"Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in." - Shannon L. Alder.
"E gbukwala oge gi. I nweghi ike i megheri anyi anya. I bu nwa ogumagala. Anyi ma ihe I nwere ike ime."("Don't bother wasting your time, you will never fool us. You are the daughter of a Chameleon. We expect nothing different from you.") Those words I have never forgotten, nor have I ever forgotten the way they had made me feel. It wasn't just what Daa Chikodi had said, it was the way she had said it. The look in her eyes. It was the same with everyone else. Their faces and attitudes showed the scorn they felt towards Mama and I.
Mama! The only family I had. My provider and protector. She was the only real friend I had while we lived in the village. She had walked me to and from school everyday. And I loved it. We had always been a team for as long as I can remember, but, gun to my head, I would say it probably began after Papa died. That was when the villagers could no longer hide their animosity against Mama. And as Mama's child, I bore my share of whatever ill-feeling they felt towards Mama.
But it was never always that way. There was a time nobody hated Mama. Not because of her beauty or good manners. But because she never did anything different from what was expected of her. She was the only daughter of Nnamdi, the Hunter, and the beautiful Ebere, the School Teacher. Her younger brother, Uche, had died of Malaria at age Three and Ebele had been unable to birth another child after that. Nnamdi had died from a stray bullet during hunting season and the responsibility of taking care of the entire compound and farms had fallen on Ebere.
For some reason, the villagers never troubled them through that time, they were rather supportive and Ebere and Mama managed to attend to their farms after school and sell the produce at the market to support themselves. Sometimes, Mama's school friends came to help her at the farms, one of them was Obinna, the only son of Mazi Orji and Oriaku Daberechi. He was there for her, helping with the farm work so that she could do both of their school assignments. In no time, they were known to always be together. And as soon as Mama was of age, Obinna's family brought Palm Wine and Yams, did the necessary rites, and Mama and Obinna were married.
That marriage made them one of the richest families in the village as both Papa and Mama had farmlands. The union produced my younger brother, Ifeanyi, and I, and sealed Mama's status as the luckiest and most envied woman in the village. It also made her more enemies than friends. Mama got a job as a teacher at the village school and always walked me to school and made me wait until she was finished with her work so that we would walk back home together, sometimes passing through the market to buy things for dinner and sweets for Ifeanyi and I. Ifeanyi never liked school, so he was always with Papa at the farms. Life was great...until that day.
- The Lady
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”
Psalms 2:1
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