The Door of No Return

A strange man cuts Kofi down and brings him through the storm to a strange village. He can’t see well through the night’s storm, but he hears frightened cries.

The strangers push Kofi to a damp cell with five other young boys. The men shackle their legs to a plank. A very small boy whimpers. Another boy says they threatened to cut the little one’s tongue if he isn’t quiet. Kofi asks where they are, but the other boy tells him to be quiet.

As they’re imprisoned, Kofi realizes these men are probably the unknown initiators who’ve taken them to become men. Kwasi is likely safe at home, laughing that Kofi didn’t see the initiation coming.

One boy they call Zombie because he seems to look through them. He doesn’t speak or eat, another boy explains. The men outside fire guns and laugh drunkenly.

The cell doesn’t have any opening for light, so each morning their captors take them outside to relieve themselves.

They’re fed only once a day through a slit in their cell. The hungry boys fight over the last yam ball.

Kofi doesn’t understand why they’re being caged like animals to become men. The other boy, Osei, whispers that they’re being tested. Kofi ponders his past, like pleasant memories with Ebo, until he falls asleep. 

Kofi is a baby tied to the fin of a dolphin, surging through the sea in his dream. The waves crash, throwing him off the dolphin, and he can’t swim. There is no dry land to swim to either, just ocean. The ocean yells that the lion is near.

Kofi wakes from his dream, and a tooth in the back of his mouth throbs with pain.

The smallest boy asks Kofi if he had a bad dream. They chat, getting to know each other, and the little boy, Owu, asks why they’re here. Kofi has an epiphany that this can’t be their rite of passage; Owu is far too young to become a man.

Kofi tells Owu to go back to sleep and not worry. The pain in his jaw and tooth worsen.

The boys are jostled awake and moved outside into the sunshine, where Kofi can see the marks on their faces.

The men each have symbolic tattoos that stretch from their shaved heads down to below their ears. The face tattoos show things like a crocodile, a war horn, and two fish eating each other.

They boys are shoved in their shackles to the village’s courtyard. People shout that the king is coming. They also shout to bring out the prisoner.

Kofi figures out that they are in Lower Kwanta as the drums beat. When the King appears, he knows his guess was right.

In their rival’s fortress, a bloodied prisoner is brought to the king’s feet. The prisoner is Kwasi.

The rivals chop off Kwasi’s finger. Along with Kwasi, Kofi screams for them to stop. Kwasi stays strong, but he’s in shock at the injury and Kofi’s terror. The King insists Kwasi knows where Upper Kwanta keeps its gold, but Kwasi swears he doesn’t know. Kofi yells in agreement that his brother can’t answer.

Only three people in Upper Kwanta know where they keep their gold: the King, his Paramount Chief, and the head authority of gold-digging, who is Papa. Though Lower Kwanta thinks Kwasi should know the location as Papa’s oldest son, no one else knows about the secret repository of gold.

The King declares that Kwasi will be tried according to the laws of Lower Kwanta, telling his people to bring out the jury.

Three vicious men surround Kwasi, who only has two fingers left on one hand and continues to bleed. Kofi worries his brother will be beaten to death before him. Kwasi meets Kofi’s eyes and grins.

Kwasi attacks like a possessed creature. He shoves his head into the other three men, grappling and harming them so intensely that they back away. The crowd is surprised that Kwasi can fight with such reckless fearlessness.

The King declares the fight is enough, stating the giant can feast. Bonsu, the giant man from the wrestling match, enters the ring.

Kwasi tries to attack with momentum, hitting Bonsu in the torso, but he bounces off him like a mosquito buzzing by.

Kwasi lays on the ground at Bonsu’s feat. Bonsu picks him up by the neck, strangling him. The King watches with pleasure as Kwasi struggles, dangling in the air. Kofi is terrified, but when Owu tells him to look away, he can’t. He can’t abandon his brother. Bonsu snaps Kwasi’s neck. Kofi’s hope dies.

