Europe by Dangerous Road

Ozemba just turned fourteen. He looks much younger than his age but he is very strong. He sometimes carries his mother's goods on his head to the main market, twenty-five kilometers from his village every market day.

Ozemba is a wonderful soccer player. It is amazing what he does with the ball in his feet, it is magical. Ozemba's village has never lost any football match since he joined his village's senior team. Stories have been told how some villages have planned to kidnap Ozemba before soccer matches but the thought of not watching him play has made them discard such plans.

Jamka is the village soccer team goalkeeper, and he has grown very close to Ozemba. Jamka is three years older than Ozemba and is always dreaming of becoming the number-one goalkeeper for Juventus FC of Italy. Jamka has been planning to take a trip to Europe by road, he keeps talking of other boys from the village who have done so. Though no one has heard anything from the boys since they left.

Jamka has been trying to convince Ozemba to leave for Europe with him. Ozemba had told his parents but his father had refused, saying the journey was too dangerous.

One Saturday after a soccer match, Dokana who lives in the big city watched a match between Ozemba's village against his. After the match he could not speak of any other thing but the magic of Ozemba on the pitch. He told Ozemba's father that he would be very rich if he allowed Ozemba to go with him to Europe to play professional soccer. This influenced Ozemba's father to agree that Ozemba should go with Dokana to Europe.

Ozemba, Jamka, and a few other boys joined Dokana and they started the journey to Europe. Dokana now sees himself as a multimillionaire, since all the boys have agreed that Dokana will be their agent when they are signed by Juventus FC.

They were all very happy as the journey was going on without a hitch. They were hoping to be in Tunisia in a couple of days. They had entered Libya and everything was good. The driver was taking care of all the security people they met on the way.

One night their bus was stopped by some soldiers who refused to take the money the bus driver gave to them. After some argument one of the soldiers shot the bus driver on his left thigh, he was dragged out of the bus and every other person was pushed out of the bus. The soldiers searched the bus and every passenger, taking every money found on everyone.

They were asked to get onto the bus, and Dokana and Jamka helped the shot bus driver onto the bus. One of the soldiers then drove the bus. They were all scared. The bus driver was bleeding, his pants soaked in blood, and the soldiers did not allow anyone to help him. The bus driver whispered to Ozemba and Dokana that he understood Arabic and the soldiers were planning to sell them as slaves and would kill anyone who tried to escape.

The bus drove for what seemed an eternity, then they drove into a military base. They were all asked to come down from the bus, kicked, gun butt to some heads, and later put in two cells. In the morning their bus driver died. Jamka and three other boys were asked to dig a grave and bury him.

Five days later, they were all brought out to the side of an open field. Some soldiers were playing soccer, and the ball got out of the field and rolled towards Ozemba, who flicked the ball straight into the hands of the soldier who came after the ball. The Commander saw this and walked towards them. Ozemba was scared, the Commander asked if they could play soccer and Dokana answered yes.

The Commander laughed and told them that some of his soldiers were professional soccer players in some big teams. He offered to set all of them free with a free bus to Tunisia if they played against his men and won.

The soldiers were arrogant, laughing at the boys as the game began. Three minutes into the game, Ozemba had scored the first goal. At the end of the game, 4 goals were disallowed. The final result was 8 - 0. Ozemba scored all 8 goals.

In the military-escorted bus on the way to Tunisia, anyone on the roadside could hear the thunderous song from inside the bus. Song of praise, praising Ozemba.