Hey guys, here's Instalment three, Enjoy and Critique!
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“There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich - Seneca”
Lagos, Nigeria January 2007.
Shouts of “Pure water tutu re” rang out distinctly amidst a mélange of the cries of other hawkers peddling their goods and roused me from my slumber. “Pure water pure water” the voice called again: it was a shrill voice, unmistakably feminine, fragile and delicate, like earthenware in a kiln and it sounded like it might break if it went a chord higher.
I found her in the crowd and watched, observing, she wore a plain dress with a flowery pattern, she looked to be about fifteen, and she had rolled her wrapper into a circle and placed it on her head as a cushion for the sweating bowl that contained nylon sachets of water nestled against blocks of ice. She looked back abruptly and caught me staring, then she winked and lifted the bowl in question, I shook my head and smiled back, I was in Lagos.
“Ah, you’re awake” Uncle Festus said slapping my thigh, “Are you hungry?” he asked and I nodded. He popped his head out of the bus window and yelled “Gala Gala”, a young man wearing a rumpled greased-stained singlet ran up to him and lifted a carton bearing the Gala logo with a cow outlined on its sides to the window. Uncle Festus picked two sausage rolls and cautiously inspected them for some malady or defect and then finally settled on one. He handed the man some money and as he turned to go Uncle Festus yelled as if he had already left the commerce window “Abeg help me call the Fanyogo man”, “yessir” the man answered and disappeared into the throng of people. The Fanyogo man appeared seconds later “Which one you want Sir? I get cho-ko-late, vanilla, and straw-berry” he asked, breathlessly running up to our bus that was now moving from the Yaba market traffic. “Amadi?” he asked “Chocolate” I replied. The man, still running vigorously, dipped his hand into the improvised cooler: rectangular cut carton with thick nylon swathed over it, filled with ice and stacked with packaged yogurts and frozen flavored ice, and handed Uncle Festus the yogurt. He dove for the paper floating to the ground and barely caught it as Uncle Festus threw the money out of the window and the bus launched into full speed.
I woke up to the sound of clanging bells and Uncle Festus chanting off key in a sing-song manner “Holy Michael, Holy Gabriel, Ho-lee Ho-lee” he cried. I rolled over on my mattress and onto the floor; my mattress was a thin flattened piece of foam not quite covered with its threadbare cloth and almost disappearing into the floor it sat on. The air smelled of my sweat, sewer debris, and the faint hint of fried fish wafted in through the window. Last night had been exhausting, I had met Aunty Mary - Uncle Festus’ wife, an animated plump woman who hugged me and pressed my head to her bosom cooing and aahing over how much I had grown. We finally sat down to a dinner of boiled black-eyed beans in a spicy palm oil stew on plastic chairs in the parlor, after Aunty Mary had tired of making observations about the shape of my ears, and how my nose was remarkably like Adaku’s and then Uncle Festus commenced his too long talk about his “job” and its entailments.
He had announced to me proudly that he was a prophet and that I would be joining him as an apprentice in his prophet business to earn my stay, since Adaku had told him I possessed the powers to augur the future. I immediately informed him that I possessed no such powers and that I had only had one very vivid dream where I saw my only friend die and days later he was gone. Uncle Festus had laughed and said it did not matter whether I possessed powers or not, once word got out that I had foretold Uzo’s death I would become a powerful prophet, and it would help if I was able to predict one or two more events correctly. Curious and perplexed, I had asked Uncle Festus “What, If I don’t dream anything?” in response he shook his head from side to side with a grin as wide as his face would allow and answered “You formulate!”. “Formulate?” I asked, “Ah, village boy...I forget, it means you make up a quack vision, anything you like!” Uncle Festus said, smiling triumphantly like he had just discovered the cure for AIDS. “Oh? Isn’t that criminal?” I asked my eyes as wide as Aunty Mary’s China saucers. The slap to the back of head came first and then Uncle Festus’ acerbity “Stupid boy! Are you calling me a common criminal in my own house?” I shook my head solemnly and fixed my eyes on my almost empty plate, “We shall change your name to Solomon, it is more Christian” Uncle Festus declared as his chair scraped the cement floor and he got up to leave.
