Wednesday 13 November 2013

The man at first

The fences were empty and no preachers belted their admonitions at passersby. For the first time ever, they cruised through Little Circle and sped on to Sankara Circle without so much as a single vehicle for traffic. Sankara’s capital city had started out as a large Kuri town, with most of the buildings clustered near the coast for fishing. Prior to the vacuum cleaner reviews arrival of Europeans there were no sailing vessels that were powered by wind, and the local dugouts did not draft enough to require deep harbors. It was only by chance that a deep harbor was present here.


When the Europeans came and established a presence, best vacuum cleaner reviews the location became the logical place to establish a European township because of the deepwater harbor. The Portuguese built the first castle right on the coast to load gold and slaves into their ships and then the Dutch raided here and took it over. The Dutch then moved most of the administrative buildings further inland to escape the cannons of the other European powers, and they stretched the vacuum cleaner reviews reach of the pacified area out in a circle. This established new village centers around the main center in a hub and spoke fashion. When the British took over Sankara lock, stock, and barrel they put a defensive berm and wall around the entire settlement to protect from the incessant tribal attacks.

This set the boundaries of what became the center of the modern city. Each of the centers became roundabouts, which the locals referred to as circles, and the original administrative center became the major, best vacuum cleaner reviews central roundabout which was referred to as Sankara Circle. In the modern era there were no real traffic laws, and getting from point A to point B in the city was no small endeavor. The fact that they were vacuum cleaner reviews able to get through Little Circle without seeing another vehicle was eerie, and the eeriness was not lost on Tony and Ciaran. They were in a Hiace tro-tro that left Sal-Rabas full with market women, laborers, and schoolboys returning from holiday.


As with any transport creeping across the West African map it stopped where it was bidden to stop, and many of the small towns and villages along the road from Sal-Rabas to the capital siphoned off one or two of the passengers. They were left now with the driver, the driver’s mate, and two muscular, mean looking men. The van sped on toward the lorry park at Sankara Circle with no comment from anyone in the vehicle. Tony shifted down the bench seat until he was across from one of the men and looked in his face. Where is everybody? he asked.

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