KISHANA

Onak, a quiet and peaceful village, had been peaceful for the past twenty decades. But surrounded by the drums of wars fiercely lurking around, sent tensions into the hearts of her inhabitants. Onak was a small village founded by a man named Hanani, a migrant from a kingdom far away from the Northern part of the earth. He migrated to the Eastern part to avoid his uncle’s plans of eliminating him. He was a young man from a royal lineage and heir to the throne. When his father, the king was sick, the uncle saw it as an opportunity to eliminate Hanani. Hanani, being a young man of eighteen years of age, left his paternal kingdom hopeful for a better future. He came to a particular country known as the land of Zuma on the eastern part of the earth and was welcomed by the inhabitants. Having learnt how to rear livestock he requested to work for a shepherd in the land. The shepherd permitted him and later discovered that he made no mistake in hiring him. He was pleased with Hanani’s work and made him the head of his servants tending for his livestock. The shepherd had ten servants who look after his cows, sheep and birds. Hanani was made the leader of them all to oversee their work. This made him more zealous that he ensured that the livestock increased from two thousand to five thousand within three years of his arrival. His master was impressed and gave him one of his daughters to marry. The wedding was glamorous and his master made a great feast for them. In process of time, the servants began to envy and hate him and they began to plot evil against him. As nature would have it, Hanani began to rear his own livestock and made rapid progress for the space between him and his master was becoming small therefore he requested to separate from his master. His master was not too happy but agreed and prayed for Hanani’s progress. The day of separation came and both companies had mixed feelings of joy and sadness. The master didn’t know that part of his son-in-law’s separation was because of the quiet hatred from his servants. He made a feast for Hanani and his wife who was already four months pregnant. The feast lasted for the whole day with eating and drinking of various kinds of food, drinks and meat. Neighbors were invited to partake and they all wished well for him on his journey. Hanani took his journey early the next morning as the sun began to rise. He left his master with possessions of sheep, cows and birds. His master also gave him two female servants from among the servants who work in his house. The journey was smooth and they came to another part of the earth to another country. But the inhabitants were hostile to them and he moved on with his journey. On the third day of their journey, they came to a country named Shisha. They were warmly welcomed and they lived there for the next ten years. By this time, Hanani was married to two more wives, making three wives and he had four children all of which were girls. The last wife was young and beautiful and he got her from among some slaves who were brought from another country by slave traders. Considering her age and cruelty of her masters, he was moved with compassion to buy her freedom. She was a victim of war from the western part of the earth and was captured by the invaders and sold to the slave traders. Hanani’s motive for buying her was actually not for any personal gain but due to his compassion. On seeing his kindness, she refused to go away but decided to follow him. He made it clear to her that he didn’t buy from her masters to perform a slave’s duties for him that she was free to go. But she told him that no man on earth was worthy of her except him and that she was willing to be even his wife if he would agree. He refused her request. He told her that he was willing to help her get a good life by giving her some things to support herself and would also help her find a man who would marry her. She refused and said she would rather stay like that than marry someone else. Seeing that he couldn’t persuade her to move on, he gave up and took her to himself as his third wife. Despite Hanani’s third wife’s age, she was wise, smart and loving to be with. She respected the older women and rendered her service to her husband whole heartedly. The king of Shisha was fond of Hanani and liked him. He would take advice from him on matters of livestock. But it came to a time that the king became sick and was not recovering in time. All forms of medications were given to him but to no avail. Hanani also tried his best to see that the king survived but couldn’t save him. On the fourth month of the sickness, the king died and the kingdom was sad. The people were scared because they knew that the next to the throne was the king’s younger brother, Chaka. Chaka was a cruel man and very wicked to the kingdom’s subjects. He ordered the king to be buried immediately and was crowned king over the kingdom. Hanani immediately sensed that his stay in Shisha had come to an end. He began to think of having his own land where peace and tranquility will reign. The new king of Shisha was cruel and wicked. He stopped Hanani from coming close to the palace and restricted the grazing of his livestock. This made Hanani’s possessions to reduce. On a particular day, he ordered Hanani’s third wife to be brought to the palace so he could pleasure himself with her. To this, her husband refused and was forcefully ordered to leave the kingdom. Having three thousand livestock during his stay in this kingdom, it became a plus to them but his possessions reduced to half due to the king’s restrictions. The inhabitants were sorry and weren’t happy with the king’s behavior. The