Tomorrow Tamer
The story for which the Tomorrow-Tamer volume is named is an effective account of the devastating effects wrought in the life of an African village by the construction of a bridge. On a superficial level the bridge would seem to be a self-evident metaphor for the unification of opposites, a visible token of the "new song" to which Africa must dance if she wishes to progress, symbolizing the overcoming of all the existential and cultural barriers represented — as in This Side Jordan — by the river. The protagonist of the story, a young villager named Kofi, dimly recognizes the mediatory significance of the bridge from the beginning, realizing that when the project gets underway "strangers would come here to live" (80). This is exactly what happens, although at first there is no significant interaction between the two worlds that have been brought into proximity by the construction project:
The white men rarely showed their faces in the village, and the villagers rarely ventured into the strangers ' camp, half a mile upriver. The two settlements were as separate as the river fish from the forest birds. They existed beside one another, but there was no communication between them. (90)
The absence of drastic disruptions induces the villagers to believe that they can continue undisturbed in their old way of life, even as they bask in the new climate of prosperity that the bridge project makes possible. Even Kofi 's existence continues for a while to adhere to the pattern defined by tradition:
When the hut was built ... his life would move in the known way. He would plant his crops and his children. Some of his crops would be spoiled by worm or weather; some of his children would die. He would grow old, and the young men would respect him. That was the way close to him as his own veins. (91)
As the months pass, however, Kofi finds himself becoming increasingly estranged from his wife and family. Spending his leisure hours at a drinking establishment which has
The white men rarely showed their faces in the village, and the villagers rarely ventured into the strangers ' camp, half a mile upriver. The two settlements were as separate as the river fish from the forest birds. They existed beside one another, but there was no communication between them. (90)
The absence of drastic disruptions induces the villagers to believe that they can continue undisturbed in their old way of life, even as they bask in the new climate of prosperity that the bridge project makes possible. Even Kofi 's existence continues for a while to adhere to the pattern defined by tradition:
When the hut was built ... his life would move in the known way. He would plant his crops and his children. Some of his crops would be spoiled by worm or weather; some of his children would die. He would grow old, and the young men would respect him. That was the way close to him as his own veins. (91)
As the months pass, however, Kofi finds himself becoming increasingly estranged from his wife and family. Spending his leisure hours at a drinking establishment which has