Sacrilege (fiction)

Safari

Oku held his machete high in the air and stepped back noiselessly, looking frightened with his eyes bulging from the socket and beads of sweat on his forehead. His kinsmen didn't notice anything, each one had a long ridge to weed and was focused on getting the job done. Since he could not bear the sight of this creature, he spoke out:

See this yellow thing under the cassava stem. It's staring at me and making me unable to continue my work.

Amaju, the oldest of them all, came towards Oku's ridge to see exactly what he was talking about.

Oh! It's the nest of the guinea fowl. All the yellow feathers are meant to keep its eggs from cracking.

Other men laughed at Oku's poor ability to understand that the guinea fowl's nest isn't like the pigeon's; he can easily sight around all trees in the Derim community.

The party continued their work while Amaju whispered the popular Ogene song. This is an antidote to tiredness. In no time, they completed the task and decided to harvest some tubers of yam to take home.

In the Derim community, the people lived together in harmony and love. There was hardly any discord among them. A family could decide to work with another family on their farmland for free for a whole day.

As Amaju, Oku, and other kinsmen started to dig up some yam tubers, they found out that the yam stakes were empty. Someone had harvested the yams. This is a strange thing. Amanu called out to other kinsmen to leave the farmland at once. They feared that the Derim community may be under attack by jealous neighboring communities. As they walked faster away from the farm, Amaju told the team how Derim had survived the ten years drought that occurred many years ago.

Oba'Ji came through for our community when the deity in charge of rain was angry. He closed the heavens from supplying rain to the earth because the hearts of men have become desperately wicked.

Amaju continued to open the eyes of the men as they walked towards the village to the palace chiefs and the paramount ruler, Okpalla, the sacrilege that must have been committed on the farm against yams. He continued:

Though there was no rainfall at Derim like in other places, the land yield on farm produce increased.

This made the Okpalla who reigned then as King consult the Derim deity. He wanted to know why Derim was so blessed even when the odds were not favorable.

At the shrine of the Derim deity, the priest told the chiefs that henceforth, yam tubers have become an item of worship and must not be stolen. The day yam tubers are stolen, the blessing of the fertile ground over Derim will be lifted.

This was what made Amaju hasten to inform the Okpalla of the misdemeanor he had seen on his farm.

Adrian Jozefowicz

As the party approached the Derim community, Oku sighted a hut with a frail fellow and yam tubers scattered around it, then called on Amaju to see what he found. Their interest grew and they moved towards the hut but all the yams they saw from a distance had all disappeared. Now, they were frightened and at the same time wanted to discover who the frail man was.

Good day, old one. Your face isn't like someone from around here.

The frail man stood by the doorway with his white long beard. He remained silent but looked up in the sky. As they continued questioning him, he didn't bother to move or reply to them.

Oku looked closely at him and saw that he had the eyes of a man who had been banished from Derim some years ago for speaking at the Okpalla, then said:

You are on a revenge mission against Derim.

That statement caught his attention. Then he said:

Derim took all that I worked for and left me miserable. Now is payback time.

The frail man was known to be Chike who stood his ground because the prince claimed his only heritage, the land by the fresh waterfall at the entrance to Derim community.

All along, Chike the frail man stood at the doorway. No one noticed it though. He probably had something he was hiding inside the hurt.

They knew if they left Chike the frail man, he would escape and Derim would be doomed. Instead of leaving, a few of the men ran to the palace to inform the chiefs who then charged the guards to bring Chike to the palace.

As the guards came, they dragged Chike from the doorway and received the shock of their lives. He had stolen the image of the Derim deity at the shrine. It was such a scary sight. The people knew the gravity of that offence. Chike had planned his final exit from Derim community with deity and tubers of yam had he not been caught by Amaju and his kinsmen.

However, the favours of the Derim deity remained on the land because the one who committed the sacrilege and stood by the doorway had already been banished. This time, he was incarcerated and the deity was returned to its shrine while all the recovered yam tubers was used as a sacrifice to the Derim deity. Till this day, even if it not rain, Derim land still yields the best farm produce.