The Illegal

The narrative returns to the fictional Red Hills of Zantoroland, where Keita is 10 years old, living with his father, mother, and 11-year-old sister, Charity. Even at age 10, Keita is already training to become a famous marathon runner. He trains daily in the red clay dirt and uses the hills to increase his stamina. His father, Hassane Moustafa Ali (nicknamed Yoyo), is a writer. He writes about the current political situation and the disenfranchised Faloo people even though it is dangerous. Yoyo publishes works around the world, including in The New York Times. Keita describes falling asleep each night to the sound of his father writing on a typewriter.

Keita’s parents require him to do volunteer work at the local Faloo Zion Baptist Church. One day, as he is polishing the pews for Deacon Andrews and listening to his sister sing in the choir, a group of 10 men with sticks, bats, and knives belligerently approaches the church. The deacon tells Keita, “I will teach these young men the language of God […] You get running” (14). Before Keita runs, he sees the men encircle and attack the deacon, insulting him because he is Faloo: “Fucking Faloos and their fucking church […] Let’s burn this shithole down!” (14). Keita witnesses them stab the deacon and runs away to avoid a similar fate. Although one of the men chases him, Keita outpaces him by running up a hill. From his vantage point, Keita can see that the church is burning. After the men leave, Keita returns to help Deacon Andrews, but he is dead. Unsure of what to do, Keita imagines that his parents would tell him to run, and so he does.

Keita is now 12 years old and still training every day. His family has run low on money and given up their summer home in the Red Hills. They now reside in the city of Yagwa. As Keita walks through town, he thinks about Yagwa’s history. Zantoroland is located between Africa and Australia, in the Ortiz Sea. To the north is Freedom State, a rich nation that once enslaved Zantorolanders. After two centuries, Freedom State abolished slavery and deported most Black people to Zantoroland. As Keita thinks, he is startled by a group of ragged men called The Returnees, who demand a dollar from him. Returnees, according to Keita’s father, “are good men who have been broken” (18). When one Returnee recognizes Keita as Yoyo’s son, they let him go and tell him to give his father their regards.

Back at home, Yoyo is preparing to travel to Cameroon to research a story. Before departing, he treats the family at a café, where they order madeleines and hot chocolate. Yoyo explains that madeleines are Zantoroland’s single claim to fame. The country was once colonized by Germany, France, and Britain. Although France only briefly ruled the region, “it had left an indelible mark with its madeleine. The student […] eventually surpassed the professor” (20). The family walks home from the café and says goodbye to Yoyo.

After his departure, news breaks that the army commander Jenkins Randall has staged a violent coup d’état. He and his troops execute President Goodson before a crowd. Randall then declares himself president for life and says that the Kano people are the rightful majority. Masked men begin violently attacking Faloo people throughout the city. Keita’s mother, Lena, keeps them closed in their house but confronts the “hooligans” when they bang on the door. Lena shows the attackers she is not afraid, and Charity, recognizing one of their voices as David the eggplant seller, lunges to remove his mask. After being revealed, David smashes everything he possibly can, and then the attackers leave the house. Lena turns to speak to her children and has a sudden heart attack. Though they find a neighbor to drive her to the hospital, she is dead by the time they arrive.

Yoyo does not return for two weeks. When he does, he is frozen with grief but tells the children to be strong. Keita is consumed with grief and guilt, feeling that he should have protected his mother from the stress of the intruders. It is not until Charity, Yoyo, and Keita sing a church hymn together that their grief is allowed to flow. When Keita is too full of grief, he trains, running up and down the mountain that locals call “the struggle.” (26).

One morning in 2009, a young messenger tells Keita he must come to the Ministry of Citizenship with a wagon to receive a message about his father, who is nowhere to be found. Yoyo once said, “[I]t’s not truly a ministry of citizenship. It’s a ministry of detention, abuse and worse” (29). Once inside the ministry, Keita hears his father’s voice behind a closed door. He sounds like he is being tortured. Keita demands to see his father and is punched in the face for his insolence. He is not allowed to see his moaning father because he has not brought a wagon. He is instructed to leave and not come back without a wagon.

