Our World
Far away from civilization in the remote village of Ban-Ogoi lived Pa Nwine, as he was fondly called by the villagers. He was arguably one of the oldest chieftain in the village and had been given many titles, he was a man of few words but with action.He owned the vast majority of farmlands in the village and looked after his farm like nothing else mattered. He was married to Leka, and together they had raised up four children, three of which were boys. They all loved happily together and filled the Earth for their daily bread.The farming season was around and the villagers trooped about in their numbers, each with his basket of Cutlass and weeding hoe to till the soil.As the tradition was; two days prior to the start of the farming season, everyone gathered at the village square, both old and young, great and small, it was a village of no more than five hundred villagers. They had gather today to offer their prayer and sacrifice to their deity Yor-Ban. Everyone gathered around, each family present, came with a tuber of yam and some smoked fish for the sacrifice. The village chief priest would perform the rites at the village square before they will head out to the village shrine where the sacrifice would take place. It was indeed a great celebration and everyone looked forward to it each hear before the farming season.Nee-Yor the village chief priest as he was called had arrived at the square, dressed in a red sleeveless gown, with his left eye circled with chalked. He was accompanied by two of his servants: Wii-yor, each carried clay pots on their head with burning coals. They had freshly cut palm fronds in their mouths and never ever uttered a word to anyone as they walked behind the priest. The ceremony started in earnest after the arrival of the priest; everyone at the square stood around in circles except titled men like Pa Nwine who were given stools to sit on. The priest servants laid down their clay pots and the smoke from their pots filled the square, the priest sat on a mat made of raffia palm and laid his bag by his side: his bag was made of goat skin and had a long strand of leather which he hung across his chest as he went about his duty, the bag contained cowries, chalk and other items he needed to perform the rites. He drew three circles on the ground and brought out the content of his bag, he placed the cowries in two of the circles and left the circle at the center empty, he stood up and walked around the circle as if he staggered from intoxication. The atmosphere changed and fear gripped the little children, he muttered some words of incantation and ordered his servants to bring the goat the village head had brought for the sacrifice as enshrined in their tradition. As their manner was, each year, the eldest son from a family was chosen to kill the goat with only one attempt, this year, it was Pa Nwine's eldest son: Tua-wi who was given the task. He stepped forward with his Cutlass which he had spent hours putting in order the previous night; he only had one attempt to cut off the head of the goat which had be properly tied to prevent it from struggling. He approached the poor animal with fear and worry, but he had no doubt he was capable of doing it. He thought about what had happened two years back when Yor-bue was asked to kill the goat and had failed to do so in one attempt, tradition demanded he was barred from every getting married and was not to be allotted a piece of farmland, he was more like a foreigner living amongst his people, he had passed on couple of months prior to this time as he had no farmland to grow his food and no one took care of him during his life threatening sickness.Tua-wi had the courage and strength to do it, be was a brave energetic young man who took after his father when it came to hardwork. On getting close to the animal he noticed he was covered with sweat and his heart was beating profusely, he raised his Cutlass and aimed at the neck of the sacrifice and with all the energy of his youth, he cut off its head. The crowd roared and applauded, he was relieved and took deep breaths. One of the priest’s servant came over and untied the slain animal, lifting it into his shoulder and carried it to the alter which had been erected at the center of the square, after which the villagers took turns to arrange their offerings which they piled up round about the animal, the order was that the family of titled men offered theirs first before everyone else followed, it was their tradition that the last child of every family was to take the yam to the alter where a bonfire would be set up after every family had presented their offering. Pa Nwine’s last child, Nwinewa presented the offering on behalf of her family, she was only a young girl of about eleven years but she was full of energy and courage just like her parents. All was set and done and the priest instructed his servants to set the fire using the coal they had in their clay pots. It was a huge bonfire and very soon everything was burnt up, so the celebration started, the burning of the sacrifice signaled the beginning of the new season and they all celebrated and prayed for a more bountiful harvest.The priest instructed his servants to fill their clay pots with ash from the alter, this he was going to sprinkle in the stream which demarcated the village from the farmland, it was a popular belief that the stream held the source of their prosperity and increased harvest.The villagers accompanied him to the stream chanting and singing melodious songs as they walked to the stream. The celebration would continue long into the night before they will return home and prepare to start planting the next day.