I got up from my mattress, stretching and yawning, I smoothed my boxers that had ridden up in my sleep and then made my way to the communal bathroom outside, my towel slung across my neck. I entered into the tiny bathroom carefully twisting my body and the bucket of water to avoid rubbing my arms on the slimy algae covered cement walls. Fifteen minutes later I was out, my towel wrapped around my waist, my bucket and soap dish in hand, and then I saw her. She had a deep blue towel tied across her breasts with mounds of tan chocolate flesh peeking out and her towel skimmed her knees. She looked my naked torso over and winked again like she had done yesterday, I smiled “let me” I said, reaching for her bucket of water, she placed the bucket on the ground “Amaka” she said, her eyes smiling, “Amadi” I replied, lifting her bucket.
Despite my bath seconds ago, I now smelled like incense and woodsy smoke, I hurriedly donned the blood red garb of muslin and secured the free flowing garment with a white sash around my waist. “Hurry!” Uncle Festus snorted impatiently as I slid my feet into the worn leather sandals he had given me, “Customers will soon be arriving” he said and plopped a huge white chef-like hat onto my head, adjusting it till it was in place, looking me over he sighed satisfactorily “Finally! Oya follow my lead” he said as he threw upon the door to his “holy” room. Outside the door, two women sat on a raffia mat that was the waiting area, one had a baby tucked in the crook of her arm and the other held a small basket of ugwu leaves. “Prophet Festus” they bowed in greeting, hands clasped together as if in prayer Uncle Festus shut his eyes for a brief second and reopened them “My Children, Jah’s peace” he said placing his fore and middle fingers reverently on his lips and extending it back to them. “What brings you?” he asked as he rolled up his muslin and balanced his weight on his high stool, “It is her husband” the woman with the vegetables replied pointing to her friend who was rocking the sleeping child. “Let her speak!” Uncle Festus thundered. “One small girl is trying to steal him from me” she said sniffling and wiping her eyes with the edge of her wrapper. “J-ah! Jah! Jehovah!” Uncle Festus shrieked, he had gotten up abruptly from his stool and was now making circuitous rotations on the mat, his garment like a kite buoyed by the wind. He began a frenzied dance, his head swaying from side to side, the jigada beads on his ankles shaking furiously, and his arms resting on his hips as his buttocks moved to a rhythm only he could hear. He made an elaborate spin and plunked unto his high stool, “Your gift to Jah” he asked extending his hands to the woman with the vegetables, She handed him the leaves her head bowed in respect. “Jah! Angel Mikeluu! Angel Gabereli” he cried “You have done it” he said lifting the basket up to the heavens in one swift motion and handing it to me. “It is done, my child” Uncle Festus said to the woman carrying the baby and “This is what you will do” he began.
Uncle Festus informed the woman that Jah’s solution to her problem was to sleep naked in her husband’s room for three nights in a row; Jah had said that she was to perfume herself and everywhere that had hair on her body and present herself to her husband at ten o’ clock every night, and failure to adhere to these instructions would result in calamitous and disastrous consequences. The woman and her friend had nodded gravely and then they thanked Uncle Festus profusely as they put a wad of hundred naira notes in a bowl Uncle Festus placed in front of them. As they got up to leave, the woman’s arm brushed mine and all of a sudden I was plunged into a circling tornado of unending darkness and then I was in front of a house that had a large framed picture of a young woman propped up on a table with artificial flowers surrounding the frame and white candles burning on both sides of the table. There were women dressed in mourning clothes, wailing and shouting, “Chinwe o!” one cried and another woman sitting stiffly on a chair laughed bitterly “Cruel death, and she was so young”.
