6. Determination To Succeed

"You will go to jail for this", the headmaster thundered and he took the boy into the office for first aid. From that day on no one ever volunteered to back Adah up any more, but that incident gave her a nickname which she never lived down: The Ibo tigress. Some of her Yoruba classmates used to ask her "what human flesh tasted like, because: You Ibos used to eat people, didn't you?". Well, Adah didn't know about the cannibalistic tendencies of her tribe; all she knew was that the headmaster's cane burnt her boots so much that she felt irrepressible to pass the pain to something or someone else. Latifu the boy who was doing the backing, happened to be the eldest victim, so he had to take it. Adah also felt that she was being punished unjustly. She had been smiling at the Presence, not the headmaster, and she suspected that the headmaster knew she was telling the truth, he had simply wanted to cane he, that was all.

Adah waited for days for the Law which the headmaster said was coming to take her to jail. No policemen came for her, so she decided that she had either been forgotten or that her bite of Latifu was not deep enough to merit imprisonment. The thought nagged her, though. It nagged her so much that she was tempted to commit another atrocity, this time a really horrible one that nearly sent her, not to jail but to her maker.

Adah was given two shillings to buy a pound of steak from a market called Sand Ground. She looked at the two shilling pieces for a very, very long time. All she needed to take the entrance examination to the school of her dreams was two shillings. Didn't Jesus say that one should not steal? But she was sure that there was a place in this same bible where it said that one could be as clever as a serpent but as harmless as a dove. Would she be harming anybody if she paid for her entrance examination fee with this two shillings? Would Jesus condemn her for doing it: for stealing? After all her cousin could afford the money, though he would not give it to her if she asked for it in a proper way. What was she going to do? That was the trouble with Jesus, he never answered you. He never really gives you a sign of what to do in such a tempting situation. Anybody could twist what he said to suit his own interpretation. Then she saw the image again. It was going to be all right, the image was smiling so Adah buried the money and went back home in tears without the meat.

She was really not good at lying. The wildness of eyes had a way of betraying her. If only she could have kept her large eyes by lowering it, it would have been all right; people would have believed her story. But she kept staring into their eyes her face showed her up like a mirror.

'You're lying, Adah' her cousin's wife said, pointedly., Adah opened her mouth but had to close it quickly, because no sound came. She knew what was going to happen to her, the cane. She did not mind this caning because she knew that anybody who sinned must be punished. That she did not bargain for was the extent of the punishment. Her cousin sent her out with a three penny piece to buy the type of cane called koboko. It was the one the Hausa used for their houses. There was nothing Adah could do but buy it. Her cousin warned her that he would not stop administering the cane until she'd told him the truth. That was bad thought Adah. She had to go the Methodist Girl's High School or die. She concentrated her mind on something else.

After the burning of the first few strokes, her skin became hardened, and so did her heart. She started to count. When cousin Vincent had counted to fifty, he appealed to Adah to cry a little. If only she would cry and beg for mercy, he would let her go. But Adah would not take the bait. She began to see herself as another martyr; she was being punished for what she believed in. meanwhile cousin Vincent anger increased; he caned her wildly, all over her body. After a hundred and three strokes, he told Adah that he would never talk to her again: not in this world nor in the world to come. Adah did not mind that, she was, in fact, very happy she had earned the two shillings.

The headmaster at her school did not believe his ears when Adah told him she was going to sit for the common entrance examination. He looked at kwashiorkor-ridden body for a very long time then shrugged his shoulders. "One can never tell with you Ibos". You're the greatest mystery the good God has created". So he put her name down.

Sometimes the thought that she might not be able to pay the fees crossed her mind. But she did not let that worry her. She had read somewhere that there was some sort of scholarship for the five or so children who did best in the exam. She was seeing to compete for one of those places. She was so determined that not even the fact that her number was nine hundred and forty-seven frightened her. She was going to that school, and that was that!

But how was she going to tell them at home? She has stopped liking cousin Vincent. Every time she knelt down to pray, she used to tell God to send him to hell. She did not believe in stuff of loving your enemy. After all, God did not like the Devil, so why should she pray for the man who had the heart to cane her for a good two hours with a koboko? When cousin Vincent failed his Cambridge school certificate examination, Adah burst out laughing God had heard her prayers.

The entrance examination was to take place on a Saturday. That was going to be very difficult for Adah. How was she going to get away? Another lie? She could not do that again. She would be discovered and they would stop her from taking the examination; so she told her uncle. Ma's brother, that she was going to sit for the examination – The funniest thing was that nobody asked her where she got the money from. Nobody wanted to know including her uncle. As long as she was not asking them for any financial support from them and as long as she had done her Saturday house chores completely, she could go to the devil for all they cared!

Occasionally, the mother of the house. Ma's sister-in-law, would ask her how she purposed to get the money for the school fees and remind her that her father was dead. In response, Adah's mind would flutter with fear, but she never told anyone of them that she was dreaming of winning a scholarship. That was too big an ambition for a girl like her to express.

She was aware that nobody was interested in her since Pa died. Even if she failed, she would have to accept it as one of the hurdles of life. But she did not fail. She did not only pass the entrance examination. But she got a scholarship with full board. She never knew whether she came out first or second or third, but she was one of the best children that year.