The mouth that eats the seeds asks what it will plant:
TO GET ANSWERS TO THE INHERITANCE ESSAY QUESTIONS
Lacuna is described as a lazy greedy man with a liking for carnal pleasures. It is in pursuit of his pleasures that he ends up destroying the foundation of the economic and political independence of his people.
He believes in entertaining his guests, sometimes even referring to the age-old tradition of breaking kora. But he does not think kora is good enough for a man of his stature and the kind of guests that he gets. We would assume kora is home-grown, but he goes for the more exotic, and 'nutritious' apple which we can safely assume is not grown locally. His parties flow with imported wine and coffee re-exported from England to his country. He is also too good to travel overland and has acquired a plane to soar over the gossip, complaints and envy of his people. His court seems to be an endless succession of one party after the other and there are impromptu holidays for his people. These are not ways in which to develop a country's economy.
At the time of his ascension to the throne, there was some rudimentary industrialization that was taking off. But it appears as if it was not fast enough for him and his foreign masters. They loaned him money to buy more machines for the silver mines and service the existing ones. But in his total lack of wisdom and greed, he diverted the money to subsidies and bought only one machine. He also took some of the money from the ministries and banked it abroad, Consequently, production has sunk to all-time lows. There is nothing coming from the coffee and tea farms. Production in the silver mines has declined by 15%. Therefore, the country is standing on very shaky economic grounds. When his masters ask to be paid back, he wonders how he will raise the money, yet it is his poor economic policies and misappropriation of funds that have led him to his current situation.
The white masters are even threatening to dethrone him as they have so eloquently done when Goldstein sits on his throne as he grovels on the floor. The moment he abandons the economic policies of his father that were grounded on freedom, he was eating up the seeds, so he should not be asking plaintively where he is to get the money to pay up old debts and the interest.
Lacuna also ate up the seeds of social development. His father had started the society on some kind of education, however rudimentary. Now it is impossible for children to go to school because of the many levies that are imposed. There is also a lot of hopelessness among people who are educated but cannot get jobs. The moral compass is lost because he was so disdainful of the religion and education that his father had introduced that he did not support them. He prefers an ignorant superstitious people whom he can continue ruling as 'subjects' and manipulating in meaningless rituals like the yearly rebirth ritual.
He destroys the people and their aspirations and still expects them to support him to reclaim the 'sovereignty' that Goldstein and Robert have 'taken'.
These are the same people who cannot even produce enough food because they lack the means. Their farmlands have also
been bought by Lacuna's cronies who have the money. These are the same people who are so poor that they have destroyed forests. Now there is no water and they can only farm if they use irrigation which may not be possible unless bankrolled by the west — and he is busy fighting them. These are the same people he is forcing out of their homes so that he can give the land over to Robert and company. He orders an oppressive curfew on the people and is planning to withhold their salaries. He has also retrenched them from their jobs and done away with their subsidies. The king has destroyed any good will the people would have had for him, yet he expects them to join him as he fights for what he calls sovereignty. We are also told that he has created many enemies in his quest to consolidate his leadership. These include Bengo, who was jailed and later comes back to start a rebellion against him. He seems very contemptuous of his wife, Melissa and his adopted sister, Sangoi. In his final act of folly, he sacks his supporter Chipande and worse his spiritual guide, Malipoa, who at least could direct his actions towards patience and a second opinion. He is busy destroying the seeds that would have germinated to some good in his life. The king has destroyed the foundation of the country's economy. He betrays the dreams of his people when they rebelled against the white man. He has betrayed the vision of his father to develop a country of free and proud people who would live as equals to the white man. He has traded away their economic independence and unconsciously, their political freedom. He has nobody but himself to blame for the misery that befalls him personally, and his country.
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