“Ama…Solomon” I heard Uncle Festus call, water was being sprinkled on my face and I was lying on the mat “I’m awake” I said cleaning my face with the back of my hand, the women were peering at me, unsure about what to make of the situation. “Who is Chinwe?” I asked the woman with the baby as I sat up, her eyes grew wide with amazement or fear, and I could not tell which one. “My husband’s mistress” she finally answered. “How did you…” she stuttered “I didn’t…” she began again, I waved away her questions “Chinwe is going to die” I said looking at the woman. She looked bewildered, and then her expression changed into a pained smile, “Thank you Prophet Solomon” she said bowing her head.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
ORION'S BELT II
So I finally did it, I messed around, went on the blogger link, changed encoding..a bunch of randomness that is even confusing me sef, but I DID IT! So YAY ME!! Here is second installment, enjoy guys! Thanks for your help Repressed One.
ORION'S BELT©
We began our walk home as I told him my dream, he throwing stones at imagined lizards in the far distance, me gesturing endlessly with my hands. I concluded my dream as we neared Mama Uzo’s backyard garden , Uzo broke his stride, gave me a quick hug and thumped me on the back “There is nothing to worry about Amadi, now that you have told me your dream, of course I will not run into the road for a ball!” he said.
I smiled uneasily, I was not entirely convinced, there was still the niggling feeling of uncertainty, like on days when it rained while the sun shone brightly and a sense of dread had settled upon me. But I nodded my head in agreement and answered “Yes, of course” with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. “Mama cannot see you, go I will see you later” Uzo said, as he unlatched the kitchen door and waved goodbye. I walked home feeling very confused and afraid. My head was throbbing with questions and there was no one who could answer them, Adaku, my mother was a self-absorbed ex-beauty queen who still reveled in her pageant days and went through life like she was still the twenty year old who had won the Ogudu Market competition. I was the mistake that happened with the business man otherwise known as my father - the electronics dealer in Mammy market. The same mistake that destroyed her figure she had since been trying to reclaim. Adaku, the woman who would not bat an eyelid even if I set my head on fire (I had tried it, the patch-work pattern growth of my hair would always remind me of my foolishness). I laughed bitterly as I thought of having a conversation with her about my dream. The only time Adaku ever spoke to me was when she barked out orders, gave me food, or during the morning ritual. She called me every morning after she finished taking a shower, naked before her full length mirror, she would hold her love handles and say to me “Nwa Ekwensu! Devil Child! You see it?” She would look me up and down, from my head to the sole of my feet and eye me in a way only she could execute. After I singed my hair and wounded my scalp, I gave up trying to get her attention and establish a relationship with her, it was a hopeless cause.
I got home weary and mentally exhausted; I had detoured from my original route home in hopes of ridding my mind of the persistent feelings of doubt, to no avail. I walked into the kitchen tense and hungry, on the kitchen table sat an Eleganza cooler of yam porridge. I scooped spoons of bright yellow mush (the kind of yellow that comes only from rich palm oil), yams morsels replete with utazi slivers and spinach leaves into a ceramic bowl and wolfed it down hungrily, sated I fell into a deep sleep.
It was Saturday - chore day, and I generally danced to the beat of my own drum, I usually woke up at six and commenced with sweeping the yard and then all the rooms in the house. Adaku usually came in at noon, drunk and rambunctious. She had spent the night at the local palm wine joint, sitting on the laps of men who bought her drinks hoping to score a new boyfriend. Today was different though, she staggered into the house, her skintight mini-dress ripped and revealing her was-once-white lacy pant, her hair was in a disarray, and there was a huge stain of some liquid spread across her chest and breasts.
“Ekwensu, ebe ki no? Devil, where are you” she screamed, she was drunk. “Adaku, there is bath water for you” I said, holding my breath to avoid the reeking stench of stale sweat and fermented palm wine and pointing in the direction of the outhouse. She moved towards me as I wondered if she was too drunk to take a shower, and then she struck me in the face. My mouth fell open as my cheek tingled, my ears had taken on a new shade of red, and they were hot - I could feel the heat spreading down my neck. She had never hit me, despite her cold-heartedness and deficient maternal skills, Adaku had never once laid a finger on me. “Why?” I asked, my palm cool against my burning cheek, “Lo-ok at wha---t that wo-man did to…me” she stuttered. “Uzo is dead, and you talked to him se? You killed him Amadi.” “I am tired Amadi! I cannot continue to deal with your wahala, Festus is coming to take you” she talked fast and mumbled the words like she had hot yam in her mouth. “Uncle Festus?” I asked, “Yes, to Lagos” she said and walked past me, slamming her bedroom door as she entered into it.
