Chereads / Zim of Dawanda / Chapter 1 - the Market

Zim of Dawanda

🇳🇬blossomtina19
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Synopsis

Chapter 1 - the Market

Is the dawning of a new day in Dawanda kingdom, to everyone in the village is another market day but to the spirit that guide the affairs of the children of dawanda, is the dawn of a new era, where the seed of change that will alter the fate of the girl child of dawanda for the better will be birthed. For the longest of time, every girl child in Dawanda has been inferior,a slave to the male gender, they are born to serve the male, even two babies born on the same day have two Fate waiting for them if one is born a male and the other a female.

The children are separated immediately were one is given a welcome celebration and given a name in a grand naming ceremony after 7 days of birth while the other is left behind without a name unless the mother took pity and calls her anything she pleases for easy identification and response when she's needed.

No one knows when this began or how it had become a way of life for the people but everyone seems to abides by it as the culture of dawanda.

As the years passed ,the treatment of the women seems to become worst, they were denied of basic human rights, there treatment were no different from that of a slave in most household where the head is a tyrant.

Even those with good heart has no courage to stand against what they thought to be their culture, there by succumbing to the pressure of their friends to mistreat their wifes, daughters and sisters against their own conscience.

The male are kings while the females are slaves, the male could go to school but the female couldn't, the place of the female is in the farm and the kitchen ,Even the food they cooked , they are not allowed to eat untill the males of the family are done eating. So has been the life of every female Dawanda until the intervention of the divine.

The market is buzzing and bubbling today just like any other market day in Dawanda kingdom. Today is Orie market, the only market in the kingdom that holds every 8days.every capable and healthy person in this village is here today buying, selling, bartering or meeting with friends at any drinking or eating joints around.

It is Always the same activity every market day, farmers take break from farming to sale / barter there produce for what they need., hunters sale/barter their games for food or hunting equipment, the process is repeated the next market but the people never get bored with the repeated activities.

Market days are majorly resting and entrainment day that everyone in the kingdom look forward to both adults and children alike. The women have the opportunity to see their friends in the market and gossip about their homes and their husbands, men gather in their drinking spot to talk about their achievement and conquest in women, while the Children are seen running around selling/ bartering their games and craft for local delicacies that are mouth watering and to die for .

Such is the activities in the market day in Dawanda kingdom.

The Orie market is divided into sections, each section is for a given merchandize. the vegetable and fruit dealers have their section to sale vegetables, so anyone in need of vegetables can easily locate them in their section and purchase, so does palm oil and every other product found in the market for easy access.

At the palm oil section of the market sits a very pregnant Dabi waiting to sell her palm oil .

Dabi (Daberechi for full; meaning lean on God) is a very beautiful and fair woman with a dark brown hair, eyes as blue as the clear sky and a full lip in the shape of W. Dabi is a beauty that every man in Dawanda fought to acquire but failed because she had been betrothed to another since birth, upon her coming of age she was married off to Danddy-man, "Danddy for short" a very dark man with tall and slender features, he is handsome but does not fall in the category of the most handsome men in the kingdom, he is a definition of manliness in every sense, a basket crafter by profession that is very good with his hands.

Crafting has been in his family for generations and danddy takes pride in his crafts, because his family is one of the few families that are blessed with the knowledge of craft making in Dawanda, this knowledge is a treasured one that is passed only to the male descendants of the family, as the females are not worthy of such knowledge since they are disposable.

Danddy is hoping and believing to pass the craft knowledge to his male children as his father has done for him.

Back to the palm oil section of the market , Dabi is seen speaking and negotiating with her customer on the price of palm oil, they kept bickering to one another , "no I don't have ten cowry ( Cowry is the currency used for buying and selling in Dawanda) for the oil take seven please she pleaded… is seven that I have said the woman" but Dabi insisted that the price of her ware is ten cowries ,Dabi responded by saying "my palm oil is fresh and well prepared ,is not like the others which they left to rot before preparing them for that it brings out more oil for them. So either you buy it for ten cowry or you leave it, someone that knows the value will come and buy it" the woman knew that Dabi was saying the truth for she has gone round the market to check other palm oil that was brought to the market that morning none of them were as fresh as Dabi's . This increased her desire to buy it so she added one more cowry and said to Dabi "alright sale it for eight cowry to me, you know I resale and need to make profit of my own too." .Dabi opened her mouth to refuse her but was shocked and forced to close her mouth by the pain she felt in her belly.