The Informer He is what he is called, a police informer. Hemingway did a lot of intelligence work, first in the Spanish Civil War, where he brought the term fifth columnist into the English and many other languages, and then in Cuba during World War II, where he helped to catch several German spies, one of whom was executed, who were sent over to Havana via Spain. Hemingway shows a sympathy and a pity for the Informer which is shared by nobody else in the story.

Bwana Mouse Patrick, Ernest Hemingway’s middle son, a.k.a. “mouse.”

The Widow The mother of Debba and under the dubious protection of the Informer.

Debba A young black African woman. Hemingway has been faulted as unable to realistically depict women in his fiction. This would be, if true, a serious fault in a major writer, similar to pointing out that an Old Master could not draw the human figure. Hemingway grew up in a household shared with four sisters so he certainly had an opportunity to learn. A different sort of criticism is now styled political correctness. Art is regarded by these critics as a tool in social engineering. In Hitler’s Germany, it was politically correct to depict Jews as dirty polluters of a pure Aryan stream. Whatever the reader’s opinions about artistic competence or purpose he or she should pay attention to Debba.

Mr. Singh In the old colonial Kenya, when the white people pronounced it to rhyme with “key” instead of the post-colonial rhyme with the first name “Kay,” the population, for administrative purposes, was divided into European, Asian and African according to their continents of origin. Mr. Singh is an Asian and a Sikh. His people originate from the Punjab and their rage at the way the Indian government handled the Golden Temple crisis led to the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi. The Sikhs are a warlike and mechanically gifted people, many of whom are machine tool operators, airline pilots, police inspectors and electrical engineers. A Sikh policeman friend of mine had the unpleasant task of having to arrest a very cantankerous, fat and foul-mouthed old European lady on a charge of having poisoned her husband for the insurance. Although she called him a curry-farting bastard to his face, my friend arrested her with the utmost care and professional courtesy.

Mrs. Singh The very handsome wife of Mr. Singh.

<p>Swahili Glossary</p>

askari (noun) Soldier, a loan word from Turkish.

bili (adjective) Ungrammatical form of two. Should be mbili.

Boma 1. (noun) Fence, an area protected or sealed off by any sort of enclosure. 2. (noun) Buildings and grounds of a district government headquarters.

bunduki (noun) Gun, a loan word from Arabic.

bwana 1. (noun) Title prefixed to name of a European man having no other title. 2. (noun) Sir (used by an African addressing a European).

chai (noun) Tea.

chakula (noun) Food.

chui (noun) Leopard.

dudus (noun) English plural of word for bug: dudu.

duka (noun) Store.

dumi (noun) Male animal.

hapana (interjection) No.

Hiko huko (phrase) It or he is over there.

hodi (interjection) Hello (calling attention, or answering call).

jambo 1. (noun) Concern. 2. (interjection) Greeting: “Cool?” to which the correct response is “sijambo”: “Cool, man.” (Literally: “no concern.”)

kanga (noun) Guinea fowl.

kidogo (adjective) Small.

Kikamba (noun) The language spoken by the Kamba tribe.

kongoni (noun) Coke’s hartebeest.

kubwa (adjective) Big.

kufa (intransitive verb) To die.

kuhalal (transitive verb) To cut the throat of.

kuleta (transitive verb) To bring.

kupiga (transitive verb) To shoot, also to hit or strike.

kuua (transitive verb) To kill.

kwali (noun) Francolin, a pheasantlike upland game bird.

kwenda (intransitive verb) To go.

kwisha (intransitive verb) It is finished. A contraction of imekwisha.

mafuta (noun) Fat, lard.

Manyatta (noun) A masai word equivalent to Boma.

mbili (adjective) Two. (Note H’s purposefully illiterate usage in conversation with Debba in.)

mchawi (noun) Witch.

memsahib (noun) Title prefixed to name of a European woman having no other title. A contraction of Madam Sahib.

mganga (noun) Wizard. A good witch.

mimi (personal pronoun) I.

mingi (adjective) Many.

moja (noun) One.

moran (noun) A Masai word equivalent to askari.

mtoto (noun) Child.

mwanamuki (noun) Woman.

Mzee (noun) Old man.

mzuri (adjective) Good.

ndege (noun) Bird, aircraft.

ndio (interjection) Yes.

Ngoma (noun) Dance.

nyanyi (noun) Baboon.

panga (noun) Machete, sword, cutlass.

poli poli (adverb) Slowly.

pombe (noun) Homemade beer.

posho (noun) Cornmeal.

risasi (noun) Bullet.

samaki (noun) Fish.

sana (adverb) Very.

shamba (noun) Small cultivated field.

shauri (noun) Affair, business, concern.

simba (noun) Lion.

tembo (noun) Elephant. Can also mean hard liquor.