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‘Ukwa ruo oge ya o da – At the appropriate time, the breadfruit will fall”
We went to see Uzo’s mother – Adaku and I, in spite of her attack on Adaku, to pay our condolences and that was when she screamed at us and called me an ogbanje. Adaku said nothing as we left the mourning house, we could hear the women whispering and muttering under their breaths “Ashewo” one said, “Prostitute” another spat in agreement. But they would never say it to her face, because they liked their faces too much - if there was anything other than drinking Adaku could do: it was wrestling and winning.
“Uzo died in his sleep, I didn’t kill him” I said to Adaku as we walked home, “Festus is coming tomorrow, pack all your things” she replied, ignoring my self-exoneration. “Maybe, you can learn his trade and make something of yourself in Lagos” she continued. “What does he do?” I asked, “Am I Festus?” “You will find out when you get there” She answered mordantly. The short conversation had ended, and we silently made our way home.
ORION'S BELT©
We began our walk home as I told him my dream, he throwing stones at imagined lizards in the far distance, me gesturing endlessly with my hands. I concluded my dream as we neared Mama Uzo’s backyard garden , Uzo broke his stride, gave me a quick hug and thumped me on the back “There is nothing to worry about Amadi, now that you have told me your dream, of course I will not run into the road for a ball!” he said.
I smiled uneasily, I was not entirely convinced, there was still the niggling feeling of uncertainty, like on days when it rained while the sun shone brightly and a sense of dread had settled upon me. But I nodded my head in agreement and answered “Yes, of course” with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. “Mama cannot see you, go I will see you later” Uzo said, as he unlatched the kitchen door and waved goodbye. I walked home feeling very confused and afraid. My head was throbbing with questions and there was no one who could answer them, Adaku, my mother was a self-absorbed ex-beauty queen who still reveled in her pageant days and went through life like she was still the twenty year old who had won the Ogudu Market competition. I was the mistake that happened with the business man otherwise known as my father - the electronics dealer in Mammy market. The same mistake that destroyed her figure she had since been trying to reclaim. Adaku, the woman who would not bat an eyelid even if I set my head on fire (I had tried it, the patch-work pattern growth of my hair would always remind me of my foolishness). I laughed bitterly as I thought of having a conversation with her about my dream. The only time Adaku ever spoke to me was when she barked out orders, gave me food, or during the morning ritual. She called me every morning after she finished taking a shower, naked before her full length mirror, she would hold her love handles and say to me “Nwa Ekwensu! Devil Child! You see it?” She would look me up and down, from my head to the sole of my feet and eye me in a way only she could execute. After I singed my hair and wounded my scalp, I gave up trying to get her attention and establish a relationship with her, it was a hopeless cause.
I got home weary and mentally exhausted; I had detoured from my original route home in hopes of ridding my mind of the persistent feelings of doubt, to no avail. I walked into the kitchen tense and hungry, on the kitchen table sat an Eleganza cooler of yam porridge. I scooped spoons of bright yellow mush (the kind of yellow that comes only from rich palm oil), yams morsels replete with utazi slivers and spinach leaves into a ceramic bowl and wolfed it down hungrily, sated I fell into a deep sleep.
It was Saturday - chore day, and I generally danced to the beat of my own drum, I usually woke up at six and commenced with sweeping the yard and then all the rooms in the house. Adaku usually came in at noon, drunk and rambunctious. She had spent the night at the local palm wine joint, sitting on the laps of men who bought her drinks hoping to score a new boyfriend. Today was different though, she staggered into the house, her skintight mini-dress ripped and revealing her was-once-white lacy pant, her hair was in a disarray, and there was a huge stain of some liquid spread across her chest and breasts.
