wasn't expecting the ribald cat calls as they realised I was to take part as I wandered across to the enclosure.
I spoke to Mr Makuba, "Ah, collar" he said, "Is like engagement, have to make fuck to make married."
"Right," I agreed, as he wrote Hall, on a card and inserted it in a perspex window in what was more or less a dog collar, and handed it to me. "Where's the release?"
"Oh no," he insisted, "You not release, you choose right girl right off, Need special tool."
I turned round to see Eveie was standing in her short underskirt, having discarded her skirt and then before I knew the girls were running, not particularly fast I must admit, a great tide or wobbling black breasts and flashes of brilliant white smiles against red lips and black faces a they vied to attract a mate.
I waited with the rest of the men, boys my own age actually, all bronzed and fit and muscle-bound, and then Mr Makuba made a downward jab of his right hand and we were away, running easily, the girls had maybe a hundred yard head start, although some were in no hurry, one girl just lunged at a lusty chap beside me and he just swept her up in his arms and yanked her skirt down as her fastened his collar around her neck but Evie seemed confused, I had a horrible feeling that I was probably the only chap interested in her so treating it as a cross between a cross country run and a rugger match I made a bid for the front, that's when Eve really panicked as she saw me, and she showed the other girls a clean pair of heels as she began to sprint.
I tore after her pacing myself, she ran delightfully, like a Gazelle, bounding through the grass and I realised I was indeed the only man interested in her, I felt so sorry for her briefly but then I remembered my duty and raced on.
It took a mile or so but I caught her, she rebuffed me to begin with, but I was too strong, and I gripped her tightly and slipped the collar around her neck and began to bring her back.
"You idiot!" she squealed, "I want a strong black lover!"
"I just want an easy life," I suggested, but as we retraced our steps the path was strewn with couples fornicating energetically.
