CHAPTER ONE
When you spill a neighbour's blood by mistake or otherwise, they say you have gone against the established order of the people.
When you steal a neighbors' money or goods, they say you have gone against the ordered norms of the people.
When you wag your tongue indiscriminately and lie against your neigbhour, they look at you as an holy animal, unholy as the vulture whose meat the fly leave untouched when it dies.
When you feign ignorance and mention names any how, for there are certain names that are held in reverence in accordance with African tradition, you are looked upon as a child lacking home training and as such a misfit to the society.
Each of the above offences carries its punitive measures, ranging from fines charged by the elder to a summary banishment from the society.
This upholds law and order in the society.
The greatest of them all and it and it carries the greatest penalty too, is when you go into a neigbhour's wife. This in its nature is not only an offence against humanity, but also a grave offence against the ancestors. The people do not look at you as an unholy animal but also as a condemned being.
Yes, condemned as sanctioned by the Biblical law of Moses against adultery, a man whose final annihilation, either immediately or protracted will be performed by the gods of fecundity in order to wash the soiled hand with the blood.
I did not see myself guilty of any of the grave offences: I did not see myself going against the norms of the society because I felt I have unlimited right to pick on whatever is created by God. A paragon of beauty in her category should not be crotched to fallow in her prime of youth while her husband was in prison.
CHAPTER TWO
Now here I am, a man with unusual features – two fat things for legs, a very big stomach, two lamps for hands and a very fat head; dropped in an isolated house to be the solitary witness of my own death.
I am dying instalmentally: waiting for the final blow of the avenging gods whose presence are not felt unless in their actions.
But why should nature be so hash to me? Or was this a way to inform me that a child who plucks an apple unaware of the presence of the owner attracts immediate apprehension?
Why me and why did I not for-see it.
The whole thing that was to lead to my ultimate distruction started 15years ago when I was still a child.
We had just finished a bowl of pounded yam with egusi soup, and my mother sitting with her back at the fire place at the foot end of the muddias that serve for our bed, was waiting for me to clear the bowls we used.
While I was still in the kitchen, I heard her call my name "Onyeakola, come here I want to speak to you"
Whosoever heard the name would find one question glaring at his face. Why should a man be named ONYEAKOLA; a name popularly given to a girl. Then he would immediately jump to a conclusion; maybe there were mysteries surrounding his birth.
Yes, that is actival word. Mysteries in countless numbers enshrouded my birth.
CHAPTER THREE
My parent had stayed for fifteen years without any child coming their way. People has started to insinuate that maybe the hadn't the means to satisfy the purpose of human existence.
But patience kept them together. The patience that made the Biblical Job inherit eternal life from his creator. The patience that made the vulture watch for the chief priest to drop the entrails of his sacrifice before enjoying a feast.
Then in the fifteenth year, I had come to them, but not in the usual way of a mortal. My mother was under pregnancy for one year and six months. People again started speculating that she was pregnant with the evil diseases that fills one's stomach with water afflicted on people by a deity called Nkwo-Okporo for one offence or the other.
During the parturition, instead of coming out with my head, I brought out my two legs. For 3 hours my mother was assisted by three female nurses who wanted to see me descend safely and wanted to see my mother safe also.
When at last I came they all started to shout: "The end have justified the means, God have triumphed" At this time my mother was still unconscious. It was then they all knew that I was a man with a mission to this world. This was testified to by my two walnut eyes and unique manly appearance.
The naming ceremony had come and in the presence of everybody that gathered my father had name me Onyeakola which means "You don't say it all (Onyeakola Ihe Ohuru).
To them all, this was an enigma, but he quickly throw more light on it by saying "When an old man chew corncake (Ikpa) he closes his mouth in order not to let the crumbs drop.
They got his train of taught and started to applause him for his ingenuity.
Let me go back to my mother lest she falls asleep while I wallow in digression. I quickly ran to her, "here I am mam" I bowed. She staretd to talk in language I felt then was Paradoxical.
