About The Man Who Never Died

Chapter Five

After eight full moons and counting, Ugwoji gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, and he was given a name after two Igbo weeks of eight days had passed. That was on Eke market day. Ugwoji was a strong woman. That day, before Ogili arrived with the old midwives from Obollo by his horse, she had already given birth. The boy was named Ezocha Ugwoji, taking his mother’s name given to her as his surname.

In the ancient Igbo culture, it was never a problem in some parts for people to take their mother’s name or maiden name as their surname. People tended to take the name or surname of the person who raised or weaned them, whether paternal or maternal. The parents had no issues with that as that was the custom in naming people. Women, too, never changed their surname to those of their husbands. Never.

Ogili died some years after his son was born. This made Ezocha to be so much accustomed to his mother and so the reason for his fond name, Nwa Ugwoji, meaning, the son of Ugwoji, the son of his mother. He grew up to become a handsome man, nicely built with such manly gait and contour that always made people to erroneously believe that he wasn't hardworking. Handsomeness in men alone was never admired in Elugwu-Ezike, it must be complimented by other qualities like strength and hardwork, courage, wit and wealth. Ezocha’s personality had a mixture of these qualities, he was the envy of his extended family members as his sense of humour and reasoning was such that matched the rigour of an adult. His mother raised him to become a full man even amidst hatred from a few. On his own part, Ezocha suffered severe hardships regardless of his rise to affluence.

New yam festival was a great feast and celebration for the Igbos. It was a time people celebrated the harvest of new yams from their farmlands. For the people of Elugwu-Ezike, they used the period to thank the God of creation and their ancestors for the blessing of fruitful yields and the beginning of a new year. It was believed that the ancestors came back home to eat from their children. It was also a time to recompense evildoers with evil and punishment, the feast provided an opportunity for broken relationships to be mended. Wrongs were also forgiven, and umuada, the daughters of the land married out to other communities, brought things to their brother’s house to mark the feast and draw blessings back to their husbands' homes. The first son, Ishi Okpala of the family, played the role of the father to the extended family and he spoke the blessings upon everybody. During the celebration of the new yam, every child and youth and the adults alike were expected to wear the garments of happiness as it was believed that the ancestors had come home to check on their loved ones, to collect gifts from them as they would kill animals in sacrifice to them. The ancestors, in return, would pour their blessings on the living and cleanse the land.

Ezocha had the shock of his life that made him to sit up as a man at a very tender age. His c**k crowed in the middle of the night and at dawn his kinsmen converged in his mother’s hut to fine him for polluting the land. It was a festival of sorrow for him. He suffered the loss of his animals as a result of that ordeal that happened, an offence for which same occurrence had been committed by his relatives in the past but did not attract punishment.

“You're even lucky that we didn't want to confiscate your belongings. Ezocha, the era of your father is gone. You must play by our rules now," one of the elders who came with others told him.

“Nnanyi Onoja Nwa Ma mmiri," Ezocha called the man by his name.

“Oh, has it gotten to the extent of your calling me by my name? He called me by my name!” The man said, pointing at Ezocha to draw Ogbuefi's attention, his ally, who had ibi, that his scrotal sack would dangle in between his legs. It was rumored that it was Ogbuefi's bad habits that caused him the strange growth in the scrotum. But for the medicine man who helped him with love charms, he wouldn't have been able to take a wife. Ugwoji, Ezocha's mother, had told him that each time Ogbuefi traveled to an unknown destination he had only gone to renew the efficiency of the love charm he used on the wife, and this only happened when he noticed that her love and affection for him was growing cold.

“Nnanyi, I didn't just call you by your name, I called you by your full name because I still remember vividly the good person my father was to you," Ezocha reminded him.

“Eeee! Don't even go there. Don't you go there, at least, he's no longer here. Besides, it is a sacrilege for a c**k to crow in the middle of the night. You must suffer for it.”

“My husbands, at least, go with the c**k alone”, Ugwoji pleaded on her son's behalf.

“Woman, be guided! You have no say in this, I'm certain you know your position in your husband's house," one of the elders shouted at her.

Every effort made by Ezocha and his mother at getting them to temper justice with mercy fell on deaf ears. Such became the position of a male child who lost his father at a very tender age.