Her Father's Wife

Chapter 15

Mgbede dance will take place tomorrow. The whole village was in a festive mood. The families involved will host the village. They will cook in their respective homes. All you need to do is to pay them a visit and you will be fed. Drinks were flowing every where. Friends of the families were also making preparation to cook. They will do the cooking in their houses then take it to them. This is their own way of helping them to entertain the numerous visitors that will be troup in to greet them. Nwaneri was expecting to get at least five gallons of palm wine from his trees. These he will rush down to his friends house early tomorrow morning. Moreover, his wife is preparing some bitter leave. She will use them to prepare bitter leave soup with cassava fufu that she will go and give them tomorrow. That night, a fearful thing happened in Ichie Akukalias house. Ezinne had not been herself since Obiageli's outing and the gifts she received from their husband. She felt that Akukalia did it to spite her, but, he had underestimated her. Now she will unleash all the fury she had stored up Akukalia had touched the tiger's tail, he should be ready for the consequences. In the dead of night, the gods came for Akukalia. The singing and dancing started near his bedroom window. ' iluo nwanyi ozo inwuo, inwuo, inwuo, iluo nwanyi nabu idi ndu idi ndu idindu'. If you marry another wife you die, you die, you die, but if you marry two wives you live, you live. The sound of  'ija'   went tijanja tijanja tijanja as she stamped hard. The gods took three turns round the house that night. Then every where went quiet. Akukalia was a deep sleeper and given to hard snoring, but even him, heard the voice of the spirits that night. He was badly frightened. What had he gotten himself into? He wondered with his heart in his mouth. This kind of thing had never happen in Ngodo. Throughout the night, while the singing and dancing was going on, he held tight to his wooden bed . He was barely breathing, for fear that they may decide to come inside the house. But, what did he do to offend the gods? Or was it because of Obiageli? Can it be that Ezinne was right in saying he is not supposed to marry another wife? But he is not the only man in Ngodo who have three wives. Some have up to four and five. How can he go back now after spending so much on Obiageli? And what will be the fate of the poor girl if he pulls out of the marriage now? Akukalia put his head in between his hands thinking hard in his bedroom.
Enyidiye and other members of Akukalias house hold heard what happened that night. The children especially were frightened out of their wits. The elders will rather not discuss it. Akukalias was of the mind to visit afa, after the mgbede dance. It will be too bad for Obiageli if he, her chief host is absent on the occasion. He called his two wives and cautioned them not to so much as breath a word of what happened to anybody. At last, the long awaited day has finally come. The whole town turned up at the village square, the venue for the Mgbede dance. There is a saying that if you want to know a man that will make a good lover, watch out for his fighting skills, but if you want to know a woman that will make a good lover, watch out for her dancing skill. Perhaps, because of this saying, it is only the blind that did not turn up to watch the mgbede dance. People started trouping to the venue as early as 7o'clock in the morning so as to get a vintage position. By 10 o'clock, the drummers took their place. They started by exercising their drums. This they did by beating out random tones. At times, they will beat out a popular tone and the whole crowd will join in the singing. Thirty minutes later, the beauties came in to grace the occasion. There was suppressed excitement in the air. The very air itself caught the excitement sending it far and wide. Then they stepped out. There was another loud cheering, nearly drowning out the beat of the drums. The drummers turned to praise singing. The beauty of each maiden was highlighted, her colour, her height, gait, family background mannerism. As these were being announced the maidens were treading like angels, prancing like butterflies around the arena. They were all dressed in colourful George wrapper which was tied knee length. They are not suppose to tie full wrapper yet, since they are not married. Rather, they wore waist bead to cover whatever was not covered by the wrapper. They came moving like they don't have any bone in their body. Then come the time to show off the hip work. There is no more time for talking, they all bent down and let go. There waist were doing the talking. It was the joy of everyman present. The vibrating waist, rotating, coming up, going down rolling, waving from side to side. Oh! the energy of youth. It is indeed an energetic dance but these maiden conquered it and asked for more. More than one man stood up gaping, others shouted at them, forcing them down on their seats. Enyi, do you think I came here to watch your back? Some daring men threw themselves into the arena to join the dancing. Some of them can actually follow the rhythmic waist dance, others merely twisted their waist from side to side in imitation of the dance. There was another thunderous ovation as Akukalias unable to bear sitting any more, joined Obiageli on the dance floor. He embraced her to another thunderous shouting and whistling. It was indeed a beautiful and fulfilling day for everybody. After the dance, came another round of feasting and drinking. Some men got themselves deliberately drunk so as to avoid the torture of continually seeing the erotic hips. This was especially true of the unmarried ones. Yet, others made up their minds to get married without delay.

A/N:only those that checked out the video can relate clears throat so now what do you think of this beauties and their dance?it would be a pleasure if yo did vote or comment
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