The Second Path

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Dari biyu." The mallam said.

"Enh?" I asked, not sure of what he just said.

"Dari biyu." He repeated, "Or you don't know how to speak hausa?"

I nodded and he looked at me. He gave me that look that everybody else gave me when I told them I didn't know how to speak hausa. That judgemental face.

It was like a taboo to live in the North and not know how to speak Hausa. Even if your original tribe is not Hausa, it was an unwritten tradition born in the minds of our ancestors that we must speak Hausa as long as we're from the North. But sadly, I did not keep to that tradition and now I got weird stares from people like I was a murderer.

But I was very fortunate to live in a town like Mansur where people spoke both English and Hausa, unlike other parts of Kaduna that majority spoke Hausa alone.

Mallam scoffed and said, "It's three hundred naira."

"Three hundred?? For one bread?" I was shocked as I held the nylon with the breads in my hand. One bread has always been between one hundred to two hundred naira in Mansur, when the sudden increase? In this economy.

He scratched his head under his white skullcap while nodding and I tried to bargain with him like I always do with shop owners but he insisted that it was the same price in every other shop. So I had no choice but to give him the money for the three breads because that was the exact amount of money kaka gave me.

After I left the mallam's shop, I walked back home still grumbling at how expensive bread was getting these days.

It was a bright Tuesday afternoon and the weather was very hot that some boys by the road didn't wear shirts. This was the funniest harmattan season. About three weeks ago it was raining and today it was very sunny. What will happen next? Snow?

"Like it ever exists here." I scoffed to myself.

I stopped walking when something else popped in my head.

"Dari biyu?" I whispered. "He said biyu?"

I hit my head to get everything right.

In my hausa class, they said biyu means two because 'bi' means two and in the hausa form it comes out to be biyu. So does that mean that one bread could be possibly two hundred naira?

My head snapped up when I realized I have been played. I quickly turned around and rushed back to the mallam's shop. I made sure I walked as fast as I could before someone tried to keep him busy.

Once I got there, the mallam looked at me without a bothered expression, pretending like he didn't trick me earlier.

"My change." I told him straightaway with my hands out.

"What change?" He frowned.

"One bread was two hundred naira. You think I don't know?"

"Ah." He opened his mouth in realisation, "That 'dari biyu' was a mistake. It's actually three hundred naira."

"I don't have energy for your jokes. Just give me my change back."