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Dedicated to my friends Abraham, Kachi and Victor (Lumumba)
'25th October, 1939, is part of the history we would always remember Isunjaba for. I know you would love to ask, what happened on that day ? I am going to tell you anyway',said Papa Nnụkwụ
It was the day beloved Sọchukwuka was born as an only child to the family of Ogbuefi Ugonabọ and Dada Ujụbuonụ { both of blessed memory} . Christianity as well was a religion whose birth was recently extended to the community of Isunjaba as at those early days.
Sọchukwuka was such a loving child that when you ask him, Sọsọ ọlee ịhe i chọrọ n’ itolite (What would love to be when you become of age)? He would answer cheerfully with his little but chubby cheeks, ‘’ A chọrọm ibụ ụkọchụkwụ osebụlụwa { I want to be a priest of the most high God}.
A very obedient lad, he would accompany his mother Ujubụọnụ during those perilous days to the far markets of Onicha and Abba, trudging behind her as he carried meticulously, his mother’s earthenwares for sale.
Nwa n’ enweghi onye ọmejọrọ{ A child that did not offend anyone}, little did it occur to him that his adored harmlessness in the eyes of the gods was a threat to Ukanga, his uncle, whose four wives bore him sixteen girls.
Isu community,like every other autochthonous Igbo nation, was one that had such reverence and dependency on Anụnganga- mpi (Anụ), the mouth piece of their god Ebubedike who also nursed this dreadful feeling for Sọchukwuka that one would wonder whether they had been engrossed in a tough battle in their previous lives. But then,the reason which was a mystery to all was that beloved Sọchukwuka was chosen to replace Anụnganga- mpi after his demise. A position he had always wanted his son,Chinuogu to ascend.
Like a planned and already archived destiny, the Isu community as at that time was heavily plagued. Their crops were singing the lyrics of death and the livestocks as well were not left out. The streams sang the tone of the roaming disaster by drying up. The people sought help from their revered chief priest, Anụnganga-mpi,to intercede on their behalf to their gods to know the cause of their attributions.
The time was ripe and Ukanga and Anụ could not pass such opportunity, so they conspired to set little sọchukwuka up. Anụmade Chibieọdụ the village town crier to announce to all the seven clans of Isu that Ebube-dike had heard their cries and the god had decreed that whoever was caught in the act of conversion would be used as a sacrificial lamb to cleanse the land.
Poor Sọchukwuka, olee ihe ọmakwanụ ? [ what does he know], he was certainly not a thief. Ukanga suddenly became fond of him that he requested Sọchukwuka to help him run an errand which his mother obliged to because he was to carry her wares to her spot in oyeolisa. What are families for anyway? After much pleas, Ujubụọnụ allowed her son to run the errand and return home for the market journey.
“ Diọkpa Ugonabọ{ Ugọnabo’s first son} take this covered basket to the village square, it contains some pieces of ogirisi { local oranges] which my buyers are waiting to collect from you. Diọkpa emepekwana ya ooo { Do not open it }”, those were the exact last instructions poor Sọchukwuma received on this earth. "Nnam anụgom" { papa I have heard}, he said as he picked up the basket, and rushed playfully to the village square.
As he approached the village square, Anụ was already there shouting furiously that the opi of Ebube-dike shrine,an instrument of connection between Ebube-dike and the people of Isunjaba was stolen from the shrine and its punishment for the would-be culprit was a death . Upon seeing Sọchukwuka, he ordered that his covered basket be searched. Like a trance the opi was found in Sọchukwuka’s covered basket. It required a soothsayer to tell the indigenes of Isu that he was innocent. But as destiny was for Sọchukwuka, the last soothsayer in the whole of Isu died decades ago,before his grandfather was born.
As Sọchukwuka was seized and carried by four able -bodied young men to the six feet grave already dug for the would -be culprit, then came the profoundly hateful toungue-lashing on sọchukwuma, ‘’ Tụfiakwa ! onye nwan anyi chere na ọbụ ezigbo mmadụ, ọbu otụ a ka ndi di ka ya si eji ezigbo ihu ha egbụ anyi. [ Abormination ! the person we took to be a good citizen, little did we know that he goes about deceiving us with his innocent looks} .
Sọchukwuka cried, “ ọnwerokwanu ihe m mere, chọbarụ nnem Ujụbọnụ“ { I did not do any thing .Call my mother Ujubuonu }. Daada came to behold the sight of her only Sọchukwuka which had already been feasted to the depth of the grave, waiting for the chief priest’s order for mounds of sand to send him alive to the great beyond.
When it dawned on Daada that not even the cries of a mother watching her only son being buried alive to the mother earth could make them the people of Isu have a change of heart, she began cursing the people of Isunjaba as she was being restrained from jumping into the grave. These were her exact words;
“Oh you people of Isunjaba,for making my only seed go through this excruciating death, I would die one day but will come back as a ferocious god. Death and mournful confinement shall I give your children and grandchildren. Your great grand children as well I will never spare. I would make them dance slowly to the rhythm of my death songs.
Your joyful moods will I make everlasting bottled worries. For seventy decades will I plunge this community into despair that men would hear and read your history but never will they be able to trace it. Your names I will wipe out from the stories of men that not even the spiritsfrom the moon will I listen to when they plead on your behalf. Just as the people of Isu have killed my only seed, so also will I sieve out life mercilessly from your innocent and loved ones. No family shall ever have a son when I come back as a god.
Other nations would hear my story, the story of why I became Orimiri the god of death and ………………..{ the moulds of sand were used to cover Sọchukwuka's mouth as became motionless}. The last thing his eyes gazed were the eyes of his poor mother ujubụọnụ as the last mound of sand swallowed his existence.
There was a heavy downpour signaling the death of Sọchukwuka, the curtains of the Opi shrine were torn into two. His poor mother collapsed on top of his only son’s grave. There she stood motionless. She never got up and all was heard of her was that she died from Nervous shock. Those were the words of the white Archeologist who came to confirm the authenticity of Sọchukwuka ‘s deathful story.
“Etim !! Etim !! Etim!!“, papa nnụkwkụ coughed “Get me a cup of water obikeze“.
Obikeze brought the cup of water and beckoned on papa nnụkwụ to continue the story. After, he had gulped down the last drop of water remaning on the plastic cup he said………. All Sọchukwuka said came to past.
“But then Papa nnụkwụ what really happen? Did Ukanga and Anụnganga-mpi die? What of the people of Isunjaba, what became of them?“
“That is the end of the story my son. What we now know of the story is that there was once a boy called Sọchukwuka and a god called Orimiri. As for Isunjaba, they were wiped off from humanity.“