Keita desperately asks the woman who sells mangoes to lend him her wagon. When he returns to the Pink Palace with it, his badly beaten, unconscious father is placed into the wagon. Keita pulls his father all the way home, with aching arms. Keita’s neighbors help get Yoyo to the hospital, where he must remain for weeks to recuperate. When Yoyo returns return home, he must first use a wheelchair and then a cane. His hands are so badly injured that it is too painful to write. The neighborhood women help care for Yoyo. He tells his children that they should leave when their schooling is finished. His passport was taken from him, but they still have theirs. Yoyo is worried about something called The Tax, a practice where the government kidnaps a family member and holds them for ransom. Charity is accepted into Harvard University, and though Keita is happy she’s leaving and will no longer be vulnerable to The Tax, he is sad to see her go.

Anton Hamm is a marathon agent interested in signing Keita. Hamm is a two-time Olympic medalist in shot-putting. He turned to running later in his career and became interested in “managing the careers of promising distance runners from Africa and Zantoroland” (40). Keita continues to rebuff Hamm’s advances because he doesn’t want to leave his father’s side.

As a 24-year-old, Keita is trying to advance his career. Yoyo no longer writes much, but he sneaks out in the evenings and has discussions in the dark. Keita does not know whom he talks to or what they discuss. One afternoon a journalist named Mahatma Grafton visits. He tells Keita that Yoyo is working on a dangerous story: Yoyo “has sources in the president’s office. He says they’re legit. He says they’re trustworthy. But I think he should leave the country” (41). Soon after this conversation, the president himself visits Keita and Yoyo in their home. They learn that the president wishes Yoyo to write his autobiography for him. Both Keita and Yoyo attempt to express deference to the president while maintaining their pride. Yoyo does not agree to write the book but says he will consider it. The president leaves with a veiled threat to hurt Keita. Afterward, Keita discovers their house has been bugged. Yoyo and Keita walk to a crowded street to have a private conversation. Yoyo tells Keita that the time has come for him to call Anton Hamm and use his running as a means to leave the country. He tells Keita, “Use your legs to the best of your ability. Travel, and travel soon. Fly very far, and do not look back” (46).

The next morning Keita receives a call saying that he must come up with $20,000 by 5:00 pm or else his father will be killed. He is being subjected to The Tax, and he knows that this is an intentionally impossible task meant to “break the will” (47). Keita knows they will kill his father, but he tries to procure the money anyway. He finds very little money in his father’s bank account, and though he calls and calls, he cannot contact Charity. Five o’clock passes, and Keita knows he must spend the night digging a grave for his father’s body. At daybreak, Keita takes his father’s blanket, borrows a wagon, and goes to the town square, where he finds his father naked and dead by the Fountain of Independence.

In a daze, Keita meets with Anton Hamm for lunch at the Five Stars International Business Hotel. He is offered the most expensive meal of his life and a $2,000 signing bonus. In exchange, Hamm will “own” Keita anywhere outside of Zantoroland, telling him when to race and paying the associated fees. Keita works out a deal to run the Boston Marathon, which is in just a few days. He and Hamm fly out of the country that very night.

When they land in Boston, Keita still can’t get ahold of Charity. He was hoping to grieve their father’s death with her; he also hoped that she could help him get asylum. He checks with her landlord, who says he has not seen her in days, and her voicemail is full. As the Boston Marathon begins, Keita is nervous and distracted with worry about Charity. He races very poorly, experiencing extreme leg cramps from dehydration. Hamm reassures him that he just needs a bit of recuperation and extra training. From Boston, Hamm flies Keita to Freedom State.

Hamm guides Keita through airport security in Freedom State, claiming that Keita is married with children and a groundskeeper at a tennis club. Hamm assures them he will watch over Keita and make sure he obeys all the rules. Hamm puts Keita up in a guest house in Metallurgia, a training center for runners. Keita knows that Hamm will soon send him back to Zantoroland: “[T]o stay alive, he had only one option: to go into hiding before he was returned home” (56). Keita asks a man in a bar how he can get to AfricTown, where he thinks he can hide from deportation. As soon as Hamm leaves on business, Keita flees. He takes a bus to Clarkson, “population 4.5 million—the capital and biggest city of Freedom State” (59). From there, he can walk to AfricTown.