The Fearless Outcast - An African Story

Each step Onye took brought her closer and closer to the middle of the desert. As fearless as she was, the uncertainty that lay beyond her engulfed her. Her stomach churned, she had not eaten for two days in preparation of this journey as instructed by Ayo, the village seer. Many boys her age were not able to get to this stage, the final stage of initiation, in order to be taught by Ayo.

To be taught by Ayo meant honor and respect among many other privileges and it meant that she could be part of the clan of elders at 50. She only knew one woman who had achieved that. This woman who later became Ayo’s wife, told her stories of valor proudly and Onye listened to every detail each time she told her story. But of course she did not reveal all that transpired in this desert for each one had his unique test and there were simply some things that could not be told.
The boys that had failed the first stage of the initiation came back beaten and bruised, but Onye had passed.
Although she slept three whole days after the test. And was forced to drink herbs during her sleep.If she passed this initiation, she would be the first Ohu to pass initiation.
She heard the hooting of owls and stooped. She tried to move again but her feet was stuck to the ground.

In that moment, Ngige, the god of sun made his appearance. He was known to stir up a tornado before making himself visible. Onye shielded her eyes and face with her hands.

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Ngige made himself visible and stood tall in the middle of the tonardo. He whirled round Onye and stopped at her back, stirring up sand all around so that she was almost invisible too.
Suddenly, it was as if she was in a woman's head. The woman's hands were tied. She was being dragged to the square, where she would be stoned. Each stone that landed on her brought turbulent waves of headache. She fell to the ground.

Nneka rubbed her stomach, willing her child to live. She prayed to Ani for a girl child, one who would not be mocked due to lack of inheritance. She was all alone in the forest surviving on roasted hare as she had learnt to set traps from her brothers and wild fruits. Fortunately, rivers were not too far away, she could tell a river was close by the humidity of the air.

She had just set up her tent for the night and was going to stay there till the next two market days when she’d continue her journey. She avoided villages and only entered to buy few things with her face covered to hide her dark skin, as ohu’s were dark skinned and okeke’s were light skinned.
The village had been attacked and burned down with survivors taken as slaves. She wondered if her husband survived, if she will ever see him again.

She had noticed some movements when she was returning from the stream and hid in the bushes. The cries she heard and the flames she saw was enough to tell her that there was nothing to return to. The Okeke’s had conquered the Ohu once again.
Legend, as told in the Great Book, had it that, Ani, the god of the earth, had created the Okeke and placed them on the Eastern side of the Great river, then went to sleep. But the Ohu’s sprang up behind her back and inhabited the north. When Ani woke up and saw what happened, she cursed the Ohu’s to be slaves to the Okeke. But the Ohu’s rebelled and moved to the west and the okeke continued to take them into captive wherever they were found.

Months later, Nneka delivered her child. Ani had given her the strength and a girl child too. She ate the leftover hare stew she had prepared, and stayed in her new tent until she was strong enough. She named her child Onyedikachi. Nneka always told Onye, as she fondly called her daughter, stories written in the Great Book and would play the flute for her.

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Onye grew very fast, and had long legs like her father. She loved animals and would attract the birds with the sound of her voice as she sang. She also learned survival skills from her mother. She learnt the leaves that kept the wild animals away and could perceive the scent of different snakes from far.

As Onye grew older, Nneka decided that they had to leave the forest so that Onye could see other humans. Nneka traveled to a village called Ngugi, where okeke’s and Ohu’s lived together but most of the Ohu’s were regarded as insignificant. She built a small hut and moved in with her daughter.

Onye was usually ignored among her age mates, even among fellow Ohu’s and would be jeered at because of her hair which was in dreads and because she was brought up in the forests. Every time she passed some group of girls, they will make faces. But this didn’t bother her.

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She would wander around the village and play with the animals she met or sing and attract the birds. One day, she stumbled upon Ayo’s hut. The entrance was guarded by cactus flowers, and she tried to enter the hut, the flower scratched her leg and she winced in pain. Ayo came to the entrance of his hut and scolded her. “How dare you come here during your monthly sickness?” Ayo raged.
“I want you to train me. I want to heal the world, I can do it.” Onye replied.
Ayo started with a strange laugh but suddenly stopped and said. “Ayo does not train women. Go back to your mother’s house.”
Onye left, but would come back every day to ask to be taught by Ayo. Annoyed, Ayo decided to teach her a lesson. He agreed to teach her and sent her in for the first initiation stage, expecting for her to be flogged and sent away like the other boys. He was shocked when she emerged unhurt. She had passed.
“Ani has a way of rubbing in her lessons” he muttered to himself and asked Onye to go home and rest.
From that day, Onye would touch a sick person and the person would be healed. But this usually drained her and she would sleep for days. She needed to pass through the last initiation stage where it was rumored that it would reveal how she would die.

When she opened her eyes, Ayo instructed her not to move. She had been unconscious for four days and had stopped breathing on two occasions. But Ayo was there to attend to her and bring her back. After two days, Onye had fully recuperated. She sat up and fixed her gaze on Ayo.
"Can I ask a question?"
"You can ask two since you've already asked one." Ayo replied.
"The stories written in the Great Book, Are they true?" Onye asked
"The Great book shall be re-written. It is full of hate and will be healed. But not by you, Your daughter will. She will have more powers than you and may be able to raise the dead.
But for now, you will be a renowned healer, not just for Ngugi village, people from far and wide will come to be healed by you, Ngugi village will become the biggest village and the Okeke's and Ohu's will live together as one"
But, Onye cut in, "If the great book will be re-written, what I saw during my last initiation, would it also change? Ayo nodded.

As Onye went home that day, along with gifts Ayo had given her for her mother, a lot of questions were on her mind. Who would be the father of her daughter? How long more before the war got to Ngugi village? Could her father still be alive? But she knew better than to worry, for Ani has her way of doing things.

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This story is an entry for @steemit-virus contest #7 an initiative of @gbenga