Thomas Fox.

AJE "WITCHES"

     Well..,while the arrow like thing dropped, the village chiefs as soldiers looked onward to see what happened next. Then we saw something unusual., a cloth hung on a pole with colour patterns as they criss crossed each other in red and white. Everyone one looked on looking sternly to this huge boat. Then came the most stunning sight ever.
      Their skin was bright, their hair were long and curly compared to ours which were straight, their dressing were far more different from ours, they held long poles on their hands.,everyone one was shocked!. Then.. "Aje, Aje,..Aje ' ti'de'ohh" "which means witches are here". Everyone scampered about for fear that their dear lives were in danger, some ran in confusion others...well stood back in amazement. I stood from a distance to see this strange looking begins as mother yelled my name begging I should go into the house., I wasn't moved by her calling I was astonished to see such a skin colour. I knew they were humans.., but the question was. Where do they come from ?.
     Greetings.., Greetings.. please don't be scared we mean no harm...please don't be scared. Said one of the white men. This words he spoke never meant anything to us for we couldn't assimilate and digest its meaning. Oh I see you hear' not my spoken language. Continued the fellow. He started using body gestures that showed he and others came in peace.
    Soon everyone started to come out leaving their homes to see the the strange men. Chief' Adebisi said to the villagers " I think their from beyond the great sea" he said as we nodded our heads.
     The white men started some body gestures that looked as if they were begging if they could erect a structure for themselves a bit close to the river bank to hide their heads for the night. This the Chiefs agreed to, and the structures were built.
    The structures also amazed us for they were quite different from ours, we saw them pushing something on the structures back and forth, it seemed like a door.
    At night we the children would climb a hill a bit close to their camp and watch onwards to the strange men with odd lifestyles. On one occasion somethings really fascinated us so much that we were scared even. A man amongst them held a rectangular shaped object that reflected his phynotipic appearance, then we saw something that looked foamy it covered a mans face as he shaved off his beard, then a cylindrical object that housed a burning fire, then a long pole which was held by the end, it was supported with a belt as they hung it around their shoulder. We were really awed by this objects as we would run back home and draw the objects on the soil. Sometimes., they would rally round the camp fire and have an undistracted discussion with seriousness on each persons face. We never understood their language but it really amused us.
     There was one time we climbed up the hill to get our eyes fixed on the men from beyond the great sea. It was the dead of the night. We watched the men so keenly to see if they were asleep. The entire camp was in silence, everyone was sleeping we thought to ourselves. Let's go down' said Moji. A girl whose bravery could even be compared with that of a mans. Are you mad ?." Asked Jide'., No I'm not. Let's climb down to amaze our eyes with what the white men had on them, protested Moji. We all loved the idea and we carefully went down the hill.
      The watch guard was asleep. We gently walked passed him as we got into the camp unnoticed.
     Aremu!., come see this said Lade' I walked towards her to see what amazed her and wanted to show me. As I had a look..., it looked round, having a thin chain attached to it. Then I saw the real awe of the object. Three sticks were inside it, one was really slim compared to the others, it was also long too. The other two sticks were pointed and arrow like in appearance, one was longer than the other. What shocked me more was the slim long stick...it was moving and making "chik'chik" sound. I put the round object closed to my ear, the other children did the same we were really awed by this object.
    Next it was the "image reflector" we saw earlier on. We gently took it and peered our eyes to the object. "Oh I look handsome" exclaimed Bolu' as he proudly looked his face on the reflector. "You with this bulgy eyes of yours and you claim to be handsome".. said Kola' as he refuted back to Bolu. This caused an argument between the boys as the object began to wobble in the hands of Bolu. Then the object we thought was never fragile fell to the earth giving a crashing sounds to our ears. Then the frightful thing happened. Three guards were awakened by the noise as we quickly hided ourselves behind one of the constructed wooden house. The three guards patrolled round to see if anyone was around spying on them. Then one stepped on the broken glass, he then bent to pick one of the broken pieces and looked around again. He uttered some words which never got any meaning to our hearing "Oh I look so handsome"., he then kissed the object and cleared away the broken pieces.
     We fled the camp unnoticed again and quietly climbed up the hill once more. I shouldn't have  gone down with you all, imagine if we were caught.. Protested Jide.., who was always scared of every little tensed situation, even at age sixteen he sometimes cry if he's scared of little things. No one answered the "overly shrewd" fellow. Down the hill we went., but this time to our respective homes.
      I walked gently into my family's compound, not to be noticed by anyone. Quietly.., I walked passed through my parents hut. I shifted the woven cane mat which closed the  entrance to my little hut and got  in unsuspected by anyone. As I retired for the night I started to think of the fun we had back there at the camp...I thought if those two naughty boys never spiked the argument within themselves and broke the object. Well..tomorrow I anticipated forward to, to see what might happen.