At this instance, Akinidad in filled with curiosity in knowing the history of the Kingdom and the untold story of his grandmother, the Queen Mother of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, who was the only woman to ever rule the Kingdom contrary to its customs and traditions, and to know the reason why it happened.
Amanirenas: (Taking it easy) It was so many years ago. Long before I had tasted the man who sowed into the womb the seed that was to geminate later into you. I was just stepping with all confidence out of puberty into adolescence and womanhood when it all happened with such an amazing suddenness that shook the wise men of the kingdom out of the wits.
Akinidad: What's that?
Amanirenas: A deadly epidemic raged through the length and breadth of Ptolemaic, causing untold suffering to human life and property.
Akinidad: Property?
Amanirenas: Oh yes. It affected crops on the farm that year. Famine and its twin attendant, starvation, became the unwelcomed guests of that year in every home. That is the period in our people's history, paradoxically referred to as "the year of plenty"
Akinidad: Hence the annual "festival of plenty" …I see…
Amanirenas: Hhen the-all-knowing-age-old-oracle at Carthage was consulted, it revealed that an abomination had been committed within the kingdom for which the gods were angry. Unless the miscreant owned up and was ostracised as custom demanded, the fattest lamb in the kingdom was going to be slaughtered.
Akinidad: Lamb? Just a mere lamb…that's nothing.
Amanirenas: That was how the elders of our time also reacted. When the persistent appeals to the offender to won up had apparently fallen deaf ears, the gods were left with no other alternative but to strike. And when they did, the axe fell in the centre of our compound-house, the palace at Carthage. The sound was heard throughout the kingdom, both far and near.
Akinidad: Was the noise so loud?
Amanirenas: My mother, your grandmother, the queen mother, ruler of the Ptolemaic kingdom, was the innocent victim of the anger of the gods. It was only then that the meaning of the "fattest lamb" unveiled itself to the grey heads of the kingdom, but it was too late.
Akinidad: Oh No!
Amanirenas: The strong queen mother of Ptolemaic caught cold in the morning and by midday she was coughing blood…and by sundown of the same day, she was gone.
Akinidad: (Shocked) You mean she was dead?
Amanirenas: No, she had crossed over to the village beyond. The village with just entrance and no exit.
Akinidad: How sad! And was the offender ever apprehended?
Amanirenas: Of course.
Akinidad: Thank God above!
Amanirenas: However, that is not what I want us to concern ourselves with at the moment. When it became obvious that your grandmother was not going to live to see the next sunrise, she sent for my younger brother and I. When I got into the palace, she was on her deathbed. Around her were priests of the shrines, dancing about in circles. A few of the divisional chiefs, elders, and kingmakers of the kingdom were already seated. Are you listening?
Akinidad: I am, mother.
Amanirenas: Now, I want you to hear with your two ears and see with your mind what happened that evening at the palace.
(Slowly, lights gently fade out on nana and Akinidad)
Initially, I didn't want to go, but all a sudden, I began to hear a small voice, coming from where I cannot tell, urging me to go… "get up and go…get up and go!" it was irresistible. Slowly, I got up. (She stands) adjusted my cloth on my body and left for the palace, without an escort.
(Exit Amanirenas…lights fade out on frozen Akinidad, slowly, light come to reveal a chamber in the palace at Ptolemaic. The Alaafin of the shrine is dancing to akom music. The dying queen mother is lying on a mat with her body propped up by pillows. There are courtiers and elders supporting almost the lifeless body. The akom dance seems to cover the suffering queen very little or no relief at all as she sways her head from side to side in agony. The dancing continues for a while till the Alaafin gets possessed)
Queen mother: Do…do…do…you see…anything?
Alaafin: (Talking as if possessed) y…y…yes. Nana…I can…I can see…(screams)give me kola (He paused and requested) more kola. (he accepts the kola from the acolytes following him, breaks the into pieces and flings them in all the four major compass points)
Queen mother: what is it that you see?
Alaafin: I see…I see! I see…no, I don't like what I see.
1st elder: that is for us to judge. Yours is to tell us what you see wise one! (there is general concurrence from the gathering)
Alaafin: I see…I see…dark clouds gathering in the upper stream of a river. (Screams) and vultures…(Screams) and owls…(Scream)…kai!
I can see a canoe. Faceless figures rowing hard towards the other bank of the river. (All the onlookers heave a sigh of despair. They all shake their heads and the women begin to wipe aways their tears silently)
I can see…I can see…There is a dark object in the canoe…Yes…There is a dark object in the canoe…
(Alaafin and acolyte follow the direction of the dark object and exit)
Queen Mother: (Weakly) Aaaaah…that is my soul being ferried across the river…I know it. I can feel perpetual darkness descending slowly on the last breath of my life. Where are my two children? I asked you to summon them…
1st Elder: Your Highness, your orders were promptly carried out.
Queen Mother: And where are they?
