BOOK 3. Chapter 6: The University/1

“Gorby is a member of the illuminati…” the guy sitting just to my left was saying as we sat talking about the unfolding events in the USSR. This was Wednesday 31st December 1986 and almost 3 month since the day of that incident.

Ugo and I had come to the University earlier that day for a party that was going to take place in Clements room later that evening to usher in the new Year. It was supposed to be a small party and none of the students from the preparatory faculty had been invited but Ugo had heard of it anyway and invited me to gate-crash with him. Eddy had initially wanted to come along but him and Ugo decided that it would make more economic sense if he travelled to Kharkov to meet with his brother and to plan for an upcoming trip to Istanbul. They heard that you could buy good leather jackets in that city and then make lots of profits from selling them to the Russians. So they had agreed to pull together their resources-in order to maximise profits-and that Eddy should discuss with his brother about getting buyers for the goods in Kharkov since Rostov was still a bit unsafe for business.

I am sitting with a glass of Vodka in my hand in Clements room. This room is quite spacious as the bed and most of the furniture has been taken out to create space for the party. Ugo has just gone out with Ken to buy more drinks and some food while at the far end of the room, Clements is bent over trying to set up the music system. Sitting just to my left and smoking a cigarette is a guy called Barry or Bartholome-as Ken prefers to call him.

Barry is also in the preparatory faculty of the medical school and is originally from the Republic of Zaire. He is very fluent in English and French and seems to be very interested in politics and African history. I watched him as he talked about yet another conspiracy. I wonder where this guy gets all his information, i thought. His hair cut was low cut giving him a military look and he wore the type of-almost characteristic-oversized designer clothes, which was casting the Zairian’s as the best dressed Africans in town.

Barry believes that there is a grand plan by the white race to discredit everything that people of African origin have ever done and for him Cheik Anta Diop is an African hero-“a modern black Pharaoh” he likes to call him. I had never heard of the man until I met Barry who would say that apart from the fact that Cheik Anta Diop was an all round genius, his works also challenge the “Eurocentric lie that Ancient Egyptians were not black Africans”. Barry seemed to have a lot to say about so many other things as well.
“…you people are naïve if you think that Gorby’s perestroika has not been orchestrated by the illuminati…”he was saying.
“Who are they?” I asked
“The people who control the FBI; the people who control America; the people who control the world…Kasi, you want to tell me that you have never heard of the illuminati?”
“No…”
“I have…” Clements said still fiddling with the electrical appliances across the room “…but I don’t believe they exist; I do agree with you that Gorby is an agent of the West though”.
“Why do you say that he‘s an agent of the West?” I asked never having been previously interested in politics until I started listening to the things that Barry-and a lot of the other guys at the University-had to say. I am starting to realise that I have been reading the wrong books…

“Well. Look at all this Glasnost and Perestroika business that the man started to introduce since he came into power last year; he is re-structuring Communism, for crying out loud! He wants to make the USSR to become a more market driven economy and then to make the system more democratic; Aren’t market-economy and democracy mantra’s of the Capitalist West?” Clements was saying.
“Yes, but things are even a lot more covert than you think Clements! Perestroika and Glasnost are ideas whose times have come in the grand scheme of things for the powers that be. The so-called cold war and indeed the world wars were all gimmicks to distract the gullible from the Illuminati’s agenda to consolidate on power before gradually moving on into the next socio-economic era-the era of the new world order. And that‘s why Gorby‘s doing what he’s doing…”
“ But I don’t understand how the world wars or even the cold war could have benefited their cause…”

“Kasi, your ignorance amazes me! “ snapped Barry sounding a bit irritated, “…even in the political economics classes that they’ve been teaching us so far in the prep faculty have you not heard them go on about the thing they call dialectics. What do you think that it means in practical terms. Do you think its only about arriving at truths through arguments?; Its about making progress through the creation and resolution of conflicts…”

I couldn’t respond to what he was saying because I lacked the information to be able to say anything.
“Interesting angle you have there Barry…” Clements said"....but i believe you're really talking about dialectical materialism. Right?" And at that moment there was a knock on the door.
“Dver Otkrita!” Clements shouted saying that the door is open. The door opened and three women came in.
“Hello krasavitsi! Come right in and sit down” Clements said…” Ken has gone to buy some more stuff for the party“.
The women stood just inside the door looking a bit unsure if they should come in.
“Did we come too early?” One of them asked.
“ Not really. People will soon start trickling in, so the earlier you come the better so that you can get a good place to sit down. Because its looking like we’re going to have a lot of gate-crashers today”. Clements had looked at me when he’d mentioned the word “gatecrashers”.
“Maybe we go and come back later?” she said.
“You might as well start settling down. I’m almost done with the music system. Once I’m done its kicking off. So what’s the point of going? . Meet Kasi and Barry from the medical school. Kasi meet Heidi, Gretchen and Bertha from East Germany”.

The three women were part of a group of University students who had recently come to Rostov for a few months exchange programme to study Russian Language at the University. Ken was already dating one of them-the one who had done the talking and whose name is Gretchen. He had invited her to come with two of her friends to the party. While Clements had done the introductions I found myself attracted to the one called Bertha and had tried not to make it so obvious that I was checking her out. But she caught me looking at her and had smiled.

Bertha did not look German. Well not to me she didn't; I used to think that German’s were all big with blonde hair and blue eyes and were always serious. But she was petit with very dark short hair and full lips. I could not quite tell the colour of her eyes from where I sat but they looked a certain shade of brown. Her hips looked a bit small while her large chest gave her the figure “9” in profile. You probably wouldn’t describe her as being beautiful, but she certainly was very sexy and was now filling me with a lot of lust…
“Ah! Its done,” Clements announced and he slotted the popular Eurhythmics song-sweat dreams are made of this-that had come out just a few years ago. “Let me get you beautiful ladies something to drink. What do you want?”.
“ Do you have sweet Champagne?”. The one called Heidi asked.
“ Sure. And Gretchen…Bertha?”
“The same thanks”
“Some sweet Champagne coming up!” Clements announced.