“Ekwensu, ebe ki no? Devil, where are you” she screamed, she was drunk. “Adaku, there is bath water for you” I said, holding my breath to avoid the reeking stench of stale sweat and fermented palm wine and pointing in the direction of the outhouse. She moved towards me as I wondered if she was too drunk to take a shower, and then she struck me in the face. My mouth fell open as my cheek tingled, my ears had taken on a new shade of red, and they were hot - I could feel the heat spreading down my neck. She had never hit me, despite her cold-heartedness and deficient maternal skills, Adaku had never once laid a finger on me. “Why?” I asked, my palm cool against my burning cheek, “Lo-ok at wha---t that wo-man did to…me” she stuttered. “Uzo is dead, and you talked to him se? You killed him Amadi.” “I am tired Amadi! I cannot continue to deal with your wahala, Festus is coming to take you” she talked fast and mumbled the words like she had hot yam in her mouth. “Uncle Festus?” I asked, “Yes, to Lagos” she said and walked past me, slamming her bedroom door as she entered into it.
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‘Ukwa ruo oge ya o da – At the appropriate time, the breadfruit will fall”
We went to see Uzo’s mother – Adaku and I, in spite of her attack on Adaku, to pay our condolences and that was when she screamed at us and called me an ogbanje. Adaku said nothing as we left the mourning house, we could hear the women whispering and muttering under their breaths “Ashewo” one said, “Prostitute” another spat in agreement. But they would never say it to her face, because they liked their faces too much - if there was anything other than drinking Adaku could do: it was wrestling and winning.
“Uzo died in his sleep, I didn’t kill him” I said to Adaku as we walked home, “Festus is coming tomorrow, pack all your things” she replied, ignoring my self-exoneration. “Maybe, you can learn his trade and make something of yourself in Lagos” she continued. “What does he do?” I asked, “Am I Festus?” “You will find out when you get there” She answered mordantly. The short conversation had ended, and we silently made our way home.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Apologies...
So I've been trying to copy and paste the story since friday from microsoft word to no avail....help someone? I even tried to cut and paste, I apologize to my few fans I will keep on trying though.
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On my life -
Can you fall in love with a mind (foremostly)?
I think I am falling in utmost LIKE with his mind.
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On my life -
Can you fall in love with a mind (foremostly)?
I think I am falling in utmost LIKE with his mind.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Orion's Belt
Hey everyone, so I am awake waiting for Omulu's brown rice to cook (the things I do for love). How has everyone been o? I have been bamboozled with school work mehn...chai..na so education be? But I have something for you wonderful people of Blogsville, this is a short story I wrote for my creative writing class (as it is a lengthy piece, I willl be posting in installments).
ORION"S BELT
“Na condition wey dey make crayfish bend”
Asaba, Nigeria December 2006.
I remember the first time I was called an ogbanje, I was fifteen and it was after Uzo’s funeral, Adaku and I had gone to pay our condolences and upon seeing us Uzo’s mother screamed and shrieked in anguish “Get out of here! Haven’t you done enough? Go and take your ogbanje son with you.” The events leading up to Uzo’s death were prosaic but apparently they held a certain significance for Mama Uzo, we had been playing in his room with his deck of cards that his Aunty from Lagos just got him, when all of a sudden I felt very lightheaded and nauseous, I felt myself falling fast, very fast into a swirling, spinning black pool. I tried to grasp some tangible form and I realized I was clutching at air, a thick fierce wind engulfed me, the pool was sucking me in, I breathed deeply one last time and then I remembered Uzo, where was he? And then I let myself fall.
I woke up on the corner of the street, unharmed and afraid. People were walking past me like I was not there, I greeted Mama Uche, the crayfish seller and she barely glanced my way or even acknowledged my presence. I began to scream, thick and throaty, and then the sound caught in my throat as I watched Uzo follow his ball as it rolled into the road and a black Toyota charging into the road, hard and fast, sweeping Uzo with it and barely pausing. “Uzo!!” I screamed, he may have heard me but I would never know as his knees buckled and he fell as the car collided into him and left a bloody corpse in its trail.
