Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 23
After spending three weeks with mama and
her husband, yes! Husband I said; in my
home town, if a man and a woman are
cohabitating, they are as good as husband
as wife! And if there is a Child in the union
then they are confirmed husband and wife,
they can talk of paying pride price anytime
they are ready, and in my mother’s case who
would collect her bride price? It is me nah!
So by virtue of being her only relative who
did not abandon her, I pronounced then
Man and Wife! I have given Babe Miko my
mother free of charge. Though Babe Miko
kept saying they will go home in due time to
ratify everything with my Mother’s family, he
said there is a traditional way to go about it.
And the truth is that my Mother’s family had
known and liked Baba Miko when he was
wooing her before she blindly fell for my
Dad.
I travelled to Ezamgbo to visit Oga Luke (Oga
Inside). I stopped at Ezamgbo junction along
Abakaliki-Enugu express road and took a
bike to “Luke Umahi farms” as his farm of
twenty hectare was called. There was a sign
post bearing “Luke Umahi Rice Farm” at the
junction of Ezamgbo community.
I was intimidated by what I saw. The
expanse of land green with young rice
plants was so wide I could not see the end
from the beginning; it was like a green sea.
The field was swampy and the plants
flourished in it.
He was in a conference-like room at the
farm house discussing with some Students
from the Federal University of Agriculture
Umudike who had come on excursion to his
farm. My presence disrupted the session for
a moment as Oga Luke rushed out of the
hall to welcome me; he introduced me to the
Students and the accompanying Lecturer as
his friend in the Army. I joined the Student
and listened to Oga Luke’s Lecture on rice
farming, I enjoyed the Lecture so much that
I contemplated setting up a rice farm some
day. We went on a field trip with the
Students and they left at 3.30pm for their
School. There were some Students working
already on the Farm as part of their
Industrial attachment programme, while
others were paid labourers.
Oga Luke then took me to another arm of
the Farm that was for leafy vegetables alone,
three plots of land was used exclusively for
vegetables farming and it belonged to his
wife of twenty four years. The three plot
was divided into portions for various
vegetable such as utazi, water leaf, ugu
(fluted pumpkin) anghara leaf (Garden egg)
pepper, onugbu, (Bitter leaf) Okra, Uziza,
scent leaf, green vegetable and Okazi leaf.
The plants were very plump and healthy.
Oga Luke’s Wife was there with two girls
plucking pepper into Baskets in readiness
for the next day’s market, the next day was
“eke owo” owo community market day, and
she had gathered three baskets full already.
She sells her vegetable on any of the Market
days of neighboring towns such as Nkalagu,
ezilo, eha-amufu, Ntezi, and owo. The
market days could be Eke, Orie, Nkwo and
Afor. In those days in Igbo land, a Child born
on Eke Market day is named Nwa-eke
pronounce Nweke (Eke’s Child) a child born
on Nkwo Market day day is called Nwa-
Nkwo pronounced Nwankwo and Nwafor
and Nworie as the case may be.
She was happy to see me but the joy was
short lived as a quarrel started immediately
between she and her husband. Oga Luke
had introduced me to her as Ojo onye Army
(Ojo the Army man) and she replied; ehen! I
know him nah! Is he not that Soldier man
that was in Prison? The two girls assisting
her in the farm had taken sharp glances at
me then they started laughing.
Oga Luke had chased them from our
presence as he reprimanded his wife. They
spoke in their Omalante language (Ohaozara
dialect) I knew I was the subject matter so I
told Oga Luke not to worry, I told him she
was not lying after all but he had insisted
that it was insulting for his Wife to have
related me with the Prison and to worsen
everything she did it in the presence of her
maids! He did not like the kind of image she
was portraying me in the presence of the
maids, he said before I know it now,
everybody in the farm will know that I was
in Prison. I understood his point. Even
though I did not like what the woman did, I
did not want to be the cause of their
misunderstanding. She later abandoned the
basket and knife in her hands and walked
out on us grumbling.
