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| Women traders at Bolga Market |
“When our father died, his land was shared among my brothers but none given to me even though I had children to fend for. But I was not perturbed. What I asked from my brothers was just a piece of land to build a house to house my children and this was granted. After that, I followed some farmers, who, like me, were not given land. Most of them were the children of unmarried women, what they called Tahbia, meaning sister’s child. With these people, I followed them into the forest with my children and we got land there where we planted and took good care of the plants and had a bumper harvest. I harvested almost ten bags of the early millet, twenty bags of the guinea corn, fifteen bags of the late millet, twenty-five bags of groundnuts, five bags of beans, three bags of bambara beans, ten baskets of pepper and so many things.
“The next year, I got almost double what I had the previous year and this made some of the men in the forest jealous and some of them began saying I was a witch. I did not take them so serious and just laughed it off. Naturally, when you are accused of being a witch, the accusation includes among others, all the people related to you through the mother’s line, your brothers and sisters, your mother’s brothers and sisters, and all their children. But I ignored it, I never told my brothers of the accusation which I now regret so much.
“I was very happy when Atandoo, my first born, married a young nice girl from Zuarungu-Moshie. As soon as the girl was brought into the house, the peace and happiness that we enjoyed as a family was destroyed. When she came, Atandoo began fighting with his junior brothers. “After five years, she will not conceive and it was then that Atandoo became worried and started consulting soothsayers, herbalists and sorcerers, but that never worked. I told him to forget about the woman and marry another one, but he refused. Immediately his wife heard my suggestion, she went home to Zuarungu-Moshie where her mother poisoned her mind. Her mother told her that I was a witch. According to her, the farmers had accused me of being a witch and I never reacted which suggested that I was guilty. Her mother then told her that I had tied her womb so that she could not give birth.
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| A woman taking care of goats |
“Armed with this information, she returned the next day and I don’t know what conspired between her and Atandoo, because on the next day, I was in my room when I heard Atandoo call me by my real name, the first time I have heard him do. So I came out and was surprised to see him holding an axe and calling me a witch. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t confess to the tying of his wife’s womb!
“This attracted a large crowd of people to my house and the chief called us to his palace where my son came out and testified against me, in the full glare of the public, in the full glare of everyone. My son, the one whom with my two hands I have suffered to bring up, the one I carried in my womb for nine months, the one I backed on my back for more than three years. The purpose for which I tilled the land under the scorching sun, day by day, from season to season, from infancy to adulthood, was now turning back on me, disgracing me in the full glare of the whole village! I was too shocked by the turn of events to utter any words in defense.
“He told them he knew even as a young boy that I was a witch and that the farmers then used to call me a witch. He said a whole lot of disturbing things, revealing to everyone how I suffered to bring him up, but also making a fool of himself by declaring that I was doing all that so that I can bewitch his wife.
“He also accused me for the deaths of so many people in the village and at some point, the people wanted to stone me to death but the chief pleaded on my behalf and asked me to leave the village.
“I left the village that day with the people hooting at me, but my small girl, Nmalebna, oh Nmalebna, how can I forget her, she followed me and also took the insults and spats that they hurled at me. She followed me and we walked for a long distance aimlessly, crying and getting acquainted with the idea that what we were experiencing was indeed a reality! None of my other sons came in to support me, they all seemed to agree with Atandoo. Nmalebna wanted us to go to any of my sisters, but I told her that it was not advisable. I told her that I wanted a place out of community. I wanted to be alone. Here was my son, who has been with me in all his life accusing me of being a witch, what would others not do, so she understood me and we walked for a very long time until we came here. She helped me build these huts and when I finally secured a place to live in, I advised her to go back to the village. She went back to the village and has consistently been visiting me when the new moon comes out. Yesterday I saw the moon and after making the customary statement, Tonki Lonki, You will die and come back and I am still alive, I could also feel my daughter doing the same thing and thinking of coming to visit me the next day.”
She paused and spat saliva against the wall.
“When I think about what wrong I did to my son, I begin to realise that it is not his fault at all. It was because of his wife. I have always been telling my children while they were still very young that they should never allow their wives to divide them. I had always told them to stand together in all times, and had warned them never to take their wives’ complains about the other brothers seriously without consulting them and told them that blood was after all thicker than water, but Atandoo had allowed what I had always been afraid to happen even in my face and against me. That was the most serious part of it and even though, I must admit that I enjoy living here, I can never forgive Atandoo for what he has done to me. For the others Ayine, Akolgo, Abugre, Akela, Agonga and others, I could forgive them for there was nothing that they could do, but for Atandoo, I just can’t forget it and cannot forgive him, but you see, as a mother, I must refrain from cursing him, for that can follow him, but I just can’t forgive him,” she stopped and began wiping the tears that flowed as a result. She spat thick phlegm of saliva against the wall.
“My first son, my first day, when I finally saw and knew what the pestle was meant to be, the pestle of Abunwooko, it was indeed a pestle and it was from that pains that I produced Atandoo and from that pain comes more pains and sorrows. You see, I initially subscribed to the view that to have children means to be insured when you grow old. Well, I still believe in it, but that view has been altered. It has been altered because my first son behaved in a way that disproved the view, but my daughter, oh Naba Ayine, she has made me proud that I gave birth to her. It was because of her that I had given more births and when she came, I decided not to give birth anymore and I have seen that had I not given birth to her, I would have been like an island, standing on its own without any affiliation to any relation.
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| Women selling rice and millet at Bolga Market |
“I have been in the forest for more than seven years, not even once, did any of my other sons stepped foot here to see how I am faring. It has always been Nmalebna. The day she sees the moon, the next day, she is on the way here with food and other things, but you see, at some point, I had even harvested enough food here from the farm that I sent some home to the children. In the next month, Nmalebna returned crying and carrying the food I had given her the previous month here. She told me that my sons had refused to take the food and asked her to send it back to me. I took the food in good spirit and wept without end. I wept not because they have refused my food but because they have condemned me and diminished me to nothing. If I were a witch, could I have raised them to that age without killing them or harming them and rather waited till they are now grown to destroy them? What manner of a human being will destroy what she has suffered to build? If I were a witch, by implication they too were wizards, but they never seem to realise that. They never saw that the woman was casting a slur on them, on our family and instead of sticking to family, they took to the words of a total stranger who was by implication accusing them of being wizards too. You see why I told them not to allow a woman to destroy the bond of brotherhood, of blood for the bond of emotions?”
She spat hot thick saliva against the wall.
This text is taken from the Sins of the fathers by Stephen Atalebe; Chapter 31
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