About The Man Who Never Died

Chapter Four

Ogili, one of the sons of Ozzi, was well respected across the land. If not for anything, he had brought a spiritual being seen only by those who violated the tradition of marital fidelity. The spiritual being called Ndishi, punished married women who committed a******y. For the men, they would not have an affair with any married woman, be it in the land or elsewhere. Any default would lead to instant madness, unless confession was made to the deity. The people, especially the women, had reservation for this and warring questions on their minds, but they were not allowed to ask questions. In fact, it was even believed amongst the people that a mere question thrown by any man or woman to challenge the efficacy of Ogili's Ndishi attracted illness or worse still, death.

“Who are we to question the power of Ndishi? We only follow the orders of the gods because the gods are wise, far wiser than us," Ogili's wife had told one of her friends who visited.

“But they were made by us... Yes, we human, made them," the woman said, calmly. And although she spoke with apparent insouciance, tiny lines of fear still edged her forehead.

“Shiiiiiiii!” Ogili's wife interrupted. “My good friend, we don't question the gods aloud... I also have my questions, but I wouldn't ask. I think the gods know what's best for us.”

Ndishi was made in the interest of the people. And the power to make any amends as per the tradition of Ndishi resided with the council of elders.

Ogili was a slave trader. They had just returned from their trip to Idah and were preparing for a departure the next day to transact with ndi ugbo, the people coming from the farther part of the riverine areas of Igbo land. Those people spoke a different dialect of Igbo language from that which the people of Nsukka and Elugwu-Ezike spoke, but they understood themselves whenever they paid attention. They also had a lot in common — the egalitarianism and the communalism in practice — everyone fought for their individual success but came together for the good of the community. They had a great sense of what constituted community appeal. Alongside their well-known individualism, was their ability to stand for themselves and fight together.

That very day, Onyeke, Ogili's partner, looked different. The cow skin he rarely put on was worn. He had not taken his bath in a week, but that day he went to the brook at Ekposhi Mountain to wash himself. During rainy season, people stayed for days without bathing; what kept them going was the fire they made under their bamboo bed to keep their body warm. He rode on his horse and carried his bag full of other wares made of goat skin, the ram skin and the tails gotten from horses. One had black colour while the other was gold-like. “Your body will become something else if you make bathing everyday a habit," Onyeke said and laughed.

“Onyeke, that's not possible, you know," Ogili said, looking up from the sloppy part of the mountain where the water was gushing out of the large stone, forming a downward semicircular shape and flowing into the small pool it had formed.

“What do you mean?”

“It's not possible for someone to bath every day, what for? Your body will damage, it will make your skin not to be strong for anything," Ogili told him, readjusting the animal skin that he wore to cover only his waist and half his laps.

At midday they left for another deal. It took them five days to finalize their transactions with their customers. Still engrossed in the euphoria of the deal that was about to be struck, Ogili, for once, came down from his horse just to reassure himself that he would not be at a loss. He had ridden a long distance this time, tiredness swept over him, and he fought for balance. This time he was plainly swept with sweat but not tired, although the thick hoar of dust which had accumulated on his slippers gotten from an ubara tree found in the tropic of Elugwu-Ezike, the feet of his horse and their garments lent a disadvantageous shabbiness to them. It was due to an obviously long journey that they had embarked on. This time the deal wasn't a bad one.

“My friend, I cannot start to tell you what I will do with the cowries I'll make from this deal.”

“Probably take a wife?” Onyeke asked.

“No, no, no... Not at all," Ogili said almost immediately, countering Onyeke's prediction. He then pondered for a while before he finally said, ''I will buy two more horses for myself, and then one servant I will keep in my house.''

“Ogili the master planner, your chi has blessed you. Do you know you are becoming a wealthy man as each day passes? But I would like you to take things easy, I mean, look at it... You already have a horse... Don't you think buying two more will be difficult and hard on you?”

“You think so?”

“Well, I should say I know so, and you know the saying, ezigbo enyi ka nwanne, it’s true I may not be your blood brother, but I'm your very good friend and won't lead you astray, take this from me; wait until you have sons before you buy as many as you want for all of them, which they will use to perform Okanga cultural rites song for you.”

