Unseen Prose: The Warning


ENUWA: My daughter, before you start your own chapter listen to the end of Ogeyin:

Her adamant mind nearly lay her in the grave. When her both parents bitterly scolded her for being obstinate and wayward, she had always assumed they rather hated her.  Indeed an exquisite young lady who could have reserved her pride for a lasting honour. But she did the flaw that collapsed her entire life. Having being put in a family way by the idle Ijoga, a young promising guy who dropped out of school due to lurch. He wooed Ogeyin by his half-baked grammar as it was obvious they were both the only Mr. and Mrs. Elites in the whole of Opkudu village. All she did to conceal the opprobrium ended in fiasco, she tried to abort but the foetus was already too mature. Her ears heard more than her eardrum could resound. Her mates castigated her like an arrested burglar and the shame was written all over her.

It was during this period that the rejected Ogbu appeared. Ogbu the most debased young man in the village had disappeared ever since his last unfortunate profession of love for Ogeyin. None believed a fool could be wise. All thought he was hapless but his life now proves greatness resides in all man. He returned a Lawyer in a spiffy Lexus jeep. According to him: ‘’I have come to take my betrothed away for a wife. She is everything I am today. When I gave her love but she spat it back to me, I was challenged inside me to prove my worth. This was what aroused determination in me and now this feat.”

The ‘wife’ was the heavy Ogeyin. She lost it all! When her eyes opened it was rather too dark for her to see.

You see, patience is priceless I tell you. Obedience is rewarding and always will patience pay you more than salary. My daughter wait for the true joy.

 That’s how tradition has now overturned our rights. The girl-child is like a slave before the boy-child. You can imagine Ochigbo of yesterday talking to me with such a domineering tone as marriageable as I am! Boys must not watch plates, they must not sweep and thus, the girls are made to perform all the scruffy jobs in the house. This holds why we don’t grow! Sexism has not allowed for progress.

I think our people should seek repentance. The tradition is unjust, regressive and even a harm! It needs a rebirth.

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