Olokun pt1 (the wind of destiny)

A Sad Tale Begins

CHAPTER 6

AUGUST 14 1890

Maybe it was the air around that town, maybe it was the fastness with which the people continued their business or the way everyone seemed not to notice the people around them, but Agholor knew that immediately he stepped into Ekpon he was filled with a very bad feeling, as if someone had put a hornet's nest on the floor and asked him to walk on it barefooted, the market was fastidiously clean, as if it had just been swept, and the women dressed in a strange manner, they did not put on clothes made from bags of salt like his people, these were made from strange clothing, a type he had not seen before, he turned to his wife and noticed that she also felt strange too “ Are you alright Omo?", his wife was shocked, he had not called her by her name in a long while, was it that he was changing with their environment, or was it that the stress from their journey was getting to his head?, placing her hand on his head she asked “Are you okay my Lord?”, “Is it because I called you by your name?", he asked her with an amused look on his face, then taking her hands he said “ My love, mother of my children, you have no reason to fear I am alright", “ Then why have you started calling me by name?, why are you speaking to me like a mere man?", “Because I am now a mere man, we are in a strange land now, a land owned by no man, a place where no one has a need for my authority, and just like every other man and woman joined by Osanobua, it is time we dropped all the formalities of the palace and be husband and wife". His wife still was not pleased, though she liked the change, she had missed her tender husband, but this was too sudden, the fact that they were in another land didn't mean that they would drop their culture and suddenly take on the culture of the land without even getting to properly understand it, she was going to argue this down with him, as if he could read her mind he waved it aside saying “I know you want to tell me that I should not let the culture of the strange land affect me but I will not, Obti blood runs through my veins and it will not run dry not even in my death", pointing to the child on her back whose neck was bent awkwardly, he said, “ Raise her head up so we can quickly get to the square where Iyamu and Izeh are waiting, we don't know your sister's house and I do not think it will be safe for us to be outside in this land by nightfall".

