As the stranger approached, Shola noticed that he was handsome and her excitement increased. It was of such a man she had dreamt. He had fine, arrogant carriage, like a soldier or someone in authority. When he reached the end of the pier, he addressed them in a rich, deep voice that disturbed her as the voluptuous rising of the tide had done. ‘You’re Tunde Onu, I’m told’, he said to her father. ‘That’s right, said her father.
‘The bus conductor told me you take people to the islands’, the man continued. I’d like to go there if you can take me. Her father examined the man from head to foot, shrewdly measuring his capacity to pay. Then he said: ‘When were you thinking of going?’ ‘Right away’.  ‘That’s different story, for my boatman is gone to Badagry and he won’t be back before nightfall. ‘Oh!’ said the stranger. That’s too bad. You couldn’t get someone else instead of him? ‘I would have to think hard!’, he said gloomily, for it's not everyone who would do for the job of going with me beyond the bay to the islands at this time of the year. Shola understood her father’s manoeuvre and felt ashamed.

I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill among nations and that if only the common people of the world could meet one another at football or squash, they would have no inclination to meet on the battle field. Even if one didn’t know from concrete example (the 1936 Olympic games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principals.
Nearly all the sports practiced nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning. Unless you do your utmost to win. On the village green, where you pick up sides and not feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simple for fun of it and exercise, but as soon as the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused. Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. At the international level, sport is frankly a mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators and behind the spectators are the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests and seriously believe at any rate for short period that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.
Even a leisurely game demanding grace rather than strength can cause much ill-will. Football, a game in which everyone gets hurt and every nation has its own style or play is far worse. Worst of all is boxing. One of the most horrible sights in the world is a fight between white and coloured boxers before a mixed audience