in the rise of the dark

the dark is rise

We were greeted by an elegantly dressed community, who obviously have been waiting for our homecoming. The gong was sounded, signifying the arrival, or arrivals of a person or people expected home, after a long away homecoming. Little wonder, babu was reporting over the phone, the situation of things to the person at the other. Telling it, we will be delayed in coming, we might be yanked away to Abuja, due to the way things became with Ike, and, eventually we are on the way. And as we are arriving he said over the phone, that we are here.
The songs were arousingly crazy, the noise was lyrical though, with a muse at the center of everybody, and kind of was orchestrating, what you simply term Ibo country music. He had on his head a red and white stripe cap designed with a some kind of thread made ball on the cap, though the cap looks nice on his head, but he looks like a gimmick.
The people surrounded us, and was struggling, shuffling and scrambling, to have a glimpse, and touch of us. Then came this thunderous explosion, that scared the living daylight out of us, but welcomed by a loud jubilant noise from the people, it was a locally non harmful made explosive, detonated by Ibos during burials or a celebrations. The noise was well welcomed by my father, and the people, but me and Sarahdina and her father were visibly confused, but pretentiously played well along with everybody, and at the same time fluffily encourage the unexpected but colourful event.
Some number of men dressed in same well tailored attire, then were walking  toward us. They had a black bowler hat on their head, brown trousers, and a red top that had several heads of lion designed all over it. As they approach us, the locally made explosive went up again, but at this time, it did with a lightening and thunder, which caused all to panic a bit, that me and Sarahdina had to take a duck, peeping to the sky slowly. There's this murmuring, on if was going to rain, and the people began to worry. As the men approached, spreading their hands to welcome us, one of them made quite a funny statement, that caused them all to bust into laughter.
- anyin aga eje iyo mazi nkwume, ka ohapu iha mmiri -
He was demanding to know if they will have to go and beg Mr Nkwume not to open up the sky, and cause rain to disrupt the celebration.
Mr Nkwume, is a native doctor who is famed with disrupting occasions or any gathering with rain, unless certain amount of money is paid him. So the people pay him ahead to avoid worrying at all. Worst of all, no one dare harm him, if not ten years plague will befall the people, so the believe was, and whenever he eventually dies, no one dares celebrate it, or else he or she will die mysteriously. But the dreaded mazi Nkwume is long dead. My dad told me story of how Nkwume died. It was the traditional marriage of my parents. Nkwume, had earlier came to my grandfather, to get him pay him some money, so to avoid the pouring of the rain, but my grandpa vehemently refused, it was at about the hour of 12 when all had gone to bed. Mazi Nkwume left angrily, especially knowing that my grandpa have the money, but refuse to accept the fact that my grandpa, is irritated by the way things are been done around, one of the reasons he moved away, the traditional wedding his main reason to coming home. My grandma was like, my grandpa should have settled the man but, the old man concluded that he will never be a party to encouraging such an evil act by giving the supposed rain man a dime.
- he is evil and wicked -
Was grandpa's submission. My grandma wanted to argue, that the man will just disrupt the marriage ceremony of their son for nothing, and that grandpa should bulge on this and allow tomorrow's ceremony go smoothly, grandpa stood before her, looking at her scornfully, then made a final assertion.
- let him and you try whatever he wants, but I shall never and ever, make that devil feel like we are his subjects. His head will fall away if he dare to harm anyone -
Grandpa was about to turn away, when my dad came out of his hiding, then grandma screamed at him, to talk to his father, but father at once replied to her.
- mother! Am with father all the way on this -
The next day as the wedding was about to began, a very loud thunder blasted, that caused suspicion of a something serious. Few minutes after, news came that Mazi Nkwume was burned to death by the thunder. He was found coal black on a big stone, the stone by which he is known. "Nkwume" means stone in Ibo language, and Mazi Nkwume, performs his rituals on the stone, and he doesn't hide a thing about it all. Story has it that, when you pay extra, he will allow you to seat around and watch how the rain will continue to fall on the stone, and only on the stone, while the sun continues to shine on the land.
.          .          .          .          .
