Motherland

By Anatoria Jenkins

Leah was somewhat aware of the powerful forces in her upbringing. It was an existence with not much interference from modern day technology. Theirs was a livelihood of barely getting by, yet never short of fulfilment. She was the youngest of the siblings growing up in a village, right in the heart of rural Africa. With a multitude of brothers and sisters before her, was she to simply follow a very distinctive path. How was she to mould her own being within a network of relationships, values and expectations? It has never been more difficult to distinguish between reality and imagination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467885850

Anatoria Jenkins

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Book preview

© 2011 by ANATORIA JENKINS. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

All characters in this story are purely fictional. The individuals don’t exist outside the chapters of this book, neither are they inspired by persons known or unknown to author. They have no relationship to anyone bearing similar name or names. The story line has all been made up by the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/03/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4678-8584-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-8585-0 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Prologue

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

To Agnes, Elias, Justina, Regina, Winnie, Simon, Dominic, Monica, Francis, Miriam, Rita

Prologue

This was an opportunity Leah had been waiting for, the sound of the shower meant that her twelve year old daughter was in the bathroom and would be there for a good half hour. Now Leah had the chance of turning her daughter’s room upside down in search for the mystery. Ciara had refused to leave her room for two days in a row even ignoring her friends who had called so they could go to the park. She had also protested against the idea of going to the cinema and insisted that she had better things to do in her room.

The girl was behaving strangely, swallowing her dinner in a rush and never bothered to wait for dessert. The previous night her father had placed his ear to the door to try and listen for a good ten minutes. There was complete silence, even the television was switched off, unless if she was listening through the headphones. James then stepped away from the door and called out ‘Good night Ciara’ He failed to detect any clue in his daughter’s voice as she answered ‘night dad’.

It’s nothing to worry about, probably she is just tired. James knew his daughter as strong minded and reassured his wife before retiring to bed. He failed to notice that his wife lay awake for several hours tossing and turning. Leah was imagining herself at that age. As a young girl she had so many responsibilities and expectations. She couldn’t possibly imagine what it was like to be Ciara who was growing up in a different environment all together. The sudden change in her behaviour was totally out of the ordinary. Ciara was a lively and bubbly young girl. Two days before she had been helping her mother sorting out some old books and stuff in the loft. Leah noticed her daughter rushing to her room and coming back looking flushed, she put it down to the dust that was coming from the stuff they were sorting.

She opened the door to her daughter’s room carefully and closed it behind her. Although Leah was well aware that she was going overboard, it had to be done. Her daughter’s room was tidy as usual. Ciara’s school diary was up to date and no bad comments recorded. The duvet was pulled up and teddies neatly arranged. She only had minutes to spare before her daughter would walk back in to discover her mother ‘invading her privacy.’ Leah followed her conscience and pulled away the duvet. Why would her daughter keep such an old looking, worn out book in her bed?

A closer look left Leah open-mouthed. She scanned through her own childhood scrap book and noticed a book marker placed between the last two pages. She could not believe that her daughter had almost finished reading her childhood diary.

Closing the book carefully, Leah knew that her daughter would soon be asking lots of questions. She closed the door behind her, leaving everything exactly the way she had found them.

1

Another piercing bite to her tender flesh sent her hand slapping mad. The mosquitoes were bustling as the sun disappeared into the horizon. What nuisance minute flies capable of inflicting such misery? The cows kept fidgeting as they were not spared either. Leah’s journey from the open fields had been intentionally slow. What was it with Jim, her older brother? If only he could leave her alone.

The previous day she had driven the cattle home well before sun set. As she stealthily forced the animals into their kraal, the tall blooming sun flower plants obstructed the view from the homestead. However Zebu became her ultimate betrayal. The cow hoisted its head above the rest to sent two loud bellows. Leah immediately hurried the herd out of the kraal. ‘What do we call this?’ She started blushing as she had not seen Jim approaching. There was absolutely no explanation that she could give. He ordered her to graze the herd in the nearby grassy patch until dusk. All she could manage was inaudible mumbling in defiance, before a constant reminder of what would happen ‘next time’ if she dared try this trick again.

Out in the jungle each day was different, filled with fun and adventure. They trekked to breathtaking and picturesque views whilst keeping watch of their livestock. The group mainly consisting of young boys tackled marshland, clambered hills of different nature and discovered hidden caves. Leah could name almost every tree in the woods in vernacular as they crunched on freshly picked wild fruits in season. At least she didn’t have to endure the ‘back-breaking’ labouring in the fields.

However Leah could have appreciated a few days or a couple of daylight hours away