ORIGIN - Chapter Four

Olanna felt lonely. She thought she was fighting for her life and a way to preserve it. All along, she had believed she would have a child because Echi had assured her that she would. But now that her fate had been declared by Isiewu, all her struggle seemed hopeless.

Inside her, she discarded the sacrifice and made up her mind not to die. She also reasoned the benefit of three sons and the pride it would bring to her husband, who had constantly been facing insult from friends and relatives because of her childlessness. She did not believe in diviners, men who threw cowries and waited for it to land on the feathers of decayed birds, men who were thieves and used cunning ways to deprive and exploit people as they pleased. That was how she saw them, felt them, thought of them, but yet she had a sudden urge to cooperate with Isiewu, although she knew the sacrifice Isiewu would perform on her body would be too painful to bear. How could she cope with hot palm oil on her body? It would be too hot for her body to bear. She would have to watch the hot red liquid flow from her head to her feet until she was completely or partly covered with blisters.

“I cannot do it,” she said firmly.

Isiewu laughed long and loud, which annoyed Olanna. 

“Your wife is wasting my time. She thinks I am joking and saying words that are of my own and not of the gods,” he said and faced Olanna. “Listen, woman, I am Isiewu, which means the head of goat. I cannot be the head and act like a tail. You are not the first barren woman to come here, and you would not be the last. There are some women who have paid more costly price in order to have children; yours is one of the least in my list. I have done many works, ranging from childbirth to marriage, and I have even contended with evil spirits, men of darkness who can suck your life within a short period of time. You can ask your husband how many spirits I have battled with. Yet I am still alive. I have gone to the land of the seven dwarfs where no man without a potent charm can venture to. I have dined with giants and came back from their world alive. Who does that? No one. Even the beast of the forest knows the sound of my footsteps. I know you are afraid, very afraid, but I can assure you that everything would perfectly go well.”

Olanna was confident of Isiewu’s potency, but she asked another question that puzzled her mind. “Isiewu, eye of the gods,” she said, imitating her husband. “You said my generation would not reach the fourth generation. Why is it so?”

“Woman, you ask stupid questions. Can’t you read the meaning in your palm? There are three lines which signifies three sons and three generations. So it is impossible for you to have a fourth generation. There is no need for you to bother yourself about having a fourth generation. The important thing is the three sons you would bear, or will you be alive to see a fourth generation? Our elders say, ‘It is better to have a feast today and die tomorrow than to manage a bowl of fufu for a year,’” Isiewu said.

“When would you do the sacrifices?” Echi asked. He had been silent for a short time.

“Tomorrow, by this time. Don’t worry, it would be brief.” Isiewu laughed again. It was a humorous laughter that terrified Olanna.

*

They left the hut of Isiewu, feeling great joy and great pain. The joy was more on the side of Echi, who was happy that he would soon be the father of three sons while the pain rested on Olanna’s lean shoulders.

“Echi, will you not miss me?” Olanna asked when she served their meal.

Echi stared at her and swallowed the last piece of yam. He dipped his hands in a bowl of water and washed them.

“Olanna, I will miss you, but I will try to cope with your absence, especially when the male children are there to comfort me.” 

Olanna’s face changed, she was annoyed, and she left for their room. She was angry that he was not saying words that would comfort her. Instead, his words were only focused on the male children that were yet to be born. She felt that she was a tool to be used by her husband to achieve his selfish aim and not a wife that was to be loved. All these thoughts ran through her head, and she finally contemplated running away in the middle of the night when she was sure Echi would be fast asleep.

Night came as quickly as she had expected. She persuaded Echi to sleep early so that they could meet up with the sacrifices the following morning. “You need to sleep early,” she persuaded, rubbing his back slowly. 

“All right. I will sleep early just to please you.”

Olanna sprang into action when she heard the heavy snore coming from the nostrils of her husband. Slowly, she tiptoed out of the room and carefully closed the door behind her. She felt her wrapper slowly pulling away from her waist as she left Echi’s compound, but she did not care because of what was at stake. Only when she was sure she was far away from Echi, did she stop to tie it properly.

