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RATS ON RAMPAGE (1)

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  THE TIMES WERE TOUGH and this day was particularly rough for me. We had gone to our boss at the end of the day’s work for the week’s wages, as it was the weekend, but he was telling us something about how lack of fuel in the accountant’s jalopy had not let him get to the bank for the money needed to pay us. For a very long time, only the accountant’s car had been on the road. The others – the site engineer, the supervisor and the contractors – had parked theirs. Some masons and menial workers (including me) trekked long distances to work and most were now sleeping on the site to curtail the hassles and exorbitant fares of commuting daily. Everyone’s story was all too familiar – across the length and breadth of a major oil-producing nation, with the status of having its own refineries, there was a scarcity of petroleum products. Those in government thought it was cheaper and wiser to import fuel while the refineries were left to rot. The petrol station owners and attendants, con...
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The Choirmaster (3)

Ukoko's father was the 'akwa ekpo', the bare-faced leader of the ekpo masquerade, who shook his 'ekpud', the hand-held wooden musical instrument with clappers, chanted and sang from the village square to favoured homes across the clan. When entering a house, the masked man walked backwards, removed his mask and sat on the floor. The ekpo remained ekpo from the start to the end of his activity and the owner of the house or whosoever was free to join them, and of course only initiates, and would never identify them by their real names. When done eating and drinking, the masked men warmed the house with their songs and the rendition would be charming. Apart from the 'ekpud' shook by their leader, the song and the accompaniment were made by the voice. When departing the house, the masked men walked backwards. During the stipulated days of the week for the adult ekpo masquerade, no feet other than those of the initiates walked the paths of the clan. All the basic...
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The Choirmaster (2)

The adult masked men wore masks, from charming to grotesque, carved from wood and some pieces of wood had special powers like the ones derived from the 'nkubia' tree. Who wore the 'nkubia' mask had a lasso tied on his waist and held by an able-bodied tender. There were moments the 'nkubia' wearer acted as if possessed, would go on a rampage and it was up to the tender to restrain him. Sometimes, he would need to smash eggs on the forehead of the mask before the rage would cease. The adult masked men had their head coverings which stretched below the shoulders made from the grass called 'mkpatat'. It was the same grass used for making wreaths placed on graves. 'Ekpo' for the mask-wearer is also the word used for a spook. The adult masked men painted their trunks and limbs pitch-black with charcoal. They strapped machetes to their waists, wore strips of cloths around their loins and held bows and arrows in their hands. Bells were tied to their ru...
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The Choirmaster (1)

THE drums pulsated rhythmically all night and the choirmaster was gripped with fear. The seven high-pitched lead drums recited familiar themes like the thief who caught a thief, the skinny girl who overthrew the superman and the husband who fancied himself a teacher, measuring every piece of fish with a ruler. The drums had rolled that night in the village square to announce to the clan the start of the adult ekpo masquerade season. The choirmaster who had embraced the new path and was spreading the message of the foreign missionaries with their strange gods as an interpreter had lost favour with the custodians of their tradition and had to vacate his home three days in the traditional week (comprising of eight days) throughout the adult ekpo season. He put a few belongings in his raffia bag, strung it across his shoulder and sneaked along the dirt track to his maternal grandma's place in a neighbouring clan. He was safe there as it was a taboo across the clans for grandparents t...
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The View From The Window (3)

 WARNING: ADULT CONTENT! As the news spread about the returnee, his friends were trooping in, slapping his hand and clapping his shoulder and back. Seeing the mood the father was in, they ordered more bottles of beer and meat.The place was foggy with cigarette smoke. The language changed from Efik diluted with Ibibio and Annang dialects to pidgin English as the Ejagham and Bekwarra-speaking fellows joined their friends. The party was on till dusk. When night bimbled in, the young men and their girlfriends melted away for fear of the known unknown, the police who could swoop in or not. Everyone went away with the instruction by Utai to 'draw the ear' of their friend, Imo. Honestly,  the boys didn't stop smoking and the police boots like vultures' talons on the iron sheets of a slaughter-house didn't stop descending click-clack on the shanties. When the ill-timed marathon persisted, Amba and all his friends eventually vanished from their homes. They slept the nights o...
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The View From The Window (2)

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT! 'My brother, see me see trouble,' Amba narrated his tale to a group of friends. 'As I hear the kick and Ada shouting and the mention of police, na so I remove my clothes and say make I quick comot outside for the dark. I don sneak from house finish, na so I hear hand grab me for waist. Wetin help me be say I don remove clothes. Policeman see say I no wear anything, na so he on him torchlight. He shout: "Stop or I shoot!" Ah, for mind I say shoot. You catch me with something? Even clothes sef I no wear. Na so I tear race.' His audience were laughing and clapping. Behind the curtains of their louvred window, the Udiongs were smiling. So Amba was the guy the policeman chased naked into their farm? 'But the wahala wey dey now be say the police people no be from here. We don reach station, we no see Ada. But dem direct us to Zone 6,' Adim, Ada's boyfriend, said.  'Ah, na Zone 6 guys? E mean the matter serious,' Amba said....
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THE VIEW FROM THE WINDOW (1)

 WARNING: ADULT CONTENT! A hard kick on a door. A female voice screeched: 'Help me o! Help me o! ...' The din awoke the entire neighbourhood. Eyes stared in the dark and ears were strained to pick the bits of what was amiss. Mr Udiong, in his boxers, removed his hands from his wife's belly as she had suddenly frozen her response to his romantic moves. He stepped down from the bed and tiptoed to the window near the source of the commotion. He pushed the curtain slightly and peered outside. The sky was clear with the stars twinkling in it and the moon peeped from the horizon. Two points of electric light familiarly shimmered at Mr Udiong from the other bank of the brook which adjoined the neighbourhood. The solar-powered security lamps were the only constant ones around and they were one of a poultry farm and the other of the convention ground of a Christian sect. 'Open the door or we would break it,' a voice boomed after a second bang on the door. 'We are police!...
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The Lovebirds (3)

 Iwang saw children running around in a yard kicking a round piece of plastic (or was it leather?), saw a woman in another yard holding a pot with pieces of paper in both hands and striding from a a small shack into a big building and then, he tilted forward and saw in another compound a man lying supine on a mat crossing his legs, one hand holding a gadget to his ear and the other fanning himself with a piece of cardboard. Then, Iwang's eyes roved a bit far and he saw humans banging pieces of wood with their hammers as they covered them with wide sheets of shiny metal. Though Iwang had an inking what it was but he curiously asked his friend: 'What are they doing with stones and wood and making so much noise with their hands?' 'Just what we heard a lovebird told the other lovebirds. They're building a home just like the others,' Isang replied and showed the litter of human homes to his friend. Iwang shook his head. 'They destroy our accommodation but build t...
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