SAMBA YACINE

CHAPTER 1

Once upon a time, in a long forgotten kingdom in Africa, lived a boy named Samba Yacine.

Samba had no memories of his mother. She passed away when he was only six and left him in the care of his father. Well...At least, that's how it should have been. Samba didn't remember much about his mother but he sure remembered how his life had drastically changed after her death.

His father had another wife who also had a son, both children sharing the same name. Samba didn't have any sort of troubles with them until his mother was gone and the other woman, his auntie, took over the household and made it her own.

In the kingdom he lived in, the women were the leaders, whether at home or in other affairs. They held all the power and were highly respected. Even the children were named after their mothers. But this situation also meant that once Samba lost his mother, he was to be at the mercy of his cruel auntie and his father couldn't do anything to protect him.

He wouldn't have needed protection if Aida had been a decent human being but unfortunately, she was far from that. Aida was a tyrant and she despised Samba and her mother the most. She couldn't fight against the latter because she was older and wiser but after her death, Aida only had one enemy left and she held him in her grasp, free to torment him as much as she pleased, and oh, she didn't manage him one bit. She could pour down all the hatred she had for Yacine on her son and no one was there to stop her.

And just as much as she hated Samba Yacine, she loved her own son Samba Aida. She loved him so much that it was basically adoration. Aida wanted to give the world to her one and only child, no matter what it would take. That, of course, resulted in the boy growing up to be just as nasty as his mother and being hated by all, even if no one dared to admit it out loud.

And it's in such an environment that Samba Yacine grew up, tormented by his evil stepmother. Yet, Samba didn't allow hatred to sip into his heart. He didn't want to turn into the kind of person that his stepmother was, so he ignored all the negativity and focused only on the good side of his life. Even on his worst days, he could always find something to be grateful for and he would hold on to that and forget everything else.

He always had a smile on his face and was polite to everyone he met. For an outsider, it would be impossible to think that he was a victim of abuse but the people of his village knew better. They knew that Aida was a terrible woman and they pitied Samba for having to live with her.

But the boy wasn't desperate because he knew that he wouldn't have to stay with his auntie forever. He was seventeen and soon, he'd be able to leave the family home and fend for himself.

In his kingdom, once the boys are eighteen years of age, they can either get married or request for an allowance to their mothers, giving them the possibility to start a new life on their own. Samba believed that his auntie was eager to see him leave too and wouldn't mind giving him the money he needed. She'd only spare him the bare minimum of course and Samba was convinced that he'd have to work hard to survive on his own but he believed that good things would come his way. In the end, that's the only motivation he had.

That morning again, he'd woken up earlier than the others to pray and ask for God's support throughout the day. His bedroom was...Well, it wasn't a bedroom. Samba slept in the storage room, in the yard, where they kept all the material to clean the house and work in the field. Samba had nothing but a mattress on the floor to rest and he wasn't even given a blanket. His auntie said he didn't deserve the luxury to be warm at night.

Samba used to be scared of the storage room when he was little but he got used to it. Plus, there was a tiny opening through one corner of the ceiling where he could watch the starry night sky. It was a beautiful sight and one he enjoyed very much...Until it'd rain of course but hey, at least he had enough buckets laying around to collect the water.