Meanwhile at the square Izeh the fan bearer had left Iyamu the Olokun priest under a shed to get some water but had gotten into trouble and was held down by some hefty men who had plans to take him to the village head's house for stealing water “ I am not a thief", he cried as he was dragged away, “ I never knew that the water was for sale, please have mercy", “You did not know it was for sale?”, asked one of the hefty men who dragged him “ Are you a stranger in this land?", to which he nodded “ Then you should have asked, what if it was poisoned, what would have happened to you, we shall not let you go, we will take you to our chief, he will decide your fate", said the second man who dragged him. Noticing the commotion and suddenly impatient from waiting for Izeh to come back, Iyamu sent Omonoba the Enogie's second son to go look for him, within a short time the young boy ran back shouting excitedly “Baba they have carried Izeh, Baba they have carried him away", Calming him down, Iyamu said “Patience child, I cannot hear a word you have said please be calm and say it again, so the child took a deep breath and repeated what he had said before, Iyamu was shocked “ Taken me to where he is child", “Baba I do not know where he is now the big men said they are taking him to a chief, “ I know the chief of Ekpon, he is good man and a friend", “How do you know him baba, this land is a far away land from Obti, we walked for two days before we got here so how did you get to know the chief?", “You ask a lot of questions child, too much even for a boy, I will answer all your questions when we get to the chief's house", seeing that the king and queen were near he said “ Let us wait for your father and mother they are near us. When the king got near him, he was suprised to not see Izeh with them, ignoring Iyamu's greetings and genuflection he asked “Where is Izeh?", “He was taken away by some men to the chief's house for a reason I do not know yet my king, please let us move quickly so we can find out why he was taken before something terrible happens to him”. On getting to the chief's house, a great crowd circled a grey haired man sitting in a big chair and a shaken Izeh knelt a far off, with two hefty men holding water canes by his side. The grey haired man spoke in a booming voice “ People of Ekpon, you have brought before me a young man accused of the grave crime of stealing, you chose me as your chief because you believed in my fairness and integrity and because of this we will hear his story, and if it turns out that he is guilty we will keep him in the village prison till the welfare officer visits tomorrow", looking at Izeh, he asked “ Young man, what is your name and what is your crime?", genuflecting, Izeh too afraid to look around said “ My name is Izeh, I am from Obti, a land very far away from here, I and my master who was king journeyed to this land alongside the queen, their two children and our priest, we left our land to this place because, the Ogiso and Ogele had conspired and dethroned our king, they placed his son on the throne and had the Enogie banished, for seventeen years claiming it was a period of rest for him because his mind was not clear, the Olokun priest and I were also banished alongside him because they feared that we would raise a rebellion against the new king, the Olokun priest and I had journeyed ahead with the young prince, we have been on the road for two days and when we got here, we decided to stay under a shed to rest our feet and wait for the king and queen to meet us. The prince and priest were parched in their throats so I had decided to go into the market and see if I would see anyone who would be kind enough to give us a drink of water, when I got there, I saw two pots of water placed in front of a shed with a cup on each of the pots, I did not see anyone in the shop and I did not know that the water was for sale, before I could even take a drop, I heard a young girl's voice shouting “thief, thief”, not knowing I was the cause of the commotion, I bent to take another cup which I would take back my companions, hoping that when I came back I would thank the person who had placed the water there, before I could even do that, I was pushed to the ground by these men who stand beside me, that was when I was brought here". “Hmmm so how come there is no one here to support your claim, where are your mystery companions", “We are here", answered the king coming out of the crowd and walking to Izeh, he was followed by the queen and the priest “You do not look like a king, you look like a slave, why would a king wear a bag of salt, or is your kingdom another one of those kingdoms that are still in the old world?", the chief asked looking at the Enogie derisively, “ Do not look at me with shame in your eyes my brother chief, you can say that I am from an ancient kingdom because Obti is a land that has stood for a thousand rains but I assure you that my boy here speaks nothing else but the truth, in our land the tongue of a liar is cut off so our children are raised to speak only truth and this sack I wear looks this way because I have not washed myself for two days, my Olokun priest can support my claim", he said signaling to Iyamu to come out from behind him. When Iyamu came forward, a look of suprise came to the chief's face, “ Iyamu! , son of Osariemhen the great woman of coal", “Igbinedion son of Ekiadolor ,the great man of Ivory", replied Iyamu, the chief was so joyous that he rushed and hugged him tightly, giving him two hearty hits on his back he said “ So you followed your father's footsteps and became a priest abandoning, your mother's coal in the hands of your little sister?", Iyamu laughed and said “ We were both chosen by the gods to serve them differently, she was chosen to provide heat and light for the people and I was chosen to show my father's land the way and we both had no choice to answer our different calls", leaving the chief's embrace he walked towards the king and said “ I am now a priest of Olokun called to serve under the Enogie of Obti", “ That is a good thing”, replied the chief, “And before I forget what brought us to this part let me give my verdict on what happened to my people, so that they can go back to their duties", looking at Izeh he said “ Rise son, I have chosen to forgive you of your crime because you are a stranger and you do not know the ways of my people, this must not happen again, this is my verdict, this hearing is dismissed, and there shall be celebrations this evening in my house to welcome our brothers from the old lands, you may all go home, ,Osareti Osareti" he called looking at the door which led into a strange looking house which was not made with mud but a strange looking kind of white sand and an iron roof, a young girl ran out from the house towards him “Please tell your mother to come that we have visitors and bring some seats too", “Yes father" she answered kneeling and running into the house. The Enogie could not hold his curiosity at the man's house so he asked, “Your house is very strange and different from the kinds I have seen, what type of sand was it built with?", “Cement, it is a special kind of sand that holds better than mud alone, it was built for me by the welfare officer as proof that I am the chief, you see king....." “ Agholor", he did not want the chief to feel threatened in his own land, “ Call me Agholor, I am not a king anymore", “If you say so Agholor" said the chief, he had been afraid before because of Agholor's imposing statue and he felt threatened that he was a deposed king, because he thought he would try to use that as an opportunity to take his position as the chief of Ekpon, he had worked very hard to get here, he may have done some bad things like; selling off his brothers and sisters to a faraway land, but those were only bad people who did evil, he was not ready to leave the seat he had gotten with blood for another person, but nevertheless, he felt at ease seeing that the Enogie was not interested in his position, so he would try to educate him on the ways of his people, and the changes that were happening around them, “So as I was saying....", he was interrupted by his wife and his two children who brought seats for them, which they took gladly, “ You called me my Lord", she said kneeling by his side and getting up", " Yes I did my wife, these people here are visit.....", again he was interrupted but this time by his wife who shouted “Omo", to the king's wife who ran to her and embraced her, “I received your message from the runners that you were with child but when I did not receive any message about her birth, I was filled with fear," the queen replied, “Iye this is your child, on my back, she is just a moon old", “Ehn, and you stand under the son, please bring her and her brother inside, what do you call them? and where are the rest?", “ She is called Ivie and this is Omonoba as for the rest it is a long story that I will tell you when we get inside", seeing the looks of suprise on the face of the men Iye smiled, “ Forgive me my fathers, this is my sister, this is the little sister I told you about my Lord, the one who is an ancient queen", she said touching his shoulder", let me take her and the children inside so I can feed them with the yam porridge left over from the morning meal", she said taking the child from her sister's back and going inside with her and her son. “Women laughed the chief, “Anyways, welcome once again my brothers, when my son comes from the white man's school in Esan, he will get you proper clothes, I do not want the welfare officer to look down on you when he comes tomorrow”.

And so that was how Agholor and his family entered into a new world, a place and people who saw him and his family as people of an ancient world, he knew definitely that his survival was in the hands of Osanobua.