Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Tracker addresses the Inquisitor, refusing to talk about his time in Mitu with Mossi after giving the boy back to Lissisolo. A griot enters the interrogation room and begins to sing about Tracker’s time being in love and helping raise children. Tracker still wants to get circumcised, so he visits the Gangatom chief and asks for help.

After Tracker takes part in the male coming-of-age ceremony (drinking cow’s blood and riding bulls), the cutter comes with the knife. However, Tracker refuses, recognizing his misogyny: “The sum of my days / is all about cutting the woman out [...] when it is I who leave my mother / and I who would now cut away my own self” (530).

The song continues with Mossi encouraging Tracker to visit his mother, who is housing the mingi, and he wails for her. When the griot mentions Leopard, Tracker stops the verse and agrees to tell the Inquisitor “everything” (532).