This got Ogili, he thought Onyeke's point made sense. Following that, he got up, walked to Onyeke, brought out a kola nut and gave him one of the fractions.

“As long as we live, we will forever remain the best of friends," Ogili said it and meant it. He was looking into his eyes while Onyeke repeated the same thing. There and then, they ate the kola of eternal friendship - this was a covenant had by people to strengthen their bond of friendship. Sometimes it was done through the exchange of blood by the persons involved by piercing their bodies and using the kola to mix with the blood coming out.

If a medicine man was not careful when searching for what was above, he might fall into a pit below. The wise saying rang in his head that he did not need the eldest man in the land to explain to him, that inordinate pursuit of one's ambition might land him into a great embarrassing disappointment. Onyeke had been nothing short of a good friend to him, to the best of his knowledge, he didn't want Ogili to injure his leg on a stone.

If one was not careful when asking the gender of the baby his wife had delivered, he might end up asking the number. Ogili had a lot on his mind, and a person who had a lot to do or say at the same time could easily make a mistake. He brought water with a bowl drawn from the local pot and dropped it for his horse to drink. Before he moved to the mahogany tree beside the mountain, he branched to his mother's hut to see Ugwoji who was heavily pregnant for him. He still loved her, and this time he remembered how he fleetingly thought of being married to her. He hadn't forgotten how the urge to win her love rose powerfully. He forced it back, hoping his ever stubborn emotions wouldn't betray him this last time as it was unlike him to mix trade and transactions with pleasure. Alas! He betrayed himself.

He smiled wistfully, remembering the light in her eyes as she chanted of the great kings in Igala and other legendary warriors of her people. She also sang the praises of princess Inikpi and her legendary show of love for her people and her father, Attah Ayegba's throne.

“I hope I don't get summoned by a full council of achadu, before the Attah?” Ogili had asked her teasingly.

“Amattami! Why do you ask?”

“Hmm, what has your ancestors got to do with this?”

“Then, why would a full council of achadu be summoned, another siege by Oba Osigie?”

“Let's say, for stealing my heart."

“Hmm”

A moment of silence ensued.

“You know I can see words in your silence," Ogili said thoughtfully.

“How can you even fall in love with your captive?”

“What?”

“Exactly what you heard," Ugwoji replied sharply. Ogili was cut in the middle with her question.

He simply told her, ''Ufedo. You don't tell a heart what to crave for. Yes, love."

It was obvious Ugwoji had a lot of questions on her mind, but she chose to be reserved. Could she possibly love? This, she was asking herself, but she felt something inside, that she knew for sure.

How caring and soft her hands had been as they resettled the furs around Ogili's strong happy face. A wave of affection ran down his spine and touched his soul as he saw a more courageous woman who was in love. The love was best felt as it was mutual, even though at first she was not sure if she was in love.

* * * *

That time he saw her it was so captivating. It was typical of the story that every man or woman would tell about their husbands or wives. This was different sometimes for a maiden who was forcefully married off to a man, a man whose parents brought in a maiden for and she wasn't attractive. It put the other person off. In such a state, hatred prevailed between the couple: their days stayed dusty and unfriendly. Although, sometimes such couples might later develop love for each other in the light of no other route to quit, as was always the case at the time. Sometimes they might find common grounds between them, after all.

Ugwoji had just been captured from far Idah land, orchestrated by her uncle who fell out with her father, and, having furthered their journey back home, Onyeke decided to go and fetch water from a nearby stream. The slaves were put under the care of Ogili. They wore beautifully weaved dried banana fabrics and raffia around their waists to barely cover their laps. The hut built beside the mountain where they kept their slaves had been there for years, it was the meeting point where they exchanged slaves coming from the both camps.

The men among them had their hands tied at the back to avoid any attempt of escaping. The women were believed not to be troublesome, although Onyeke had them in check and had advised his friend and their partners against being too familiar and easygoing with them. Two of them had seduced one of the guards the previous year as one pretended she wanted to urinate. This tactic had become a familiar one amongst them that their efforts at flirtation was tiresome already. As the saying was popular among the people that it was difficult to eat nshiko, the crab, in silence, without attracting attention.