The men dressed in uniform led the way, while my dad followed them, then the people mixed up with me and Sarahdina and her father, while we were led into a new glamorous building.
It was my father's kingship coronation, and the people have been waiting for two days. The sophistication of the place is unbelievable. As soon as everyone seems settled and the whole show about to begin, this time a very wild lightening and thunder struck hardly, coincidentally alongside the locally made explosive, then everywhere went dark, the day suddenly became dark, is it an eclipse of the sun? A loud cry of the people ensued, it was shocking, non had seen a thing as this before, if not for darkness and confusion they would have all took to their heels.
.          .          .          .          .
In Igbo land. Need I say here categorically that we are called Igbo or Ibo. It is the same people, we don't underestimate any of the spelling, and there's no part of Ibo land called Ibo and the other Igbo, no! For example unlike in Europe some spell and pronounce Deutsche, for the Germans. And Dutch, for the Netherlanders. Ibo and Igbo is the name for the same people and the same tribe.
We have four market days in Igbo land, we have, Afor, Orie, Nkwor, and Eke, just as you have Sunday to Monday. And each market day represent different thing, and day of activities. For some Ibo community, any of the day represents their market day, depending on the one they align themselves with, some is the then gods of their land that decides for them. So also marriage date, the community follows and make a particular day, the day of marriage, and if for any reason you fix your marriage on a different day, it is viewed as a taboo. Some fixes on Afor, some on Eke, and so on and so forth. Some community, it's to help them attend to their different function for the week, and in Igbo land till date, we still follow religiously the days. The Igbo people for those that work in regular markets and other local places and functions, it is the Igbo days that they use, and anything you want to do with them you must follow that calendar, till date. And those that work in a modern places like banks, government offices, hospitals and the likes, the Sunday to Monday calendar it is for them. But still, the Ibo calendar supersede any other calendar for the Ibo, because, it is it, the one calendar for the Ibo man and his days of activities, as far as you are in the Ibo man land. So it is also for crowning a king.
I am from Ede-ukwujiafor, some call us Ede-ukwu, some call us Ede. My name is Somadina Michael Odinike. My father's name is Simon-samuel Ezekunaka Odinike. We are from royal family, and even my grandfather don't know about it, and most of our generation don't know either, because for more than one century, what started like a squabble, transcended to rancour, then riots and advanced to bloody fights, to the point that the then king was killed, stabbed to death with a tusk into his chest. And at that, the issue of king was completely thrown to the backseat, not until the incident between my grandpa and Mazi Nkwume, did the kingmakers took note of my father. Because, deities revealed that only the one by whom the powers of the Nkwumes is stopped shall kingship be restored and returned to the land, this we do not know about, up until now, when the daylight returned again, amid a chaotic squabble again in our compound, but died down, after minutes. The leader of the men in uniform then told the people that, we are the people of Ede-ukwujiafor, and we are not called that for nothing, he then told the people, that, it is because our father's name is Afor Ukwujiafor, so our market days, marriage and king making is always on Afor market day, and a very loud humming, enveloped the air, such is the response from my people when something is well explained, or is revealed.
We spent two days arriving home, and Afor day was two days ago, and thus, according to the man, the gods are not pleased with the kingship taking place on a day outside Afor day. The people understood, and the event was postponed to next two Afor market day.
I know, its not any eclipse nor the Afor  market day story. Something or need I say some things are definitely going wrongly around the world, and no one seems to care, or, should I say, seems to know. Sarahdina, immediately looked at me and waved her head in disbelief, as gradually, the crowd all left one after the other. All but the men dressed in the uniform of  the ones known as the King's cabinet. I kind of like what happened, apart from the fact that it disrupted my dad's kingship, but we can now freshen up, and truly be ready for the coronation. My dad and his kinsmen were locked in a loud discussion, but I was drawn to the sudden silence from the big sitting room, so quietly, I walked to the door and gently peeped from the curtain covering the door, there was total quietism, it was so absolute that, it calls on the attention of Sarahdina and her father. The three of us from different direction walked downstairs to the sitting room. Ike, had come to ask my dad to on the television.