By 5.00PM, we ate fufu with onugbu soup
(Bitter leaf) with roasted Anu Nchi (Grass
cutter meat) and some other meaty proteins
that I could not decode in the soup. Oga
Luke’s wife later brought us a keg of fresh
palm wine with two Calabashes to drink
with, she poured her husband a calabash
full and handed it to him with both arms
stretched out, he collected it and took a long
swing at the sweet liquid while I salivated as
I watched the second calabash being filled
by the Wife. She filled the second calabash
and was about to hand over to me when
her husband started with her again in their
dialect, she withdrew her hands and while
grumbling, she drank from the Calabash
before passing it to me with her right hand.
Oga Luke screamed at her again in their
dialect pointing his fore finger at her in a
warning gesture. She recoiled from me and
filled up the Calabash to the brim before
handing it over to me with both hands after
which she stormed away grumbling only to
return minutes later with a bowl full of
assorted roasted bush meats spiced with
Utazi leaf, palm oil and pepper. I was in
heaven on earth at Oga Luke’s farm house.
Together with Madam Luke we ate up all the
meat in the Bowl and drank up the keg of
palm wine, even though she sat away from
us as she gnawed angrily at her meat while
stealing scornful glances at her husband
who acted as if she was not even there. He
was busy telling me stories about the
Ezamgbo people and their culture and about
his experience in farming.
After the meal some of the maids came and
cleared the plates and bowls of water we
used in washing our hands. Oga Luke called
the girl that carried the bowl of water I used
in washing my hands back and instructed
that she poured the content on the floor
away from us where I could see it. The wife
got up at this point and started another
quarrel in their dialect as she left our
presence.
I followed them to their house in Oga Luke’s
Peugeot 504 Pickup Van and the couple
quarreled half of the way home. We got
home and I was showed the room to sleep
in. Their Children are grown up and were all
at Enugu schooling at E.S.U.T, they have three
Sons. They have two teenagers living with
them at home, they are Madam Luke’s
Nephews schooling at Ezamgbo boys high
School.
I had already slept off at 8.00PM when the
noise from the sitting room woke me up; it
was between Oga and madam. I wondered
what the problem was again and wished I
was not connected to it. I tried to go back to
sleep but I couldn’t. Madam Luke later came
to knock at my door, I struggled out of the
bed and opened the door, she told me that
there was water in the bath room for me to
take my bath, and then she turned back and
slammed the door at my face. Oga Luke
started to bark at her almost immediately,
she came back and opened my door, and
then she closed it gently and left grumbling.
The two have lived with each other like that
for twenty four years yet they are still
together so I did not interfere in their bouts.
The problem was that she could not bring
herself to serve or respect an ex convict like
me. I understood.
I spent a whole week with Oga Luke. We
slept two nights at the farm house. On one
of those nights, we woke up very early and
went round the farm and retrieved six giant
Grass Cutters caught by traps set in the farm.
Oga Luke said some Villagers do come early
to his farm to steal the catch from his traps.
He recounted a scenario where he came to
the farm in the morning and saw someone
shoe and pool of blood on one of his traps,
the trap had been pulled out of the soil and
disengaged.
After a week at Ezamgbo, I had learnt a lot
about rice farming. I went back to Abakaliki
with enough food stuff and vegetables and
eight smoked Grass cutters.
I was with mama till May 1998 I had spent
over a month with them, I was enjoying
myself and did not want to leave until
Amaka came to visit us and she reminded
me of my unfinished business with the Army
in Enugu.
Amaka stayed with us for two days during
which we went to Mama’s shop and she
was surprised at what she saw, she was
impressed to see that Mama had changed
from the ragged Village Woman to a Modern
and trendy City Lady, she was also happy to
see that mama was making good money.
She was also impressed at my dexterity at
hair dressing; she never knew how good I
was. I did not remember learning to fix or
dress female hair; I simply grew up doing it
because it was mama’s only source of
income that guaranteed my meal ticket. I
introduced Amaka to all our Customers that
came to the Shop that day as my fiancée that
I told them about. She promised to be
coming more often to visit mama and to
learn the hair dressing trade also.
Together we drove in her car to Enugu
leaving a weeping mama and a sad babe
Miko behind on a Sunday morning in may
- Mama EDD was in July.
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