The Suppressed Sun

chapter one

   My parents gave me the name Tobechukwu which means "keep praising God. I was last and only son out of six children.
   My parents struggled so hard for a male child and that brought about the giving birth of six children.
   I was born in the year 1958 at St.theresas missionary hospital in Nsukka the southern part of Nigeria. As it's widely known that male children are valued much in any society so any family who doesn't have a male child is taken for granted. For many years before my birth my mother have already soaked her clothes in tears and agony anytime she kneel down to pray.
My elder sisters weren't fully recognized by my father and his people, they never got the full support without being criticised by then. This made my mother step up her game and ventured into petty trading so as to Carter for their up keep. She sold cold waters and drinks for the satisfaction of the public and then she provides for my elderly ones .
      Many described her as a woman of prayers, she was found most times in the church at All souls Anglican Church Nsukka casting her burdens to Christ. She was a devote christian, a lover of God, one who cannot do without attaching God to that which she's doing and this made people mock her. Some said can't your God at least give you a son so that you can become a woman, she was hearing all these even among the fold in church.
      When she was pregnant of my immediate elder sister otuomasirichi which means the way it pleases God.
My father who works at the steel mining in kogi never took interest in to taking care of her the way a pregnant woman is supposed to be taken care of.
    The poor woman would work day and night trying to feed her children and my father never took much interest to care for her even when he's around. She would carry drinks on her head all the way from where she bought them down to her shop under the sun even in her condition as a pregnant woman, while ogechukwu would follow her up crying out her nerves. Anybody who beheld that woman would see total rejection on her face, frustration all-over, my sister with her own tears asking for food.

One faithful evening she fell into labour, my strict Africa oriented father who was around as at then never took interest or showed concern towards her. She cried and screamed at the top of her voice rolling down the staircase as she missed a step while trying to get down stairs. As God may have it sister Eche came back from school and beheld the scene, and took it upon herself to take care of mama while trying to lift her up from the floor where she was helplessly crying in pain, she delivered just on the staircase leading down to the sitting room.
It was sister Eche who saw that a midwife came and did the necessary things.
As mama said I lifted up my eyes and said it was a girl I smiled and said to myself otuomasirichukwu meaning "this is the way it pleases God", that's how and why my immediate elder sister was named otuomasirichukwu.

After the birth of my immediate elder sister, a month later sister Echezonna (sister Eche as we fondly call her) had to take her leave back to ibadan where she schooled because of the upcoming exams she had