Eria: (runs)
Unknown Voice: (loud
and thick) bain Eria bain ooo, don't stop, keep running. Amene ayerimene!!
She wakes up profusely
sweating like one who just won an Olympic long run. Before she could fathom the
message of her dream, she received a hard tap on shoulder. It was Tari.
Tari: run Eria, they
mustn't know you're still healthy, they mustn't continue to rape the virginity
out of you, they mustn't harvest the remains from your good soil. They have
made your daughters' lips a surface for their foreign colours, your sons wine
and dine to stupor from their strange calabash and inhale stronger pipes your
older sons won't dare. The call of your rivers now waits with desert tongue for
the Atiemene who now dance to what they call the piano. They no longer wait in
ambush but make way to pounce on you like the lion to the helpless dear. So
run, bain. Amene ayerimene!!
In a blink she took to
her heels. Eria kept running to where seemed unknown yet worth running. She runs
falls and gasp for air at least to quench the thirst of breath.
Owie: (stops her).
Where do you run to?
Eria: (Gasping for air).
Anywhere, but here -- silence chokes me to death continually. Freedom I seek
but my sons and daughters love the sweet taste of slavery.
Owei: (laugh in
mockery). You're just a woman with pride. You refused to let the men eat that
which is rightfully theirs'. Your sons will continue to rape the virginity out
of you. Your daughters will never stop to use their wrappers as a foot march to
the whites. They will bid farewell to their marriage signatures as their own
brothers pluck off their unripe apples. Keep running and searching for freedom
only your nose will sniff but only blindness will your sight be.
She runs further!
Ere: (stops her). You
crave and seek for freedom in an unknown land and you abandoned the crooked
pulley to your freedom, I mean to pull out the drunkenness weighing on your
shoulders. You sit and watch your sons pick up knifes to slaughter your skin in
the voices of the Whites, you sit and watch your daughters cut the cord binding
your womb, you turned your face and allow blood flow down the chin of your
older daughters as they bury your older sons who took them for wives.
The shackles they
decorated your body with, refused to let your young seeds grow for harvest,
they die of starving amidst plenty yet you stroll in thoughts, seeking for
freedom.
Eria: (still gasping
for air). Ere tell me what to do, Owei is among the wolves in sheep's clothing.
He calls me proud, me who made him Mr.
Ere: forget the likes
of Owei, you are the only place of our survival. Our ancestors formed, created,
molded and gave life to you. We knew no other god except the one who gave us a
place in you. So go back, refuse to stand akimbo, gather your faithful sons and
daughters; take back the remains of our spoil. You're the only freedom you are
looking for. If you stand, we will stand, if you stumble we stumble, if you
fall we fall. You still have your faithful sons and daughters who are ready to
let's their backs wiped by the foreign whips, who would chant asawana for the sake of freedom. For the
future of their growing seeds, they will scavenge and massacre their brothers
who joined alliance with the people who give us their book of laws, asked us to
close our eyes in words of enchantment to their god and while we obey, they
turned and entice our blood to betray us, to slaughtered their own fathers,
raped their mothers and daughters, took our lands and forced their mothers to
work on it. You have found freedom; it's time to make it more than a phrase -- amene ayerimene Eria.
Eria along with Tari
zoomed off to the camp of the Whites. They gathered the faithful sons and
daughters and they prayed to their deities for protection. They, with their
tattered, sun beaten, un-kept rock like hairs marched in loud chants of
'asawana, amene ayerimene a'.
On seeing the angry
mobs, the Whites ordered the blacks to shot their guns in the air to frighten
them away. They did. The angry mobs still pressed on and came to a halt at the
command of Eria, who leads them.
Eria: (to the black who
appears in western out fits). You shame the colour of your root, you betrayed
the chord of your ancestors, you let the clumsiness of your audacity kill the
land of your birth, and you choose to wine and dine with foreign diseases. What
did they promise you? Hmm, an eternity somewhere above our heads with their
white god, their plate which shows you how you look like, their strange clothes
that made you forget the wrapper you were wrapped into at birth, their accent
you choose to speak and throw trash at your mother tongue; constant pipes and
gin to appease the gods of your manhood and later rip your own sisters off
their wrappers; pieces of shell they got from your own home to give to you? We
have all they have but we have what they don't, our oil. They manipulate you
against us with their foreign inventions. Evil will give you instant pleasure
and take your permanent peace.
Look around you, you
have drank your own blood and tied shackles around the neck of tomorrow,
whipping her with the scorch of the sun and the shots of the rain. You work her
to naught without bread and water all to please these White plagues who are
thieves behind the book of laws. Join your people and restore that which has
been snatched from you. Open your eyes and see light before you'll find out that
you have no one to bury you at your old age. We have had enough, we are tied, and
we have come to drive away these white diseases off our property. Over our dead
body would we continue to sit and watch, they must go NOW!!!!!!
As the Whites saw that
the slaves have finally stood up, they had to act fast, they pulled a shot,
dropping one of the angry mobs dead. Then everyone started to be violent. Shots
were made by the Blacks who sides the Whites, Eria lost so many lives, but they
were determined to give freedom to their tomorrow. They fought nonstop,
exchanging bullets, arrows, blows. Eria was pinned down and given the beatings
of hell; still she fought harder and made her last words.
Eria: (pinned down).
Yes, we did it, we got freedom, and we finally stood up. Though I die today, I
live forever. This war will never end, our children will finish this war and
liberate this land for this is our tomorrow, our story will be told, and
everyone who fought would be remembered and celebrated. We finally got rid of
these foreign plagues. Though I die today, I live forever. I have been fought
for and it will never end here. Heroes are been born, champions are been
created, fighters are been recruited. They shall march this land to its
freedom. Yes, we did it, we got freedom, we finally stood up, and we will live
forever.
She gave up the ghost
while the war still continues till this day.
The
End.
About
the Author: Akpoveta Ufuoma is a Scholar at ACER. She is a
young writer based in Yenagoa Bayelsa State. She has won awards, and also
written many literary works. She is the writer of the book BREAKING THE SILENCE which was adopted to a movie and screened in a
cinema.
For more of science stories follow the ACER blog page or the ACER group.