Chapter 5

Adaugo was dressed for church, she had not told Erimma what happened but she knew she would definitely let her know at the right time. She tied her wrapper on her waist, something struck her mind immediately, where will she tell her husband she is going to? Obviously if she tell him the truth, she will have to chose between forfeiting the church and getting punished by her husband or Packing to her father’s housing, and everyone knows the implication, if she pack out, she won’t remarry, she won’t give birth, everything will be a waste

“Adaugo, Adaugo?? Where did this woman go to that she can’t hear her name” The scream continued “Adaugo, Adaugo…….”

“Nna anyi” She shouted

“Come here woman, you should be the one taking care of your fertile co-wife, why did you keep quiet the first came I called you?”

“Nna anyi, Ndo(Sorry), I was dressing up……”

“Dressing up to where?”

“I want to visit the eye of the chi to know why I am like this”

“Eye of the chi? The eye of the Chi is blind towards you, don’t disturb the chi with an impossible task woman”

“Nna anyi…………’

“Shut up woman” He slapped her “You can never be like my beautifulOgochukwu, Olaedo m, you can never have children. You are just a man, like me”.

“Nna anyi”…she whispered with tears in her eyes “You are not chi to decide”

“You are not chi to decide”…he mimicked “Take care of Ogochukwu, the king summoned us to his palace, I won’t stop you from going to chi, Olaedo m na ehi ura(My pearl is sleeping), hurry up before she wakes up. You are now the man of the house till I come back”.

“Nna anyi…..” She whispered as he walked out. She could feel the tears rolling down her neck up to her shoulders, she wondered why the society treat barren women as if they are carrying a disease, “Thewhite man chi must help me or I kill myself” She murmured and walked toward onye-ocha’s church close to the house that was given to him. Onye-ocha left his house to visit the king but the church is also managed by mama Bomboy. Onye-Ocha taught mama Bomboy everything when she converted.

In the palace, all the chief were greeting onye-ocha when the king came in, they all greeted the king, the king sat down and waved locally made handfan at everybody signifying that he accepted their greeting. He turned to Onye-Ocha

“How are you today?”

“Fine sir.” Chinedu interpreted as usual

“How are you enjoying the village ?”

“Everything is fine, the people are friendly”

“That is good. My elders, we are gathered here to decide whether to accept the religion and move forward or leave the religion and remain where we are”

Ichie Ndukwe stood up, he saluted the elders and turned to the king “My king, you are speaking in parable, some of us do not understand”……………

“Ichie Ndukwe, speak for yourself” Ichie Anyaogu interrupted

“Its okay, I will explain further for better clarification” The king continued “If we accept onye-ocha’s chi, he will teach our children his language and send our children to his land, our children may become rich and develop our community. If we reject his chi, we will not benefit all these, so I need your opinions”

Ichie Njoku stood up, clears his throat and salute the elders “My king and fellow elders, this is a tempting offer, and on the other hand, our chi have been with us for a long time” He continued “I will suggest that it should be made optional, let people serve any chi they want to serve. My wife is pregnant and I want my child to learn onye-ocha’s language”

The elders nodded their head in agreement, ichie Ogbu stood up, he greeted the elders, “My king, I support iche Njoku, he has a point, o ji okwu”.

“Okay” The king spoke up “since we have agreed to make it voluntary, I decree that anybody can worship his chi if the want, while some can continue worshiping our chi” He continued “What can we do now about our prisoner?’’

“I suggest we punish them in accordance with the tradition, this decision we took concerning this onye-ocha chi should start tomorrow, not today” Iche Ndukwe continued “My king, how do we punish every offence now?”

“They will still be flogged or banished if they commit any offence, it is not changing”

“My king, you are wise” Ichie Anyaogu said.

Onye ocha stood up, bowed at the king and elders “Thank you sir, thank you chiefs, thank you for accepting this offer”

“Guards!” They answered and ran towards him, “Two persons should get those prisoners while one person should call the eye of the chi for me, immediately. One, person shoud Inform the village informant to announce that everybody should come to this palace”

“Yes sir” They echoed and departed.

“Your majesty, what are you going to do to the prisoners now?” Onye ocha asked.

“Onye-ocha, it depends on what our chi tells me. If they are found guilty, they will either be flogged or banished”

“Your majesty, I have a gift for you’ Onye-ocha signaled Chinedu to bring the package where he kept it when they arrived the palace that day. Chinedu left and came back in a minute with a huge mirror(Nobody has seen mirror before. Onye-ocha stood up and hand the mirror to the king,

“Your majesty, this is mirror, you can see yourself”, Chinedu interpreted. The king saw himself and shivered, he signaled the elders to come and see themselves which they took turns to do,

“My king, this is witchcraft, my king, these people are witches oo, haa!” Ichie Anyaogu said with so much excitement.

“My king, chi ha di kwa egwu oo, haa, lee mu oo” Iche Ndukwe said in excitement too, other elders were busy shaking their heads at the level of onye-ocha powers.

“My elders, I will keep it in this palace, atleast if you come, you see your face, this their chi eeh, o di ike oo, o di ike”, he continued “imeela onye-ocha, I meela”

The guards came in with the prisoners and forced them to kneel before the king, the villagers gathered little by little, the mouth of the gods was already there, he came at the same time the prisoners were brought. He saw the huge mirror, he shivered and went back, he walked round the palace compound doing some incantation while the onye-ocha was smiling.

“Eye of the gods, what is the fate of these prisoners? They were caught fornicating, and the woman is a married woman……..’

“My king”, moth of the gods interrupted “I heard from the chi, Obudu before coming, they are guilty and will be banished. This crime is very serious, the gods want them banished”

King stood up and faced the crowd, “You all have heard from the mouth of the chi, on this day, I banish Akwaego and Chukwuma from this village, they and their ancestors must not step foot into this village”. There were shout from the villagers, some were crying, especially relatives of the prisoners while some were jubilating. The king signaled the with man to stand up which he did, he called for the attention of the villagers

“This is onye ocha, he want to teach us his language and take our children to his land, on the condition you worship his chi. If you want to worship his chi, you are free, if you don’t want, you are free, however, anybody that breaks our law will be punished by our traditional method, including people who are not from this village”