it.
Nyan’guv
is a jelly-like meal made from the roots of the
re’
plant, or
konnyaku
. This perennial plant tastes like meat when properly spiced, so you can imagine how popular it was in my village where meat and vegetables were scarce and expensive.
Ma laughed for a long time. She looked very striking when she was happy. My Auntie Suiven once told me that Ma was the prettiest girl in the whole village back in the day. Kadoh also told me that Pa had wooed her for three whole years before she ever let him see her family. I wondered if an ugly duckling like myself would ever transform into a beautiful swan like Ma.
“I will make sure your food is ready,” Ma said.
“Thank you!” I squeezed myself against her lush bosom. It was so warm and soft. Her skin was also very smooth, and I hoped mine would be as smooth when I became a woman.
Pa took her hand, affectionately. “Okay,
wanle
, see you soon.”
I waved at them, as they walked into Ma’s room. Pa, just like any other man with a polygamous home, had his own chambers. He only came into any of his wives’ rooms when they wanted to “talk” as they always told me. Months later, the woman showed up pregnant. I recurrently wondered what kind of talking that was.
I returned to our room to find a sleepy Yenla taking her medication made from an old snail shell. This was alleged to help her with her problem.
“Morning!” she greeted, stretching herself and yawning so wide that her mouth could swallow a whale.
I carefully dusted the thatched mat, which served as my bed in those days and lay down, exhaling as I fondled my new
sha
η
g
. I could hear the chi chit chi sounds of morning brooms from outside. Music to my ears!
“Wh..Wher... Where is Papa?” Yenla stuttered excitedly.
“He heee... hee... Is wwiiiith Mama in the...their r...rroom.” I joked back.
Yenla ran after me and I leaped from my mat, ran out the door, and burst into the compound, Yenla close at my heels. I couldn’t let her catch me. She would bite me, or something like that.
Some of my family members were beginning to come out from the huts, and several cousins swept away dead leaves from the front of the compound. I also saw the new
bvey
s Pa had brought tethered to the tree by his hut. Nearby, my half brothers and cousins cleared grass. The chit chit of their machetes pierced my ears as I widened the gap between Yenla and myself.
I had heard from listening to Ya Ayeni and some old women gossip that Yenla was actually bewitched by Kpulajey out of jealousy for Ma. We are the original people, which meant Yenla, as the first daughter, had a fair chance of marrying into the palace, but no royalty would ever marry a stuttering albino wife. It was a curse! Being a stutterer was one thing, but being a stutterer who was an albino was as impossible as a chair developing legs and running.
“So why didn’t she curse me too?” I had asked Kadoh one day, while we were selling water to the Fulani herdsmen who walked about aimlessly with their cattle.
“You can never marry into royalty. You are not a lady” was her fair and truthful response, and I believed that.
My parents had taken Yenla to all types of traditional doctors. They were desperate. She had been prescribed salty seawater, snail shells and all types of solutions to no avail, and as mentioned before, she hardly spoke. That was why I liked to make fun of her so she would at least talk or play with me.
She finally caught up with me by the neighbor’s house and gave me a hard knock on my head. My skull was vibrating, and I held the spot, squinting each time I touched the spot.
“Thi…this shou…should ti...teach you how… to be respectful to your elders,” she managed to say.
Massaging the area, I grumbled miserably, disliking her even more. May her stuttering never end I wished secretly. Suddenly, something caught her attention. In a moment, her anger faded away like a ghost in the night.
Pointing at my
sha
η
g
, she
Nyan’guv
is a jelly-like meal made from the roots of the
re’
plant, or
konnyaku
. This perennial plant tastes like meat when properly spiced, so you can imagine how popular it was in my village where meat and vegetables were scarce and expensive.
Ma laughed for a long time. She looked very striking when she was happy. My Auntie Suiven once told me that Ma was the prettiest girl in the whole village back in the day. Kadoh also told me that Pa had wooed her for three whole years before she ever let him see her family. I wondered if an ugly duckling like myself would ever transform into a beautiful swan like Ma.
“I will make sure your food is ready,” Ma said.
“Thank you!” I squeezed myself against her lush bosom. It was so warm and soft. Her skin was also very smooth, and I hoped mine would be as smooth when I became a woman.
Pa took her hand, affectionately. “Okay,
wanle
, see you soon.”
I waved at them, as they walked into Ma’s room. Pa, just like any other man with a polygamous home, had his own chambers. He only came into any of his wives’ rooms when they wanted to “talk” as they always told me. Months later, the woman showed up pregnant. I recurrently wondered what kind of talking that was.
I returned to our room to find a sleepy Yenla taking her medication made from an old snail shell. This was alleged to help her with her problem.
“Morning!” she greeted, stretching herself and yawning so wide that her mouth could swallow a whale.
I carefully dusted the thatched mat, which served as my bed in those days and lay down, exhaling as I fondled my new
sha
η
g
. I could hear the chi chit chi sounds of morning brooms from outside. Music to my ears!
“Wh..Wher... Where is Papa?” Yenla stuttered excitedly.
“He heee... hee... Is wwiiiith Mama in the...their r...rroom.” I joked back.
Yenla ran after me and I leaped from my mat, ran out the door, and burst into the compound, Yenla close at my heels. I couldn’t let her catch me. She would bite me, or something like that.
Some of my family members were beginning to come out from the huts, and several cousins swept away dead leaves from the front of the compound. I also saw the new
bvey
s Pa had brought tethered to the tree by his hut. Nearby, my half brothers and cousins cleared grass. The chit chit of their machetes pierced my ears as I widened the gap between Yenla and myself.
I had heard from listening to Ya Ayeni and some old women gossip that Yenla was actually bewitched by Kpulajey out of jealousy for Ma. We are the original people, which meant Yenla, as the first daughter, had a fair chance of marrying into the palace, but no royalty would ever marry a stuttering albino wife. It was a curse! Being a stutterer was one thing, but being a stutterer who was an albino was as impossible as a chair developing legs and running.
“So why didn’t she curse me too?” I had asked Kadoh one day, while we were selling water to the Fulani herdsmen who walked about aimlessly with their cattle.
“You can never marry into royalty. You are not a lady” was her fair and truthful response, and I believed that.
My parents had taken Yenla to all types of traditional doctors. They were desperate. She had been prescribed salty seawater, snail shells and all types of solutions to no avail, and as mentioned before, she hardly spoke. That was why I liked to make fun of her so she would at least talk or play with me.
She finally caught up with me by the neighbor’s house and gave me a hard knock on my head. My skull was vibrating, and I held the spot, squinting each time I touched the spot.
“Thi…this shou…should ti...teach you how… to be respectful to your elders,” she managed to say.
Massaging the area, I grumbled miserably, disliking her even more. May her stuttering never end I wished secretly. Suddenly, something caught her attention. In a moment, her anger faded away like a ghost in the night.
Pointing at my
sha
η
g
, she
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