Kofi dreams of home, including Mr. Phillip’s teaching, Maame and Papa, Ebo, and Ama. He screams for help, but his voice doesn’t work. He can’t speak or move. He wakes up in the cell, in pain over his tooth and in even more pain over remembering Kwasi is dead.

Between the pain in his tooth and the heavy grief over Kwasi, Kofi can’t contain his emotions any longer.

Kofi cries out in pure agony. Since Kwasi is dead, Kofi doesn’t care about the consequences of his yelling. For the first time in his life, he’s in a place beyond fear. He shouts that they killed his brother.

The man with the two fish tattoo, called Two Fish, brings Kofi a tea to help ease his toothache. Kofi doesn’t trust him, asking why he’s helping him. Two Fish doesn’t answer, just tells him to drink. Kofi wonders if the tea is poisonous.

Kofi thinks of soothing memories, like Ama giving him a clove leaf for his arm to help him heal.

Kofi swallows the tea along with his memories, feeling slightly better.

Kofi hears his cellmates, the rain, and their hopeless fate.

Kofi believes they are prisoners of war to repay debts or be used as leverage against Upper Kwanta. They’re fed barely any food or water. Zombie, who is so far gone, must have his mouth pried open to eat and drink.

The men gag the children and bring them out to the village central area again, where Kwasi was killed.

Kofi laments that Kwasi won’t have a funeral celebration. No one will sing, dance, eat, drink, or remember his brother in an honorable way. Instead, Kwasi is buried behind enemy walls.

The boys are pushed to walk single file in their chains across the village ground. Kofi thinks that he’ll avenge Kwasi, no matter what the cost.

That night, their kidnappers hunt a grasscutter, or a wild cane rat, and roast it. They don’t share any of the food with the boys.

Kofi prays and hopes for the gift he’s finally decided on for his born day: freedom.

While Kofi remembers home, from his parents to his sister Esi’s cooking, Owu asks him for a story.

As the men sleep, Kofi obliges Owu with a story. He tells it like Nana Mosi would, starting with “there was even a time when” (282). Kofi weaves a tale about a lovely girl named Ama, who is about to marry a smart, rich boy in her village. She and the boy are deeply in love. However, his family doesn’t have much of a dowry for her—just a goat. Ama’s parents are insulted, but the boy’s family insists the goat is special. The goat, Nimdee, is a wise, talking goat who can answer any question.

Ama’s parents ask the goat a question about the weather, and Nimdee replies that it will rain in the afternoon. Ama’s mother isn’t satisfied. They need to think of a harder question.

At this point in the story, under a full moon, Owu has fallen asleep. Kofi hopes Nana Mosi and the others are looking for him.

Two Fish unties their chains and bonds. Kofi doesn't understand, but the man insists they must move, unless they want to die. They must hurry, before the other men wake up.

Two Fish unties the other boys while Kofi wakes them up. The small boy is frozen in fear; he worries they’ll be punished and says he’s scared. Kofi tells him fear must not stop them today. He grabs the boy’s hand, and they quietly hurry to the forest.

Osei is the slowest in the bunch. Kofi worries he’s injured, but the boy does his best to keep up with the group.

After hours of running, Zombie falls and twists his ankle. He cries out loudly, halting their escape.

The others pressure Zombie to get up and push through the pain. Two Fish tells two of them to carry Zombie and hurry. When Kofi asks Osei if he’s all right, he explains that he has bumblefoot. He’s not injured; he was just born with a disability that affects his feet.

Kofi hears men’s voices as they rush closer to the sound of water, reaching a hill high above the stream.

Atop the hill’s cliff, the group is trapped. When Two Fish pleads with them for mercy for the boys, the men shoot him in the leg.

Two Fish argues that their actions are wrong and that the boys should be set free. The other men—War Horn and Crocodile—want Two Fish to apologize for his betrayal, but he says they’re betraying their people by kidnapping the boys.

The other men have had enough of Two Fish, telling the boys that they’ll meet the same fate if they try to run again. They shoot Two Fish in the head so many times, he is an unrecognizable “river of red” (298).