The health body of the world had miraculously, according to the news discovered a three step drug for the dreaded ailment ravaging the world. The number of death it caused have not been properly accounted on. The day before they said it's a ten million, lives, and in a wild desperation, they have come to discover a three step drugs, which roused protests around the western countries, who are saying that it's a man-made illness, and because it was going out of hand, the drugs jumped out of nowhere. The protest carried several topics, but I love a particular one from America which read, ( STOP PLAYING WITH OUR LIVES ).
The health personnel on the screen announced, that the drugs are in the market and thus, will be easily accessed by all, the step one, is the vaccine of a certain ailment that had dealt with the world, step two, is a lung and heart drug, and step three, is an energy boosting drug. Not long, the pharmaceuticals were jam packed, the supposed king's cabinets one after another excused themselves, all, but the youngest chief among them. The thirty five year old Lotanna from Umuani. He told my father that he was not going to leave without his consenting it.
- I can only tell you, don't use that thing -
A night to my father's coronation, positive results began to flood in, that we were tempted to get the drugs, but I simply told dad not to.
- what is the cause of the ailment, dad? -
Sarahdina, sat and told my dad that a lot has gone wrong in the world, and a very lot is tormenting the world, the ozone layer is destroyed, we met a man that told us how we in the world are going to destroy ourselves by ourselves.
- babu! We have not heard or seen the last of this, people are soon to become beasts to people -
- I will not live to witness that -
I was shocked, that was his reply.
Our compound is filled up with the presence of people again, a lot has been on from dancing to  drama and all sort of entertainments, the main reason everyone is gathered is here, I just have to excuse my dad, I went to use the restroom, on coming out I saw a bizarre of happenings around the world. I tried whispering to dad what I saw but the shoving, applauding and generally, mood around played against me. I went to Sarahdina, and explaining to her, she jumped up from her seat, leading the way she drew me along by the hand. Baba's curiosity made him follow us, he was inquiring from Sarahdina, what in particular was going on and, she told him to come with us, that all is not well, then he asked a question that struck our chord.
- what about Simon? -
At the time, we were already by the entrance, I was unlocking, and have done that, so we all turned and looked where his is seated, the crown has just soft landed on his head, Lotanna, who just have arrived, he had caused my dad to be disappointed at him, came to us very tensed, the tension on me and Sarahdina was even greater, baba is somewhat relaxed. Lotanna, told us of the terrible things he saw on the screen that caused his late in coming. He was going to drag my father out of the midst of the people when, in fear of what happened he ran back to us. We entered with him and locked the doors of the building, we were shivering, shocked at what we saw, our cook ms Chika said something I did not really hear from the stairs, that caused us to scream, and turn to her direction, fear has gripped us, and as she was coming, we were drifting backward. She is saying something about the food she is cooking, but was not making sense at all, then she began to speak gibberish, she was holding up a pot of soup which fell off from her hands, spilling, she fell on it and was struggling to get up, she couldn't really  gather herself on to getting up, and appears that the place is too slippery for her to stand on her feet. Gently and almost tiptoeing, we walked toward her. Ms Chika raised her head up and her eyes had turned to deep red, then she began to talk normal, making sense, calling us by names talking to us calmly, but the eyes are deep bloody red. We ran and she followed us walking very fast, we climbed the staircase, but she couldn't really negotiate it. We relaxed to see what she was going to do, then gently and gradually, she began to negotiate the stairs, my heart was pumping fast, my blood running fast, I began to feel feverish. In anger I entered the kitchen, grabbed the fire extinguisher, use the second staircase to the sitting room, Ms Chika, turned and started walking toward me, I slammed the extinguisher on her head, she lowered her head, then raise it again, coming after me, I smashed her head with it, but she was still, coming after me, I grabbed at the dinning seat and slammed it on her head, causing it to break, she was still coming, then I buried the long piece in my hand into her left chest part, letting out some green substance, she knelt and dropped dead before me, at first I was careful with the people I left upstairs, making sure they are not speaking gibberish, I walked up to where they are, and we looked through the window, and to our amazement, what was happening out there. My phone rang, it's the sage himself, and he said to me.
- Somadina! The dark is rise -