The Tenth Generation

CHAPTER THREE-3

Chika felt a sense of fear; he felt a bitter taste in his mouth. How was he going to handle this man? “Mazi Nduka, you should have discussed this with my father when he was alive, you don’t just expect me to hand over our land to you just like that. By the way, what proof do you have to back up your claim?” Chika said, trying to sound more courageous than he felt inside.

“I don’t have to prove anything to you boy; you don’t expect an old man like me to lie to you. I really wanted to discuss it with your father, but I never knew he was going to die such a sudden death.” Mazi Nduka noticed that the discussion was really getting at Chika, he smiled and continued, “Don’t let this cause a quarrel between the two of us; I am just collecting what is simply mine, so I expect you to show maturity in this matter.”

Chika was shocked; He was dumbfounded, and before he could recover himself, Nduka gently said, “There are things you don’t know, young man. Don’t let your ignorance make you believe you are fit enough to drag this land with me, just simply and peacefully let go of it, it is not yours, it is mine.”

“I won’t do that! I will never allow you to have that land; it is my father’s. Mazi Nduka, you seem to have forgotten whose ground you are threading on. You really surprise me, how do you expect that I will let you come into the Obi’s family and take anything you want? You better forget that land for your own good.” He started walking faster; he didn’t feel like talking to the old man anymore.

Mazi Nduka couldn’t walk fast enough to meet up with him, so he allowed him to go ahead. But before Chika could double the distance, he said loud enough for him to hear, “I will like you to go and think about this discussion and do what you are supposed to do. But don’t force me to coerce you into giving me the land; you won’t like the scene, I tell you.”

This was too much for Chika, but he remained silent. He was now sure that life was going to be miserable for him if he continued like this. All he wanted to do right now was to get home and do some deep thinkings while he rested.

************

Nkechi was just coming out of the house when she looked up and saw her husband coming. She waited for him to get to the house before welcoming him home. The look on his face wasn’t encouraging; this made her heart skip a little bit. But she knew that that was not a good time to inquire anything from him. She hurriedly got his food ready.

Chika didn’t want to tell his wife what the chief priest had disclosed to him about his father. He wasn’t going to let anybody know about it, not even his brother. After taking his lunch he lay down on his bed that was made of wood, grass and sack, and allowed himself to go through the day’s event. The scene he just had with Mazi Nduka had made him make up his mind. He will go back to the shrine and do the same thing his father did twelve years ago. He prayed that he would be able to have the courage to do it. But he decided that death was better than the humiliation that awaited him.

Later in the evening, after Chika had rested well enough, Nkechi gently walked up to him, pulled a little stool closer, sat on it and in a cool feminine voice asked, “My dear husband, you don’t look like you had a nice outing today, may I please know what it is that is bothering you?”

Although Chika didn’t intend telling his wife the outcome of his meeting with the chief priest, he was surely going to tell her about the confrontation he had with Mazi Nduka. He quickly told her what happened between the two of them and his reaction.

“I wonder who is going to come next and what next they are going to demand from us?” Nkechi cried, not understanding why her husband chose to avoid telling her of his meeting with the chief priest, but she felt he was saving that for the last. She began to sob, “Oh! I feel like just running and running, just until I get out of this environment. They want to kill us, just like they killed papa, they want to take away from us all that papa had suffered for, my husband...”

“It is alright, I don’t want you to get yourself upset. It’s okay, you know you are pregnant and the baby doesn’t need you getting upset.”

“Am I going to bring a child into this cruel world? Just to face all these oppression? How would it survive? All the women in this village are ready to pounce on me and devour me, they feel I’m not worthy of voicing out my opinion any longer.”

“I really will like to relax right now; I have a lot to think about. But I promise you that I will take care of everything, I have another appointment with the chief priest. Then we will settle it all with the great god of my father, my father’s god will not let me down.”

“But what was the outcome of your meeting with him today?”

“The chief priest said that I should come back in two days’ time, he said that I should give him time to talk things over with Alaogbaga on my behalf, he promised me that all would be fine.”

“I pray that the god will favor you as it did to papa.” Then she remembered her discussion with Chima. “Chima was trying to convince me that we should allow our enemies take all they want from us.”

“You know that he is still a very young man, he doesn’t understand what it means for a fellow man to take all you have from you, by the time he gets married and starts having kids, he will realize how important all these things are.”

“Don’t you think that it is better that you convince him to join you in the struggle? You will be a stronger force if the two of you are into this together.”

“No, let him be, I don’t think he is capable or will ever be strong enough to face those cruel men out there. Moreover, I don’t intend to share papa’s properties equally with him, I don’t want him telling me that we fought for it all together. We will soon be having our kids, you know? Just let him be.”

After some time Nkechi asked her husband for permission to take her leave and while Chika was once again left alone, he started to think again. He would ask the chief priest to tell the god to give him more years than it gave his father, maybe three more years, but what would happen to his children if he died? He thought. No, there was no need for that now; when the time came he would take care of everything.