I felt myself stirring “Amadi! Amadi! Wake up joo”, “Uzo?” I asked unsure, “Na wa for you o! Who falls asleep in the middle of go fish? Ha! I just went to get us chinchin and you are already sleeping.” “Uzo, you are going to die” I said matter of factly, shocking myself. “What?” “You are going to die” I said again firmly with no affect, I was scaring even myself, he looked at my face severely, scrutinizing as if for a tell-tale sign of an early onset of madness. “I think you better go home and sleep Amadi. You don’t seem very well to me’’ he replied. I wanted to argue and say I was fine, narrate my life-like dream and listen to Uzo’s take on the matter but I thought the better of it, I had just told my friend that he was going to die, I probably needed a whole lot of something.
As I walked out of Uzo’s room and into the shabbily furnished parlor that had cushions sagging in the middle and torn through the stitching from age and overuse, Uzo’s mother looked up from the egusi she had been shelling and placed it on the wobbly wooden centerpiece that looked like it might collapse at any moment. “ Nwa m e be ki n’eje? Unu e mesigo? My child where are you going? Have you boys finished?” she asked. I nodded quickly and muttered a yes as I promptly slid my thin frame through the door and disappeared before I was attacked with a barrage of questions, and then I heard her call for Uzo as I shut the door. Uzo avoided me at school for the next week like I was the proverbial king who had shit in his pant and was not aware, when he saw me in the boys’ bathroom he fled as if an army of black soldier ants were after him. The day before he died he finally spoke to me, school was over and I was sitting under the shade of the soursop tree munching noisily on roasted corn and pear. “Amadi” he said softly “Uzo” I answered, standing up from the tree root I had been sitting on. “Mama told me to stay away from you, I’m so...” he began, I waved away his apology “No, I’m sorry Uzo” “I really am” I said looking into his eyes. He looked back at me, searching my eyes for what seemed like forever “It is true then, you are sure?” he asked, his body was rigid, his shoulders squared, and his back ramrod straight but his quivering voice betrayed his fear.“Yes, It is what I saw” I replied. “What happened exactly?” he asked and then I began to narrate the trance like episode.
ORION"S BELT
“Na condition wey dey make crayfish bend”
Asaba, Nigeria December 2006.
I remember the first time I was called an ogbanje, I was fifteen and it was after Uzo’s funeral, Adaku and I had gone to pay our condolences and upon seeing us Uzo’s mother screamed and shrieked in anguish “Get out of here! Haven’t you done enough? Go and take your ogbanje son with you.” The events leading up to Uzo’s death were prosaic but apparently they held a certain significance for Mama Uzo, we had been playing in his room with his deck of cards that his Aunty from Lagos just got him, when all of a sudden I felt very lightheaded and nauseous, I felt myself falling fast, very fast into a swirling, spinning black pool. I tried to grasp some tangible form and I realized I was clutching at air, a thick fierce wind engulfed me, the pool was sucking me in, I breathed deeply one last time and then I remembered Uzo, where was he? And then I let myself fall.
I woke up on the corner of the street, unharmed and afraid. People were walking past me like I was not there, I greeted Mama Uche, the crayfish seller and she barely glanced my way or even acknowledged my presence. I began to scream, thick and throaty, and then the sound caught in my throat as I watched Uzo follow his ball as it rolled into the road and a black Toyota charging into the road, hard and fast, sweeping Uzo with it and barely pausing. “Uzo!!” I screamed, he may have heard me but I would never know as his knees buckled and he fell as the car collided into him and left a bloody corpse in its trail.
I felt myself stirring “Amadi! Amadi! Wake up joo”, “Uzo?” I asked unsure, “Na wa for you o! Who falls asleep in the middle of go fish? Ha! I just went to get us chinchin and you are already sleeping.” “Uzo, you are going to die” I said matter of factly, shocking myself. “What?” “You are going to die” I said again firmly with no affect, I was scaring even myself, he looked at my face severely, scrutinizing as if for a tell-tale sign of an early onset of madness. “I think you better go home and sleep Amadi. You don’t seem very well to me’’ he replied. I wanted to argue and say I was fine, narrate my life-like dream and listen to Uzo’s take on the matter but I thought the better of it, I had just told my friend that he was going to die, I probably needed a whole lot of something.
