Roaring Hearts

Chapter 1

"Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of the beginning, all fear of an end." Corrine, Anne Louise Germaine de Staël.
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None of them expected that the white men would come to their tiny village and try to rule them. When they first arrived they thought the white men would stay for a few days and they would leave as they always did, the village people kept expecting them to leave but they didn't. Instead of leaving, they began to; take over their villages, use their strong men as cheap labor, and take the lands that were once theirs. The people of Kalu village thought the men were only in their village, soon they would found out that the men had spread all over the country.

Word spread out like fire in a forest and the nearby villages found out about the white men. Upon getting the news about what was transpiring, a few of the chiefs and village heads chose to betray their people and join hands with the white men, the majority of the village heads chose not to retaliate because they were weak and could not win in the war against the white men and the least number of chiefs chose to fight and resist colonization.

Chief Kwame was unable to resist the power the white men offered him and he, therefore, succumbed to the white man's lies and let them set camp in his village.
Hasnaa detested the white men and did not agree with her father's decision yet she could do nothing, women were never allowed to have a voice in front of a man let alone opinions. Hate started growing in Hasnaa's heart for her father for being so greedy and selling his people to those cruel white men.

Months after they arrived in Kalu village, the white men began constructing a railway line. The village people did not know what they were constructing hence they referred to it as 'the big snake'. The white men forced the village men to work in the construction of the railway line and the women to cook and serve them. Amani, Hasnaa's mother, would take every woman of the household with her to serve the white men as instructed by her husband. Other women from the village would also serve white men.

The village people kept hoping the white men would go back to their country and their hopes died with every passing day. The people who stood up against the white men were either brutally murdered or arrested and locked up. Most people feared death and due to weakness and fear, they forced themselves to endure the oppression and suffering caused by the white men. Hasnaa wanted to help her people but she had no means, they were many like her but they were all weak and had no clue on how to fight and win a war against powerful and skilled people.

There is good in the bad and bad in the good. To Hasnaa, James was the good in the white men. He was nothing like the rest of his colleagues, he was not as brutal and cold-hearted as them. He was the supervisor for the construction. James and Hasnaa crossed paths every time she would be serving the men in the railway construction site but she never interacted with the white men because she was instructed to not talk to the men.

As time went by James and Hasnaa started interacting and they developed a liking for each other. For the first time in nineteen years, Hasnaa found somebody who shared the same opinions as her. They became friends after some time.

Time went by and the construction of the railway line was progressing and the time for the men constructing the railway line to move to the next place and continue the construction came.
James had grown fond of Hasnaa and did not wish to leave her behind, he was willing to take Hasnaa with him but she refused to leave her people behind. Hasnaa still believed that she could help her people and liberate them from their pain but she had no idea how to fight for her people, she was just as weak as them.

James decided on resigning from his job and staying in Kalu village only for Hasnaa. What started as friendship turned into a relationship and liking turned into love. Their love blossomed as time went on. Hasnaa would sneak out to meet James and she would ensure nobody saw her.
She hid her relationship from her family since she knew her father would never permit her to get married to a white man.

James would occasionally suggest going back to London together with Hasnaa but her mind was unchangeable, she believed she could help her village. James knew it was impossible to win over them but Hasnaa chose not to believe him.

They were together for four years and Hasnaa never agreed to marriage or any commitment and James wasn't willing to let go of her.

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Author's note:

Some people asked which country in Africa is the story taking place in and I just wanted to address it. The reason I said somewhere in Africa it's because most parts of Africa were divided and named by the colonists when they colonized Africa and that's why the place is not specified because it wasn't named at that time.

This chapter was just an explanation of the background of Hasnaa's and James' life. The next chapter is gonna continue from the last chapter. This should have been the prologue but I'm not gonna change it.

We reached 100reads, thank you guys so much.