The day the man known as Yarn walked into the town of Baalbek, Republic of Lebanon, Zainab Al-Baabur's world would never the same. Oh, the young Lebanese woman had seen African men before. However, Thomas Yarn didn't carry himself like the Somalis, Malians and Berbers who occasionally came into the Republic of Lebanon. He called himself a proud son of Detroit City, State of Michigan. She had to look up the name in a dictionary before she figured out he was referring to a metropolis in the United States of America. The Lebanese people's racism toward dark-skinned individuals, whether Tamil Indians or continental Africans, was well known throughout the Arab world. However, Thomas Yarn the Black American walked into the City of Baalbek like he owned the place one fine day in November 1989.
Zainab Al-Baabur was only twenty years old. A five-foot-eleven, pleasantly curvy, bosomy and big-bottomed, bronze-skinned and raven-haired beauty with piercing light brown eyes. The only daughter of Farouk Al-Baabur, one of the wealthiest men in the tumultuous world of Lebanese politics. Soon she would be married off to some wealthy Arab guy, perhaps that Yemeni businessman Mohammed something or other whose favour her father courted. However, she was quite apprehensive about the whole thing. Most Lebanese Muslim girls Zainab's age were already married but Zainab had long dodged her family's pressures on her by focusing on her education. She spent three years studying at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and her experience in British society changed her. Zainab saw that women could do anything. In the conservative nation of Lebanon, even Lebanese Christian women had to abide by the sexist rules that limited women's social, economic and political development.
Indeed, Zainab was fascinated by all things western. How she yearned to return to the City of London, England, and continue her studies in the most magnificent metropolis in the entire world. Her parents thought western society poisoned her and were even stricter with her. Ever the rebel, Zainab kept pushing for more and more independence. She got a job working as a manager for a textiles company owned by her uncle Wahid. She liked the job and the freedom it afforded her. In the eyes of Lebanese Muslims, a woman's place was in the home. Lebanese Christians were a bit more liberal with their women but Zainab had no intention of crossing over into the Christian faith. Muslims welcomed people of all faiths into their midst once they converted to Islam, but they were likely to kill anyone trying to leave Islam for another religion. Zainab grew up hearing horror stories about Coptic Christians in Egypt and how the Egyptian Muslim majority tormented them at every turn. Being a Christian in a mostly Muslim country was a fate that Zainab did not want. It was like being a rat in snake country. Harsh but true.
Even though Zainab's father Farouk was as conservative as any Arab man ever born, he was quite interested in western society because of the wealth and power of the Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. These five groups basically controlled the entire world. Oh, the Republic of China and the remnants of the Japanese Imperium were rising powers but for now the Europeans held dominion over the planet Earth. Farouk knew this and he was covetous of the power the western governments held. That's why even though he was racist as hell, he invited Thomas Yarn, the Black man from America, into his home and introduced him to his family and business associates. Farouk was impressed by Thomas Yarn. The tall, dark and handsome African-American businessman was built like a warrior and carried himself like one but he had an Ivy League education. Even as far as the Republic of Lebanon, names like Harvard University carried a lot of power. Thomas Yarn, born and raised in the town of Detroit, Michigan, had a bachelor's degree in sociology from Howard University and a Harvard University MBA. He worked for the world-famous Excelsior United Corporation, which had holdings throughout North America, Europe and even parts of North Africa and Latin America.
