Excerpt 4: Abomination leads to exit of goddess fishes
The elders of Anioma with the chief priest gathered for a meeting in this excerpt to discuss the dire situation of Anioma land.
Danger is being perceived because fishes of a river deity left mysteriously. The land convened a meeting but the problem between the king and few of his elders continued.
They have to find solution to the impending danger, but it has to start with finding out what the problem is. In this excerpt, the gathering and verbal war was captured.
This excerpt also touched the starting of the meeting to finding out what caused the exit of fishes in the diety’s river.
Excerpt 4:
“Thou need not to belittle my privilege authority to pacify thy anger. Kind brother; may we sip our wine and think about our days. My white friend brought a cigar to me, in my palace; we can smoke our pains away and find that space in our hearts where forgiveness made a rare tent. I make neither peace nor war with thee. We have unfinished battles, but let the good of he you deem evil be recognized, for the world is filled with vile and bile, so no one may act without good judgment” the King paused and took his time to look around and continued, not in a rush.
“I have taken a keen look around me and I cannot find a perfect man. They brought warrant chiefs, they brought everything bad but have you seen what the missionaries brought are doing? They remade the broken; the sick are alleviated, proper care we have never seen before came to the needy. Before you condemn what they did wrong, remember to praise what they did right as a true to life man” the King said and was about to sit down when Ichie Ozo offensively took on him.
“You count their good deeds because the good wave knocked you off your feet. You are in a better place, and they became saints. They brought their culture, their God, their lifestyle and we desperately swallowed everything. These people will change us, we will get altered and there won’t be a hiding place for the next generation. We shall be forgotten, when you are gone, your children will not honor you, they won’t pour ogogoro on the ground – libation. Our children will accept everything they were told and taught; these strangers don’t mean well for us, no matter how they glitter, they are not gold. Speak their good deeds while I speak the scary future we face today” Ozo angrily opposed the King as the polity began to get heated; Akajiofor Ajani II rang his bell to restore order and quiet.
“Your resentments keep God away from us. The resentment overruled prayer before meeting- a regular routine. You didn’t call upon God, how will this meeting be fruitful?” He took a calabash chalk out from his bag and fetched a wooden-carved shallow bowl and put a kola nut inside it and offered it to Dibia Ndukwu who returned it to him – indicated an approval for him to conduct the opening prayer ritual.
“Ka anyi maa nzu” he said as he held forth the calabash chalk and began his prayers.
“Chukwuokike eh, Eke Kelu Uwa, nekwa nzu, bia ma nzu. For the calabash chalk is a symbol of holiness and righteousness. Ajani Anioma, come and partake of this calabash chalk. Udara Ajani, Ikenga, Udo, Ogwugwu, Ndi Ichie, Ndi mmiri, Ani, Agwu, let all of the messengers of Holiest come and partake of this that in the fulness of God, we may commune and they may set a table for us in His presence” He drew four straight lines on the ground while mentioning what each line represented.
The four lines represented the four market days of Igbo calendar, namely, Eke, Orie, Afor and Nkwo. After his markings; he threw the calabash chalk for Dibia Ndukwu who collected and marked his own pattern and passed to the King who followed suit and then to the rest of the elders.
After the calabash chalk passed round, AkajioforII, picked a kola nut from the shallow wooden bowl and put his hand forward for prayers with the kola nut.
“Creation; we have come with a kola, that we may eat in parts while you eat in whole. This we do to honor you and in strong belief that with Kola, we express our deepest respect, we renew our relationship, access you and renew our covenant with you. Angel Ajani Anioma, we are your children, you speak and intercede between us and God because God is a Spirit our eyes cannot see, and you have been assigned to work for the people of Anioma by God. We are here today to finding solution to the abomination you revealed through divination. You said God is angry because we have committed sacrilege – what His divinities abhor. We ask that as we cast our uguri; as we divinely explore and seek to hear from you, speak to us through uguri. Let our spiritual eyes be open to see and ears to hear. Take away resentments and anger. Overwhelm us with love and understanding that we may gather fruitfully and excel in our endeavors. Grant the wishes of the good and severe the wicked. Save us from the wicked and even when we dine with the cursed, count grace onto us and not law. Let it be as we prayed na Eke, Orie, Afor and Nkwo” he concluded, and as he put down the kola into the wooden bowl, the congregation seconded and shouted.
“Iseee!”.
Everyone chorused in unison as he broke the kola of four parts and cast it on the bowl, he examined the cast he made and laughed.
“Ubochi ta mara mma” He picked one of the parts of the kola that faced down and threw it outside, got three more kola nuts and broke them, cast each of them but did not threw any one away.
One of the elders who seemed to be the youngest carried the bowl around for all to partake of the sharing. Prayer has just been made with a loud chorus of amen and the business of the day to officially be opened.
“Let’s quickly address our priority. We are all aware that the fishes of the river of Mmamu left mysteriously. This usually happens when abomination happens in our land. AkajioforII insisted we beckon on Dibia Ndukwu because a snake one person saw is a python. We shall now listen attentively as they consult Ajani for a solution” Diokpa Udogu officially opened the floor.
Last month; villagers had ran to the King’s palace to report the exit of catfish in Mmamu River. Mmamu River is the goddess river of Anioma, believed to be the goddess guiding Anioma land.
Domesticated rivers in Anioma forbid killing of fishes in it, as a result, fishes filled the river but mysteriously leave the river when abomination is committed in the land. By the exit; the goddess passed a message that evil had been done in the land and can only come back after the land is cleansed.
