THE UNKNOWN HANDS (EPISODE SIX)

STORY SERIES

…a medicine man look like a liar” The victim would be plagued by a child who died shortly after his birth. This trend would continue until such woman grew old and died without a child. In my mother’s case, the witches had purportedly blocked her womb for several years

after her marriage, making it impossible for her to have a child early. It was much later that she had the pregnancy that resulted in me, apparently when everyone including my father had lost every hope of her bringing forth a child. And ever since my birth, she had tried every herbs prescribe by various medicine men and diviners in order to have more issue but all had been to no avail.

Members of my father’s family had advised him to take “abiku” means a born – to – die child another wife at a time. I could still remember well how my father was made an object of ridicule by Pa Lapite while the engaged in the Ayo game. My father had argued on one occasion that, since his manhood was one, God intended only one wife for him and his friend had countered that God who gave him just one manhood, knew it could withstand more than thousand women!. It was a case of someone selling his own idea to another who preferred to hold tenaciously to his own belief. With time, it was easy for anyone that cared to see the seriousness and sincerity with which my father held on to his conviction on marriage. Even when he was reminded that having only child in the world was like having none, however, his opinion did not change. He was in fact more hardened than ever in his belief though from all indications; it seemed as if it had all been to his disadvantage. He had had little or no support on his farm and his output was usually low compared to those of his mates. Yet, contentment was his watchword. I can remember that when I started putting in my own little efforts on the farm, he was always full of praise of me and was usually suggesting that I would be a more successful farmer than he. And being very understanding too, he knew I needed people to play with. As such, he allowed me to visit other farm settlements within our vicinity for the moon-games I enjoyed a lot. Any day I did not return on time, he would come looking for me and would not fail to remind me that “when night falls, the nuts are submitted to the ayo”.

It was much later, after my father’s death that I started to read meanings to some of the jokes he shared with his traitor-friend while playing their usual game. For instance, on one “ayo” is a game played by two people on a slate having six small hand-sized holes on either side each containing four tiny round stone-liked nuts. Occasion, after seizing nearly all the nuts in Pa Lapite’s side of the “ayo” which meant that my father was winning, my father told him that his hand was as dry as his farmland and the man had looked very serious, as someone who was bereaved. I realized that it was true indeed that uncompleted toes should not be counted in the awareness of the owner. I came to realize too, even as little as I was then, that anyone who did not enjoy being made fun of should not move near the site of “Ayo”. Another surprising thing was that all the time, some women … To be continued on Thursday.

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