I, a journalist, was privileged to have a one-on-one session with the official national hangman of a country in the southern parts of Africa. The government in question has a long British colonial history and has been appearing in the international press for all the wrong reasons. The interview session was held at the maximum security jail; as expected, the condition of the prison is colonial derelict and, with minimum maintenance over the years, now casts a sad look. Every building in the expansive vicinity is roofed with corrugated iron and in various advanced stages of rusty erosion. The central prison is encircled by a 9-foot-tall wall with various guard towers at intervals. The prison cantonment is set far from town in an undulating tropical rainforest with massive acreage where the inmates spend their hours tilling the land under the watchful guard of armed warders. It is a dead place, and any visitor, like me, could sense the claustrophobic feeling and some noisome cloyi