The morning before they left the spot where they camped, Ogili and Ugwoji had become familiar with each other. Ogili had begun to treat her exceptionally. This was evident in the fact that Ugwoji got more food than the rest, and occasionally her hair received some touches as Ogili commanded some of the slaves to make her hair. At a time, the style in which her hairs were plaited did not go well with her; they were packed into three buns and each was woven from the bottom to the top. This made her look more like the Ezenwanyi Osimiri, the queen of the river or water that was normally alleged to be seen by the first person who went to the Ogbane stream at Elugwu-Ezike boundary or the Olamoboro River in Igala. Ugwoji did not like it the first time it was done.

'‘This doesn't make sense to me at all,'' she spoke in Igala at one occasion. Ogili did not hesitate in telling the fair girl to follow her instructions and correct it. He understood Igala language well enough to have known what Ugwoji said. Apart from the fact that he had traded with them for years, Elugwu-Ezike had a common boundary with them and they intermarried and shared cultures.

“How about me bringing the three locks together instead of leaving them to be separate from one another...?” Adukwu, one of the captive girls asked naively.

“Better…anything; just do something better than this," Ugwoji replied. She brought the three locks of hairs together, twisted them at the end points to become a lock, she then tied them to one of the locks, using strands from the horse tail collected from Ogili, making her to look more beautiful and attractive. She flounced out of the spot where they were, moved seductively, her hips swaying, with both buttocks hitting against each other. She never looked at Ogili directly, but this time, she stole a glance at him and found him staring back at her in admiration. She saw how he stared with open mouth at the wonderful sight of her, speechless. There was something strange about this look, she thought to herself; it was strange though but it had an undertone of affection. Love could be that deep and captivating.

That night, for the first time, Ogili called Ugwoji out to eat with him alone. He looked straight into her eyes, not ready to stop, and unwilling to withdraw. He understood perfectly well that he was not trying to take undue advantage of her. He really had affection for her, and she too knew that both of them wanted each other. She did not put up any form of resistance or play the normal hard to get that was characteristic of attractive maidens. She wished he was still a child so that she would lock up her lips with his, but she managed to squeeze his head vigorously when he brought his mouth close to her n*****s. It was not a regular thing to have married people kiss in Ogili's generation, so kissing was not known to him to be heard of between adults. That night they made love passionately. The realization that no man had known her before then was breathtaking to him. The two had much fun that night as they were in high spirits. They sang for each other, and to make him laugh, Ugwoji danced and laughed heartily. They lay on the mat with her head resting on his chest, Ogili caressed her face and stroked her hair strands until she dozed off, her head still resting on his chest. “Nafedo we, I really do love you," was all he could tell her before he was overtaken by drowsiness.

Although she knew that a bleak future was in store for her, Ogili managed to lure her into a sense of security, even when he was not sure about the turn of event himself.

Several market days after Ogili and Onyeke had gone back to Elugwu-Ezike with their slaves, it was time for them to resell them together with others bought and captured from the neighbouring communities and villages. This was when Onyeke noticed Ugwoji to be ill. His wife, by their traditional means, helped to diagnose her of the illness. Ugwoji opened up to them that she had taken in. Onyeke approached Ogili over the issue and he accepted responsibility. He didn't deny. In Elugwu-Ezike, acceptance of such responsibility was a question of whether the man ever laid with the woman; once established, the man was responsible except he denied.

“What do we do? What becomes of her?” Onyeke asked.

“I love her and want to make her my wife.” Ogili’s answer ended the matter. They brought her out and the two of them were married as a couple.

Ogili was a sojourner and that made him to be versatile and experienced. Ugwoji’s extreme beauty flared up insecurity in Ogili that he detested the idea of seeing another man come close to her let alone see her nakedness as he had seen his brothers and partners from across the rivers do. He travelled to a distant Igala land to get a very powerful medicine man who prepared him a charm that would follow his dynasty and bring to public disgrace any of his sons or wives who committed a******y. He gave it the name Ogili Ukwaba. Its potency started with Ugwoji agreeing to obey it as a custom and remain a faithful wife.