INTENTION MATTERS A LOT

Life challenges with their vicissitudes know not where to draw the line; otherwise, they should not be saddling children with hardships. Child labour short-changes children.  To devise tactical coping strategies to survive varying situations right from infancy, perforce makes adult of children. Psychologically wounded are the many traumatised casualties of forced induction into adulthood via child labour. “Okoro erughị eru wara ọgọdọ, ikuku buru ya, oburu ọgọdọ ya – Should a youth not attain the right age before wearing cloth, the wind will carry away both him and his cloth.” Anyway, “Onweghị ihe anya hụrụ, gbaa ọbara – Nothing, no matter how unsightly, will ever make the eyes to shed blood.” “Mbe sị na nsogbu bụ nke ya, ya mere ya jiri kwọrọ ya n’azụ – The Tortoise said that trouble is his, that is why he carries it on his back.” “Onye ọ biara, obugara onye? – If it is one’s lot, to whom, will the one transfer it?”

Ezinwa had to shoulder her own burden and the responsibility of being her parents’ keeper right from childhood. “Ma ọnwụ egbughị ji ejiri chụ aja, emechaa ọ ga epu ume – If the yam used in sacrifice does not die prematurely, it will eventually germinate.” “Ma ọnwụ egbughị nwa eghu, emechaa æ ga aghæ ikenga eghu –  If a kid goat survives, it will eventually become a full grown goat.” Things will ultimately improve despite teething problems.

Long ago, an honest, polite and kind-hearted girl lived with her sick parents in Eziobodo,

THE CHARGE FOR OVERLOAD

Once upon a time, there lived an upright police man who feared to soil his hands by taking either bribe or undue advantage of mobile courts and roadblocks to extort money from motorists. His colleagues knew him as a highly principled man who was very uncompromising. They tried to convert him but could not get him to indulge in sharp practices. On his own part he tried to no avail to positively influence his colleagues. His colleagues knew that he was right but they would not join him because they had family obligations to meet. They told him: “Ntukwu na-agụ ngwere mana odụ ekweghị ya - The Lizard longs to stoop but his tail would not let him.” “Ihe isike mere ayịya jiri gbaguọ - Circumstances made the crayfish to bend.” “Ọkụkọ ghara kwọm kwọm, oji gini azụ ụmụ? - If the hen gives up clucking how will it raise its brood?”

In the barracks, people saw him as a failure for while other uniformed men came back from work with enough money to feed their families and take care of other needs, the upright man waited for his meagre salary to cater to his own family but it was never enough. His wife used to augment the feeding money by petty trading at the mammy market. Poverty really gnawed at his household. Because of the level of poverty in his house, some naughty children in the barrack playing out door games referred to him

THE PRUDENT WIFE

The Tortoise had a happy home where he lived with his wife, Aliga. His favourite dish was Akidi (a special type of bean). Each time Aliga cooked akidi before leaving for the farm with her husband the Tortoise intermittently answered imaginary calls: “Owe! Wait I’m coming O!” He would tell his wife that those who booked appointments with him were calling him for the meeting. He pretended to have a meeting whereas he could not resist the temptation to go home to steal akidi from his wife’s pot. This happened several times but each time, the Tortoise refused to admit that he ate the Akidi. One day, in order to catch the thief, his wife, Aliga, cooked akidi as usual but

THE LIVING-DEAD

Once upon a time, there lived an amiable couple. They understood each other so well that they lived happily together. They were people of humble means. They had three children of very tender age. It was while the woman was delivered of the third baby that she died of exhaustion in protracted labour.

THE MOON MAN

Once upon a time, a man took his axe and went to a nearby bush to split firewood on a Sacred Day. He was not a stranger in the Land. So he knew that one should not work, cry, quarrel or fight on Eke market day no matter what. So his act amounted to defiance. He caught the full impact of his offence when God  placed him on the moon for all to see, as a reminder that disobedience is not good. Thereafter, to forestall such a drastic penalty from God, men quickly intervene whenever there is contravention on Sacred Days. They gather together immediately they hear the noise of quarrelling on a Holy Day and punish the offenders by giving them a fine of a fowl each. Thereafter the community pursue and catch any fowl seen in the vicinity. The fowls are killed, cooked and eaten by all the people present as a kind of peace offering but if the fowls do not belong to the offenders, they would pay for them.

WHY WALL GECKO IS CALLED "THE TELLER"

Once upon a time, there was a great famine, an extreme scarcity of food resulting in widespread hunger within the animal kingdom. The Tortoise racked his brains on how he survived famines in the past and he mapped out clever strategies to enable him survive this one too. He contracted the rabbit to burrow an underground subway from his house down to the marketplace. On a market day, just as people were busy buying and selling, the Tortoise and the rabbit hid themselves in the hole and began to sing this hair-raising song with disguised voices:

Ụmụmmadụ n’azụ ahia. kparanụma nụma n’azụ ahia kparanụma

Anụmanụ n’abia ahia, Kparanụma nụma n’abia ahia kparanụma

Ụmụagbara abiala ahia, kparanụma nụma abiala ahia kparanụma

Ụmụmmụọ chọrọ aja, kparanụma nụma chọrọ aja kparanụma

Onye k’ eji achụọ aja? Kparanụma nụma eji chụọ aja kparanụma!

WHY MEN APPEASE NATURAL FORCES

In ages past, there lived a couple Mmiri (Rain) and Egbe-eluigwe (Thunder). They begot a son, Amụma-mmiri (Lightning), named after Mmiri, his father. The couple were very close hence the adage: “If you heed the voice of thunder you will not be drenched by the rain.”  Egbe was well known for her deep and thunderous voice that sounded like a gun and whenever she conversed with her husband, her voice rumbled in the distance. In fact it was because of her voice that she was named Egbe, meaning gun, and because it seemed as if Elu-igwe (the sky) shot the gun, eluigwe was added to Egbe to get Egbe-eluigwe (Sky’s gun). Moreover, she had to be distinguished from her namesakes Egbe (Hawk) and Egbe (Dane gun).

Egbe-eluigwe was adventurous but life in the sky was unexciting. Therefore she preferred to live elsewhere with her son, Amụma-mmiri, amid a community of people. She was very humorous.