ADA PRIDE OF ALAOCHA (BK 1)

Black coal Black scarBlack scaleBlack and lovely melaninYou are as tough as a coalLike a scar you have marked me a spotamong the cloudYour hardness has taught me hardship andendurance under the scorching fire of the yellow glow Black and lovely melaninYou made me weakYou make me strongYou made me sad

The men watched as the Diviner circled another series of dance steps. The beads, and cowries that clothed her, oscillated, and swerved in rhythm to the wooden gong that vibrated the serenity of the cold night, whose handler was a ghost in the scene. Sulugede, the dance was so-called. It was, it is and will always be the dance of the spirit.Drunk and possessed by the spirit of the ancestors, the diviner paused and started making gestures with her two hands. The numerous beads lining her wrist jingled with the cowries and both followed their wearer without complaint.The musical beat of the wooden gong has ceased and the diviner had also paused, listening to the air, trying to pay heed to their advice. Nobody spoke, nobody dared to speak, for this was one of those moments when the diviner and the spirit of the dead interact.“Let the child that wrestle with the father be put to shame” she began the incantation, with a voice which cracked

The day’s chores had eaten deeply into the evening, and now what was left from the light of the sun, tubes in any directions through the trees’ leaf and grasses, into the river, reflecting bright warm lights and faint rainbow colors. The melodies of the arboreal initially clouding the air, were now retiring to their nests, but the cold harmattan wind seemed anew and prevalent.Ada sat on the cold sand and watched in wonder as her friend immersed herself into the water again. Her head which was the only thing afloat, suspended the dark hair, like fine trends of delicate motile tentacles. Until fifteen to sixteen feet above the surface, the river was bottomless, but Chinwe always maintains her upthrust, like the professional she is. Female swimmers are rare in Alaocha; most people believe that unless one was gifted by the goddess of the seas and rivers— Idemili—they could not go to places in the river where the depth was cupped.The s

A huge torch of yellow fire, as large as five average men placed on top of each other, lay resting now, on the center of the circle, to commemorate the blazing kindness of the gods of the land. The jamboree and songs of the people blast the night with melody. The drums, the Ogene (metal gong), the xylophone and every sweet talking instruments, played so well, that the burning woods joined the harmony as they gave out fairies of floating sparks. The festival had taken another turn as those who were not gyrating, were drinking or making bolus from the pounded yam, and swallowing the round ball, after covering it with the sauce of the egwusi soup. No running children to disturb the dancers, every one of them were busy gulping any edible delicacy they could lay hands on.Ada was tilting her head over the crowd, trying to find the loose black hair of her friend. There were oceans of black hair here, but she knew how to pick out Chinwe’s, from the crowd anytime. Just find the

It was the dimples on those smooth cheeks and the way she speaks that he admired the most. Those whistling words that are always soothing to a grudging heart. No, that was not it; she had acted rudely last night when he presented his humble proposal. Okay, maybe it’s a far-cry from her smile, maybe it’s the mortar of kindness lurking in her actions, mixed with that fragile baby looks, which always flush with her eyelid. She had winked at him last night hadn’t she? Maybe or maybe not or maybe I am being a goat head for thinking she would want anything to do with me again. Not after all these passing moons and all that had happened.The Prince heaved and steered on his bed, the fur mattress from Umumba clan was the most expensive and finest in the whole Kingdom, but beneath that softness, he could feel some stinging hardness on his skin which had nothing to do with the wooden frame of the bed. Somewhere outside a cock crowed loudly, announcing the