Oba village, early 1800’s. (fictional excerpt)
It was very late in the night and
all that could be heard was the intermittent thunder & the noise of the rain
clattering on the dense vegetation & the muddy soil beneath. It had been
raining for most of the day & the intensity of the rainfall hadnt reduced,
as claypots (that are usually kept outside during rains, by the village women),
were long over-flowing with the rain water.
The weather was cool & chilly
& at this time of the night, most of the lamps in the huts had been put out,
as everyone had gone to sleep (more-so, by the sleep inducing weather of the night).
But one particular hut still had its lantern on, & in it was a woman
sitting pensively on the edge of her bed. Aprehension was evident in her eyes
and she was oblivious to the fact that the little child sleeping in her laps
was precariously perched……& GBAM!!!, the child hit the floor, & both
mother & child looked at each other (as both were suddenly awakened to
consciousness), then slowly & gradually increasing in decibels, the child
let out her cry. “Ndoo o….ndoo nwa m, ndoo” (sorry my child,…sorry); those were
the words from the mother in an effort to placate the crying baby. The mother’s
name is Enyidiya & the baby she was carrying, Adaora. Enyidiya was arguably
the prettiest woman in the whole village of Oba. She was tall, dark & quite
slim. She had a narrow waist & a curvy figure, and her eyes were like
little cat eyes that lit up when she revealed her lovely dentition (her teeth
were in line and her canine teeth only on the upper row, slightly longer than
the rest). She was indeed beautiful. Were it not for the laws of the land that
the Igwe (king) must have a daughter of royal blood as his first wife, he would
have happily taken Enyidiya as his queen. But Enyidiya was far from Royal
blood. She was the only daughter (& only child) of her mother Mgborie who
was married to the late,Ikwu, (a village palm-wine tapper). Even though Mgborie
was in no position to refuse the Igwe the hand of her daughter in marriage, she
quietly wished her daughter to marry someone else, that wasn’t polygamous, for
Enyidiya was all that she has, & she wanted for her to be loved & well catered
for by her husband. She knew that by the
next new yam festival, the Igwe would most likely come for Enyidiya’s hand in
marriage as his 2nd wife & she also knew that the current “lolo”
(queen of the land), would spite Enyidiya out of jealousy & envy for her ravishing
beauty.
Enyidiya was a girl without any
airs about her, very humble & dutiful (for it was how her mother raised
her) & this furthermore strenghtened the resolve of the mother to find her
a suitable husband before the next new yam festival (when the Igwe would choose
another wife). She approached the (then) Ezemuo (high priest of the Oracle),
explained her situation, made him the offer to marry her daughter & gave
him the condition (that he wasn’t to marry another wife). The Ezemuo was a young
robust man. He wasn’t anything to talk about in the looks department, but he
had a good heart & was revered by the people. Of course he was aware of the
beautiful Enyidiya & after hearing Mgborie out, he understood her worries
& agreed to her conditions, in the next 9 market days the plans for the
marriage were underway & by the 10th market day, they were married,
& so it became that Enyidiya & Ezemuo Okarammadu became man & wife.
On this night though, it wasn’t
her history that was heavy on the mind of Adaora, (nor was it her unrelenting
rain), but another fear pinched silently at her heart.
