Fireflies in The Dark Continent. Chapter 4

feekayo (58)in #novel • 7 years ago (edited)

Chapter 4

My life was not all dark and gloomy. I found love early in life; Ashti.

We met several years ago at a town gathering during a full moon. She was then quite new in town. She had spent most of her early years travelling the continent with her then recently deceased father.

In his lifetime, he was a famous and wealthy trader. I remember vividly the first time I met her. Actually all I knew of her was her voice in the crowd. It was soft and melodious. I had fallen in love with her before I ever saw her and I have loved her ever since.

In the dark and cold paths I have since followed; I often find my mind from wandering back to that very night. She was not the village beauty; that title went to another but she was truly all mine as I was hers.

I also clearly remember the first time white men visited Oride.

The Iju free states are located at the very southernmost part of the delta of the great river, Our ancient lands extend length-wise about 60 days by foot from the banks of the ocean at Oloa-Iju to the northernmost entrance of great forests of Ijuri. Breadth-wise it is about about 30 days by foot from the white beaches of Iju-oosa to the great swamp at Ojori.

Our history tells that the Iju migrated from somewhere up north of the great river. The great river has several names given to it by various peoples who have come to know it. All these names are irrelevant to the story but you might get to hear a few of them later on.

The Iju free states was one of the numerous tribes meshed in a rampant congruence around various creeks and swamps around the great river’s magnificent delta. We all revere and live off her.

The Iju had powerful neighbors, but we always had Iriju to protect us. While slavery was rampant in most of the outlying settlements. It was absent and strictly frowned upon by all Iju.

The Iju had until recently (my grandfather’s rebellion) in our entirety been subjugated by a nearby tribe, the survivors of that dark era tell grim stories of the horrors they had been put through before the great revolution led by my grandfather freed us all.

After the revolution all forms of slavery and subjugation was made a taboo which required extraordinary cleansing by total destruction of the erring parties. Therefore in the few years after the revolution during which the Oosa slave trade boomed; where white men carted many black men across Oosa to places unknown; Most other tribes prospered by trading off slaves.

During this brief period, the Iju only cared about subsistence and not riches. Things changed with the enlightenment that soon followed the revolutions. The white men that had gone to Iriju at the beginning of the new era were strongly against slaving and all forms of slavery. They were stronger than the white men who bought slaves and banished the slavers from the whole delta area.

They favored the Iju in trade; to spite of the other slaving tribes who had supported the slavers in the battle of the white men for supremacy in the delta area. Another thing that drew them to the Iju was the large number palm trees, which are considered ornamental and sacred by the Iju.

They were interested in purchasing in very large quantities, the red oil which was extracted from their fruits. The Iju and many other tribes in the delta era rose to meet this need and many new oil palm plantations were cultivated in the area. The Iju and indeed the whole delta benefitted immensely from trading the red oil with the white men.