For three days, the boys travel with the War Horn and Crocodile through the jungle and paddling the Pra River. They reach a white castle, and the men tell them the wonderfuls live there, and this place is their new home.

At the castle’s gate, there are three severed heads on spikes. Kofi doesn’t realize it, but he is crying.

Their captors chat with the guard and eat a ripe orange in front of the hungry boys.

The white men open the guard doors, and War Horn and Crocodile come to attention. They bow before the white men, who wear red coats and have firesticks. The white men use a foreign language, so the guard translates. War Horn and Crocodile swear they’ve brought great cargo for the Governor. The white men are upset they brought them an injured boy and a boy who has a disability. They respond by telling them the boys are all strong with no illnesses.

War Horn and Crocodile state their King price, asking for many muskets, pistols, iron bars, rum, etc. The white men offer them half of what they want, stating the Crown doesn’t negotiate. Crocodile asks what they do with so many captors, but the white man states that it’s none of their business.

The boys are taken inside the white men’s fortress. They’re led to the feet of the their boss, the Governor.

The Governor inspects each boy, grabbing their chins, checking their teeth, etc. He checks their health. They take the older boys, besides Kofi and Owu, and brand them with an iron-hot rod.

The men douse them with palm oil, give them water, then separate the boys. Kofi and Owu are led in a different direction, all of them lost in fear.

Kofi and Owu are thrown into a stinky, dark chamber. They throw up from the stench.

After vomiting, Kofi sees many blurred, dark faces of other little boys, little girls, and one older lady holding them.

Kofi dreams of slaughtering a bull, turning its bones and blood into clay for a home he builds with Ama by the water. Maame and the river call to him.

The Dark Lady reaches for them kindly. Owu says he’s scared, and Kofi yells to try to leave. The Dark Lady tells them to be quiet, or they’ll bring trouble. Owu worries they’ll eat them, but the lady says they won’t, advising them to be quiet.

The Dark Lady explains that the wonderfuls, or the white people, don’t respect them or their traditions. They don’t honor the river, stars, food, and other things their native African people do. Instead, the wonderfuls take whatever and whoever they want. The Dark Lady explains that she came to the encampment pregnant eight months ago, and they took her baby boy. She has seen over 100 kids and women taken from the dungeon.

The Dark Lady is named Afua, and she's from a fishing village. When her sister was ill at a healer, she was taken. The white men also killed her fiancé. She speaks English and has cooked for the wonderfuls in their grand kitchen. Sometimes, they take the girls, who come back jumbled and sobbing. Afua makes them laugh with a story about her and her fiancé losing a fish in their boat.

Kofi is distracted from his tooth pain by their present situation in the dungeon. Owu can’t keep food down, so Kofi helps him to eat and drink.

Kofi gives Owu his water rations to help him heal. Owu asks what happened to Nimdee, and though Afua is confused, Kofi says it’s a story. Afua says stories can be healing.

Kofi continues the story of the talking goat. The boy’s parents state they’ve proven Nimdee can speak and has great knowledge, since it did rain. Ama’s parents take their time, then ask the goat why there is so much evil in the world. Nimdee sits down, sighing, not answering. The boy pleads with Nimdee to provide an answer, but she never comes up with one. Ama’s parents don’t accept the match. The boy asks why she makes them suffer, since his heart is broken over losing Ama. Nimdee says that people don’t value what they don’t suffer for.

Owu puts his head in Afua’s lap, falling asleep. Afua tells Kofi he’s a great storyteller, which pleases him, though he says Nana Mosi is the best. Afua asks about his people.

Kofi tells Afua details about Ebo, Ama, and his cousin. He tells the story of his swimming like a fish and the river. Here, he hears the biggest water ever though.

All night long, Afua keeps asking Kofi for more stories of his family and friends. When she runs out of questions, he asks her.

Kofi asks her about why they’re here, why the white men don’t have drums, why the other boys were branded, and more, ending by asking if they’re going to die.

Afua answers what she can, such as how the little boys aren’t branded, only older ones. She tells stories to stay strong and sane. A gong goes off, and Afua flinches and says it’s time.