Sweep and sweep alone

I am the tenth child of my parents and the only male child among eleven children. There was a premonition about me. My parents especially my father was searching for a male child but when my mother gave birth to her nineth child and it turned out a baby girl, my father decided to search elsewhere so he started dating Chinwokwu. Ogbuebunu revealed to him that he would have a baby boy and Chinwokwu was one month pregnant, although she wasn't married to him but his plans was for her to give birth first.

My mother Onaedo wasn't happy about the development but she had no option. One night while cutting firewood, she was beaten by a snake so she was rushed to Okirika's place for treatment and it was during the course of the treatment that she realized that she was pregnant. She was three months pregnant but the news of her pregnancy didnt move my father who was convinced that she was carrying a girl. Then few months afterwards came the month of Ene mma festival.

Ene mma festival is the second biggest festival in our community after the new yam festival, it is a festival that draws people from far and wide to our community and it is also the festival that brings all masquerade groups together, the festival starts with parading masquerades then on the last day of the seven days festival comes the most interesting part of the festival which is known as cow day. A cow is tied to a pole in the market square and participants are required to untie the cow.

Each participant is expected to walk to the cow and untie it then go home with it but the thing with this contest is that in the history of this competition, only six contestants had succeeded in making it to the pole and safely untie the cow. The last contestant to achieve this feast was Aziza in 1974. The thing is that it is a contest where native doctors from our community and other communities test their powers, some contestants faint as they walk to the pole, some collapse and end up falling asleep.

Seven contestants had tried but none made it to the pole before Aziza who was a palm wine tapper and the eight contestant rose up from his wodden chair then like a gallant horse began galloping to the pole, all sorts of things ranging from invisible arrows, invisible pin, okiri mgbawaisi, sleep walking were spilled at him by twenty one native doctors but he made it to the pole and became the sixth person in history to go home with the cow. My mother delivered me the exact hour Aziza pulled the cow to the roarsing cheers of the crowd.

While that cheer was going on in the market square, another cheer was ongoing in the community maternity home. Okezie has been blessed with a baby boy! It's a baby boy! My father was trilled about the news that Onaedo gave birth to a baby boy. God has surprised me he whispered when he first carried me so he gave me the name Alochukwu. Chinwokwu however gave birth to my half sister Raluchukwu. I grew up under my father's protection and guidance and I already have my own masquerade at age thirteen.

Time changes and so many things changes with it, they came with their own, destroyed our own and instilled their own on us, you see people perish for lack of knowledge that is why truly anyone that doesn't know where rain started beating him will never know where it stopped beating him. They have bull fight, they have gala festival, electric forest festival, ect but they consider ours fetish and dirty. Who told you that Amadioha is made by man? Ene mma festival is part of me and for all I know, I will be the next okpulu efi after Aziza.

As a child, my heart was set at being the Okpulu efi, the contestants that contested after Aziza in 1974 all died in mysterious circumstances one by one, it was believed that the Dibia from Aro had deadly spells casted on them and this fear about the Dibia sank into the heart of all and sundry so the cow day became the lonliest day instead of the most interesting day of Ene mma festival but as a young boy, I was determined to change this but cow day was meant specifically for men and not boys so I was forbidden to contest but the desire to hold this record grew as I grew.

Our community has lots of festivals just like the rest of other communities scattered all over Africa but the Western world outshined most of our culture by influencing us with their own culture, we express our African culture in our arts, our food, our dressing, our religion and above all in our conduct but the drive to be like the West stole the souls of so many Africans and this created avenue for Ndi ichie to become highly corrupt forcing so many communities to entrone unqualified Eze.

In school, we were taught history but not our historic heritage, they have a curriculum filled with filtered historic events even the folk tales taught us in Literature was about the West. They don't teach us about Omenuko,they don't teach us about Ogboma's triumphs in the evil forest, they don't teach us about mbe nwaniga and the elephant, they don't teach us about ashanti slave trade, they don't teach us the nutritional value of ogili isi, they replaced ours with theirs and our boys started seeing themselves as girls.

As a young boy, I saw all the lies imposed on us but I refused to accept that Africa diety is fetish. Amadioha is a redemmer and not a spoiler, he is merciless and equally distribute justice. Ananias and Sapphira is a good example of the the wrampt of Amadioha so what makes our belief different. Why is Ene mma festival fetish and Jewish festival of light and Chinese Dragon boat festival godly? Africa is diverse and preserving our cultural heritage is in our hands.

I left my community for the big city to learn trading but I had my root in my heart. And I was exposed to so many things in the big city, life in the city was different from life in my community, everything was done differently even the music played in the big city was different from the normal ogene music which I understood better, perhaps this is why people are highly influenced by other people's culture. But the truth is that it is good for one to be exposed because a traveler is vast in knowledge.

One of the songs that ment so much to me was Buffalo Soldeirs by Bob Marley. The lyrics of this song kept my heritage intact; I mean it when I analyze these things, to me it makes a lot of sense, how the dredlock Rasta was the Buffalo soldier and it went on to remind people about where they come from; if you know your history then you will know where you are coming from then they wouldn't have to ask me who the heck do they think I am... I am just a Buffalo soldier in the heart of America, stolen from Africa.

The Ene mma festival of 1994 was one so many people held to heart because our community is no longer that remote community with untared road, we now have so many magnificent buildings, electricity and to crown it, a liberal king who understood the importance of cultural preservation. He believes that collectively, we can sweep the bald head politicians away and anyone that ever choose to be different will forever sweep alone. Now at age 20, I was ready to partake in the cow day. My maquarde Obilu dike aka na ani was the talk of the town then came the final day. In the mist of fifty seven native doctors, I Alochukwu Nwamulunamma gallopped to the pole and became the new Okpulu efi.