forceful and cruel ejection from Shisha strengthened Hanani and he made up his mind not to squat in any country again. He came to this land which had good settlement but had no name at first and built four huts for himself, his three wives and their slaves. At this time he had only four children who were girls. But in process of time he was blessed with six other children, making ten children in all. His third wife, who was the youngest among the three wives, bore him her first child, a male, the same year of staying in this beautifully strange land. To this effect, he named the land after his son, Onak. The third wife tried after her first issue to give birth to another child but could not. By the seventh year of their stay in this land, she died in child labor both her and the new baby. The village, having a thick forest, rocks, good cultivating soils and water bodies, get nature’s blessings such as fishes, bush meats and wild healthy plants and fruits as food. The people of Onak enjoyed these blessings and made a livelihood from them. In order not to over labor the water bodies, the elders of the land regulate the fishing and other aquatic harvestings. All fishermen and other aquatic harvesters were not allowed at once but were given different timing. The four cardinal areas of the village had distinct features which contributed to the beautiful structure of the village. The East, West, North and South had their distinguishing features which benefited the closest inhabitants more than other Onakians. But the land for cultivation is no discriminator for it abundantly yielded its food irrespective of where an Onakian was located in the village. The Eastern part of Onak was densely covered by forest. Its thickness can avail a person to carve out a cave for abode. The forest got her features from the interlocking of plants and trees into it selves. As a result of this, passage through the forest is not easily obtained except with bigger and technical machinery which were expensive to acquire. Due to this forest’s density the sun struggles to shine through to the village’s inhabitants on time, as the sun rises from the East and sets in the West. To this effect, the villagers had no mistake in timing because of the perfect timing of the sun penetrating rays above the forest into the village. The rays of the sun begin to be seen close to the noon time. As this happens, the villagers automatically knew that noon is here and they adjust to whichever way they have conditioned their schedules; ranging from those who are to return from their farms, to the house wife who is to cook lunch for her family, to the market woman who is to speed up her sales and so on. Even cold blooded animals find this time as the most exciting of the day while those in need of vitamin D which the sun gives are not very happy because the scourging of the sun is beginning to heighten. The Western part of the village is rocky in nature. The villagers as regulated by the council of elders who schedule the way of breaking the rocks for export to villages in need of it in a trading manner. The rock is used for business and for use in the villages too. The villagers who are allowed to work on the rocks remit monetary percentages to the council of elders from the rock business as they also make profit for themselves. The business moves smooth without any hitch and everyone involved was happy. A large part of the rock was set apart for other uses, such as washing, grinding for women and recreation. The whole part of the rock was not allowed to be broken and this made the village’s structure to be maintained. The rocks stationed in a way that gave the village a defense from intruders of enemies. It gave the village a face lift that served as a fence for protection. The Northern side of Onak was more of water bodies where the villagers go for fishing and washing. The drinkable part was a spring where they get their drinking water from. Near and far villagers came for business with them. The rivers were also used for sports by the villagers. The Southern part of the village was plain and open allowing good ventilation into the village. It also contained some forest but distinctly crowded with wild healthy fruits, heavily filled with gold and tall strong tress for making timbers. The people on the southern side of the village were the chief controllers of these fruits, gold and timber trees. This gave them high sense of belonging and power. For twenty decades now, the village has been flourishing despite its small size. It became a solace for other villages and countries whose natural resources were either little or had none. At this time of the century in Onak, her population was now a thousand plus. They gave themselves to marriages to near and far villagers. Some business men from far away countries who found how precious this village was, decided to settle down there, got married and began to establish their business and families because the village’s ancestors had kept a good legacy. As life went on, the joys of Onak became mixed with fears for nearby villages and countries rumored of a king named Shukana from a kingdom named, Zuka. It was rumored that he was going about conquering villages, countries and kingdoms. Those who would not peacefully succumb to become his servants were fought against and taken as slaves by force. To this effect, mothers clave always to their kids while men commune in large and small groups as scheduled by the elders of the land to discuss the impending woes approaching and how to curb them. The inhabitants who understood nothing but love and peace are now tensed to and fro with the fears of the unknown.