As I walked out of Uzo’s room and into the shabbily furnished parlor that had cushions sagging in the middle and torn through the stitching from age and overuse, Uzo’s mother looked up from the egusi she had been shelling and placed it on the wobbly wooden centerpiece that looked like it might collapse at any moment. “ Nwa m e be ki n’eje? Unu e mesigo? My child where are you going? Have you boys finished?” she asked. I nodded quickly and muttered a yes as I promptly slid my thin frame through the door and disappeared before I was attacked with a barrage of questions, and then I heard her call for Uzo as I shut the door. Uzo avoided me at school for the next week like I was the proverbial king who had shit in his pant and was not aware, when he saw me in the boys’ bathroom he fled as if an army of black soldier ants were after him. The day before he died he finally spoke to me, school was over and I was sitting under the shade of the soursop tree munching noisily on roasted corn and pear. “Amadi” he said softly “Uzo” I answered, standing up from the tree root I had been sitting on. “Mama told me to stay away from you, I’m so...” he began, I waved away his apology “No, I’m sorry Uzo” “I really am” I said looking into his eyes. He looked back at me, searching my eyes for what seemed like forever “It is true then, you are sure?” he asked, his body was rigid, his shoulders squared, and his back ramrod straight but his quivering voice betrayed his fear.“Yes, It is what I saw” I replied. “What happened exactly?” he asked and then I began to narrate the trance like episode.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Hey Guys..
So, I know I said I will be updating with loooooooooooooonng posts shortly, but mehn I have been so busy with work and this particular toaster that insists we must talk at least six times a week..jeez!!! more on that later sha.... Ok, so the semester is on and I'm taking this creative writing class to hone and polish my skills (the ones I hopefully have) and we had this assignment to write a letter in the same vein as James Baldwin's letter to his nephew (something generalizable that others can relate to) and here's what I did.....
Enjoy..P.S- No, I haven't gotten it graded yet and we were supposed to incorporate synesthesia and conflict, plus I need to proofread for punctuations.
Dear Mama,
I am angry at you, yes angry, livid even! I have only just begun to realize that the indifference and detachment with which you have treated me throughout my life has left a solid ineffaceable imprint, like a footprint mold in cement. I find that I am incapable of telling my new bride, Joyce, that I love her. Sure, I give her a roof over her head, the security of a home, food in her belly, trinkets and bejeweled combs to adorn her wrists and wooly hair, but the one thing she craves I cannot give, the simple words - “I love you”.
Our elders say blood is thicker than water, so I guess it is water that runs through these veins, because all I feel is hate, sharp and searing, I feel no kinship with you whatsoever. Throughout my childhood, you chiseled away at my capacity to feel, my emotions, my human essence. When I fell on the red sand, bruised my knee and bawled, desperate for comfort, you slung me across your knees and whacked my bottom till I fell silent, mortified - Boys did not cry. When I clung to your wrapper unrelenting, terrified to be sleeping alone on the makeshift bed by myself, you slapped me across my face and asked if I was a woman. I grew, nurtured with hard work and no love; I was learning to become “a man”. I suppose you want me to be grateful, seeing that I turned out an industrious, intelligent, and hard man. But I am not, because Mama in all my twenty eight years on earth you have never once told me you loved me, in teaching me to become “a man” you forgot to include that I would need a heart, and for Joyce I would always be an incomplete man trying to learn how to love.
Your son,
Nnamabia.
Mama's Response
Nnamabia,
How are you and your wife Joyce? So you are angry eh? You youngsters of nowadays forget the hands that fed you, in my time that rubbish letter you sent me expressing your…emotions, you called it? Would be an abomination!