For the first time in her life, Olanna knew the worth of her life. She had never valued her life, even when she was about to be buried alive. But during the past few days, she had tried her best to cherish it. She turned towards the path that led to the stream of Umuolu as she walked quickly and hastily. She felt an intense pain in her chest when she reached the stream, and in a bid to reduce it, bent and drank some water. She stood up and turned around to follow the corner of the stream. Her heartbeat stopped when she saw Echi. She had been caught. Echi stared at her for a while. It was an intense look of shame and disgust, which tormented her whole body. It was followed by a series of shouts and regrets, which ended with her being dragged back home forcefully.

“You are trying to run away, isn’t it?” Echi asked when they got home.

“No, I am not.”

“Then what are you doing at the stream by this time of the night?”

Olanna kept quiet and waited for the interrogation to be through. She watched as his temper rose and subsided without her saying a word, then replaced by sorrowful tears, she had never seen before.

“Do you want me to remain childless? Do you want the villagers to laugh at me? Do you want my generation to end?”

“How can you say so, Echi? All I want is your happiness.”

Echi bent his head, not looking at her face. “Why did you run away?” 

“I was afraid. I didn’t want to die.”

“Then why did you deceive me?”

“I am deeply sorry, Echi. Please don’t look at my foolish mistake,” Olanna begged.

*

Echi looked at the earthen wall, and in his mind, he thanked the gods for the mosquitoes they had sent to disturb him, which made him aware of her absence. If she had left him, he knew he would never dream of having children in his entire life because most of the villagers had decided that only one bride brought from the unraided villages was enough for one man. Where would he get a girl from an unraided village as a sacrifice?

“I am deeply sorry,” Olanna pleaded again. Her eyes wandered at the darkness of his eyes as they sat side by side, not touching each other.

“Let us go back to sleep, and this time, I will keep a close eye on you before you attempt running away.” 

*

As they went back to their room, it occurred to Olanna that he did not act as she had thought. She was not even expecting him to talk to her calmly. She anticipated Echi would use the method that most men did to send messages to their wife in the village, which was beating and spanking. She had a vague feeling of guilt for running away from a man who saved her life and made her feel like a real woman with rights and dignities, and not a mere commodity to be purchased, used and thrown away. She knew he had accepted her death, and that could not mean he was utterly bad because most men in his position would do the same. Then who was to be blamed? The person who laid the curse on his head or the gods who made the greatest demand from her, which was her life? But one thing which baffled her the most was what the gods would gain from seeing her husband lonely without a woman by his side. The answer was there, and the truth was simple, the gods were wicked. They know the roles of women in the village, but why did they create them if they knew they would be offered back to them for their husbands to be pleased. Indeed! The gods were wicked.

She tried to imagine the face of her parents if her dead body was returned to their hut, and they were told the cause of her death. Her mother would cry till her tears became as thick as blood, and her father, an old man with a lively temper, would surely chase the people who brought her dead body since she was forcefully taken away from him.

At home, she would have had a perfect life, befitting of a queen, due to her position as the only child of her parents, but Umuolu people had spoilt everything good in her life. They had ruined her peace, love, and happiness she shared with her family and friends. They had abducted her and incurred hard conditions on her, but she was lucky, for some reason, not to be ill-fated like other girls who were taken by the eyes of lustful men and married to men with no regard for them. In that case, there was a glimmer of hope for her because she married a man who had given her the peace she would never have achieved if not for the priceless effort he had paid. So she knew it was right for her to do anything he requested. Finally, her decision was made. She was going to do anything for the man that loved her. If it was death, so be it. She was willing to embrace it until it drove her body to the land of no return, where her spirit would dine with the spirits of her ancestors and receive a memorable handshake for sacrificing herself for the benefit of her husband. Her mind was made up. No one could change it.