1st Elder: Your Highness, only your son is here.
Queen Mother: And what of his elder sister, my daughter, Amanirenas?
1st Elder: She sent a message that… (Enter the young princess, looking quite young and pretty in her densinkran outfit)
Densinkra is a royal outfit usually worn by princesses of the royal families in ancient African kingdoms.
Queen Mother: Let them stand by my bed side. (The children obeyed)
My children, darkness is pulling out my roots from the soil of this life. Dawn shall smile at my breathless body. I am about to go the way of my fathers. To the village the world that has only the entrance and no exit. But I do not wish it to be said behind me. That I was the mother who left her children as orphans in utter poverty (Calls for water) I asked you to be brought here so I could do you both an honour before my final journey through the earth is concluded. Bring the stools.
(Two stools are quicky brought forward. The bigger stool is placed near the Queen Mother's right and the smaller one to her left).
My daughter Amanirenas.
Amanirenas: Yes, Mother.
Queen Mother: Sit on my left. Take my hand. (She does so) Give me the sword. (The sword is placed in her hands)
Take this sword. (Amanirenas takes it) To you, my lovely princess, I bequeath the following townships.
Puut, Aksum and Azurethra.
You and your offspring shall rule them from this day and forever more. (The elders smile and nod their heads approvingly)
And you, my son, sit on my right. Take this. (The sword is placed in his hand)
To you I give the whole of Ptolemaic Kingdom and everything within it. At the right time you shall…
(Rising up sharply, cutting short the applause from the elders and the township) This is nonsense! (There engulfed a total silence)
It is most unacceptable to me. Mother, if this is what you call honour, then may I beg to be dishonoured immediately.
Queen Mother: Why…my princess, why?
Amanirenas: I am the elder child. Customarily, it is I who must succeed you and not my younger brother.
2nd Elder: Don't forget he is a boy, and you are a girl. And custom demands him to be the successor to the throne.
1st Elder: Besides, he will soon grow into a man and will be capable of executing all officials' duties as designated and destined…
Amanirenas: (Quickly interjects) And is that going to make him older than me? Tell me.
And who says the chieftaincy stool is made for only the hard buttocks of me.
2nd Elder: (Immediately answered) That is what has been the practice since time in memorial. It has been passed down from our ancestors to this very day.
Amanirenas: I see, then you must convince me that my mother, the Queen Mother, is a male. (A general murmuring breaks out in owe to the statement made by the princess)
1st Elder: Look, Princess, do not let us drag this thing far beyond the reach of our arms. Accept the honour done to you by her noble Queen, so your mother could go home happily to the village of our ancestors with beauty and dignity.
Amanirenas: (Barking angrily) And she equally has a duty to make me live happily on this earth when she is no more. I repeat, I am not accepting the so-called honour if not rightfully done.
Queen Mother: Emissary!
Emissary Soun: Yes, Your Highness
Queen Mother: Ask the princess what she wants.
Emissary Soun: Princess, the Queen Mother would like to know what your request entails
Amanirenas: Let my mother know that if I am to rule, then it must be a whole kingdom and not some pieces of barren lands with four or five cottages scattered here and there.
(General murmur of disapprovals bursts)
Queen Mother: But you are not a man, to begin with princess.
Amanirenas: I am a woman, I agree, but I am not going to indulge in the fanciful notion that men have a priority on leadership talents yet women, regardless of their stature, have no such talent or right. The only sure talent men have demonstrated is the ability to cheat and suppress us of the opposite sex. Who are men anyways?
1st Elder: You must know how you talk before us, your elders!
Amanirenas: I only asked a question, or does my womanhood deprive me of that right too?
(Pause) I want to know whether the art of nation building is a prerogative of men alone? Isn't that a legitimate question to ask?
2nd Elder: Nation building belongs to the energetic…
Amanirenas: (Very sharply) And who says men are the most energetic of the human species? Who says so? Where and when was it said? On which rock is it engraved or inscribed? – I want to know!
(Dead silence. Queen mother confers with 1st elder)
1st Elder: Well, Princess, your mother insists that never in the history of Ptolemaic has a woman ruled where there is a man to do so. And so, you must accept the ruling of …
Amanirenas: Tell her I say NO.
I don't want to be honoured then. Tell her that. Where is it written that a woman cannot rule when there is a man. I want someone to tell me where and how history came with that theory.
Elder: The history of the kingdom says so.
1st Elder: Our customs say so.
2ND Elder: Yes, our customs indeed say so.
Amanirenas: (Taking it cool) I see…I will tell you one thing. If the customs and the political history of this kingdom are silent over what offices a woman can hold, or the rule played by a woman in the struggle to free ourselves from the domination of the Kong, especially the courage and bravery displayed by our mother in our last war against the slave raiders from the north, it only proves one thing.
In disbelief and awe, the elders, kinsmen and the whole township burst out in chaos and they murmur amongst themselves the bravery of the princess with such remarks.