So you want love? Nnamabia what are you going to do with love I ask you? Will you eat it? Will it quench your hunger? Did love make you the strong man you are today? You children make me laugh.
Our people say that a yam destined to burn, will burn whether it is roasted or boiled. Did I ask you to marry your educated wife, Nnamabia? Now, she wants love and you are insulting the breasts that fed you, it is not my fault you cannot satisfy your wife, perhaps you should tend your yams more carefully.
Mama.
N.B - Mama's letter was originally written in Igbo.
Enjoy..P.S- No, I haven't gotten it graded yet and we were supposed to incorporate synesthesia and conflict, plus I need to proofread for punctuations.
Dear Mama,
I am angry at you, yes angry, livid even! I have only just begun to realize that the indifference and detachment with which you have treated me throughout my life has left a solid ineffaceable imprint, like a footprint mold in cement. I find that I am incapable of telling my new bride, Joyce, that I love her. Sure, I give her a roof over her head, the security of a home, food in her belly, trinkets and bejeweled combs to adorn her wrists and wooly hair, but the one thing she craves I cannot give, the simple words - “I love you”.
Our elders say blood is thicker than water, so I guess it is water that runs through these veins, because all I feel is hate, sharp and searing, I feel no kinship with you whatsoever. Throughout my childhood, you chiseled away at my capacity to feel, my emotions, my human essence. When I fell on the red sand, bruised my knee and bawled, desperate for comfort, you slung me across your knees and whacked my bottom till I fell silent, mortified - Boys did not cry. When I clung to your wrapper unrelenting, terrified to be sleeping alone on the makeshift bed by myself, you slapped me across my face and asked if I was a woman. I grew, nurtured with hard work and no love; I was learning to become “a man”. I suppose you want me to be grateful, seeing that I turned out an industrious, intelligent, and hard man. But I am not, because Mama in all my twenty eight years on earth you have never once told me you loved me, in teaching me to become “a man” you forgot to include that I would need a heart, and for Joyce I would always be an incomplete man trying to learn how to love.
Your son,
Nnamabia.
Mama's Response
Nnamabia,
How are you and your wife Joyce? So you are angry eh? You youngsters of nowadays forget the hands that fed you, in my time that rubbish letter you sent me expressing your…emotions, you called it? Would be an abomination!
So you want love? Nnamabia what are you going to do with love I ask you? Will you eat it? Will it quench your hunger? Did love make you the strong man you are today? You children make me laugh.
Our people say that a yam destined to burn, will burn whether it is roasted or boiled. Did I ask you to marry your educated wife, Nnamabia? Now, she wants love and you are insulting the breasts that fed you, it is not my fault you cannot satisfy your wife, perhaps you should tend your yams more carefully.
Mama.
N.B - Mama's letter was originally written in Igbo.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Ekene Agabu
Gawlsh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! totally feeling Ekene!! and it's just his voice o! and what comes out his mouth! Eke Baby, I salute you! lol (I am such a groupie! chai!).
Check out Eke baby here>>>http://www.ekeneagabu.com
Check out Eke baby here>>>http://www.ekeneagabu.com
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Guys and Guys
Feels like I'm walking on eggshells...
I hate feeling like this.
Argh...so much for being truthfully blunt...
I forget I'm not as sensitive as I should be...
On the upside, is this our first tiff? (he he)
Who knows??
P.S - Chari, I realize this is not a PROPER update, does anyone know where Mz. Dee don run go?
I would say upcoming news on L.C>>> http://adialayo.blogspot.com/2007/07/ruminationschewing-cudover-and-over.html , but I may never deliver.*sigh. and I wonder why my blog is dying.
I hate feeling like this.
Argh...so much for being truthfully blunt...
I forget I'm not as sensitive as I should be...
On the upside, is this our first tiff? (he he)
Who knows??
P.S - Chari, I realize this is not a PROPER update, does anyone know where Mz. Dee don run go?
I would say upcoming news on L.C>>> http://adialayo.blogspot.com/2007/07/ruminationschewing-cudover-and-over.html , but I may never deliver.*sigh. and I wonder why my blog is dying.
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