Listen to me my son. If you embark on a journey to a distant village through a bush part, when you meet sacrifices by the road sides, you know you are approaching your destination. I don't want to be interrupted; she reminded me when I wanted to ask why this type of talk.
The journey through life is not simple. I had walked all the length and now I feel I am approaching the last ring of the lader. But let this dwell in your memory till death. Just as the yams are either roasted or cooked. There are two things that kill a man; woman especially married ones and money. You will face many defeats in life but never allow yourself to be defeated.
My mother start to gaze at me long after she has finished what she termed as an advice to me. Yes the advice that was to trigger my curiosity about the complixity of human nature. Yes, the curiousity that killed the young monkey, the curiosity that made the hunters bullet to hit the young monkey on the head in a bid to know why the hunter is in the bush.
My heart was weeping because my mother had never spoken to me this way since I become aware of my existence in this world. Probably something had gone wrong somewhere.
It may be it was childish immaturity that made me underestimate the length and width of my mother's advice. I leave that for the passing of time to judge.
When at last I found my voice, I was surprised at the sound of it un-natural. Mama, why did you tell me this? I had managed to stammer. "I told you because you are my only son and continuos existence of my name rest on you".
CHAPTER FOUR
Three days later my mother had died, leaving me under the aegis of my father who as a hunter and rarely left the bush.
Was my mother feeling a presentiment which it was about thirty six hours to her death? Or was she trying to prove the relationship old age has with nature?
Curiosity again! The curiosity that killed mother antelope who despite the timely warning of her young child, wanted to dance to the melodious tune of the hunters music.
I will never forget the miserable look in my father's face when he was telling me about the death of his only brother "He died because he went into a neighbour's wife". Although the necessary sacrifices for the offence were carried out, every body knew he was already a meal for the gods. "Undue personal enjoyments had made him leave me alone in this world" my father have said in a very pathetic voice which later changed to admonishing one.
My son I know you are very handsome but never allow woman be your weakness. The water which will quench one's thirst does not pass him in the river.
The death of my mother and the solitude condition perpetrated on me by my father's hunting trips forced me to find sanctuary in the presence of God.
Every Sunday I would sit in the front row seat and watch the Reverend Father pontificate his sermon. The same old and unending story of adultery, loss of virginity, stealing, lying and others that fall in different categories of crime.
Thou shall not commit adultery! The repercussion is instant death. King David the father of Solomon the greatest man of wisdom, killed Uriah his subject to marry his beautiful wife, Bathsheba. His life was spared to witness political upheavals and the caused seed of the union died despite his (King David's) penitence.
Absalom, son of King David killed his step father Amnon because he violated the virginity of his sister, Tarmar.
But one day a woman laboring under the yoke of sin went to the monastery for private confession, this woman was raped by the Reverend Father, the same preacher of the law.
My mother was correct, there is two things that kills a man "woman" especially married one and money.
The Bible made it explicity clear that man was made in God's likeness as for whose image woman was made the holy book didn't tell.
From their traditional role from creation I am of the view that women were made in the likeness of Eve's first visitor (Satan in the garden of Eden).
Any child who plucks an apple unaware of the presence of owner attracts immediate apprehension.
If you don't know what is good for you in this land you are already a jarcass for the gods, no remedy. I had observed that when the gods rejects sacrifices, the instruments of incantation and worship does not produce pleasant sound anymore. I have been here for 31 days now the only visitor to this evil forest was a brave man whose life have been frustrated by the deities for lying against his neighbor in disputed land case, who wanted to put an end to his existence by hanging himself on the neck with a rope before my eyes.
Go away from here, I warned, I don't want to see evil with my eyes. Shut your mouth you stupid coward, we both will soon be dead, but I am still alive I replied; "sure" he replied. We are all dying only one has to die before the other he said.
Take your load and go home, I advised. A living dog is better than a dead lion, I am still comfortable here, take your loads and go home and the man came closer and looked at me jacked his shoulders up a bit and turned back and picked his loads and went back to his house.