Destined for the King

By Victoria Chima

Destined for the King is a true story turned to fiction of how a young innocent teenage girl was forced out of school by the events of a civil war that erupted in her country, Nigeria. In her time, formal education for the female child was a mirage. Her father, an astute politician, took exception to this norm, but the civil war threatened his perspective. Uju averted every attempt to be married off into polygamy during the civil war. She went through dangerous, mind-blowing experiences to avert this dilemma. Most of her counterparts were not so fortunate. She went back to school after the devastation. Through so many challenges, she became a university graduate, and a divinely orchestrated chain of events saw her through to the thronea queen of an ancient kingdom.

The book mirrors the struggles of a young girl who was determined to succeed at all cost. The colorful presentation of the village, school, and urban life makes it a delightful read for all ages and times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499081367

Victoria Chima

Victoria Chima is a seasoned writer who has published several inspirational books. Destined for the King is her first published fiction—a reminiscence of her childhood days. A teacher by profession, she has a master's degree in adult education and a BAED (English/education). She retired as orincipal of a high school in Nigeria and currently resides in the United States of America, Washington, DC, where she works in the health-care sector.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Victoria Chima.

ISBN:      Softcover            978-1-4990-8137-4

                eBook                 978-1-4990-8136-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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.

Rev. date: 12/17/2014

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

661297

CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Glossary

CHAPTER ONE

It was a passing fancy. Then the thought took root in her mind. She had seen them that early morning on their parade ground as she came from the stream. They are the civil defenders, popularly known as militia. She liked their uniform-light green khaki, white T-shirt and canvas. She fancied she could be one of them. This was not like the army where only big boys were welcome. The civil defense admitted both boys and girls of her age. Life at home since the close of schools as a result of the civil war has been very dull and uneventful.

Going by the rumours making the rounds, the war and its devastation will soon catch up with her town situated at a strategic junction of four crossings to cities that are very important to the Federal Government. Why wait until the war reaches her domain? Why not go and meet it out there? Her contribution might even help to stop the surge. Uju considered her options. What will not be better than the risk of being forced into marriage at her tender age of seventeen? Since she came back home from school, it has been one marriage proposal after the other, mostly from married men some of whom were old enough to be her father. Most of them just wanted her to be an addition to their chain of wives who were illiterates, so as to show that they have an educated wife in their collection.

There was no single young man among them. That was understandable. The last thing on any young man’s mind in this war was marriage. Forced back to the village by the outbreak of a civil war, now without job or substance, every young man’s effort was concentrated on how to survive the mayhem without being conscripted into the war. Some had already been conscripted, and the rest were hiding from public view in order to avert being conscripted.

The most annoying of the suitors was the Headmaster from a neighbouring village. Uju expected the man, by his level of education, to know better than to truncate the future of a little girl by offering polygamy. He already had two wives. She really did not expect her father, who was an advocate of education of the female child, to trade her off in such a manner. She was optimistic that the civil war would end someday, very soon, and she would go back to school; however, her father did not share her optimism. He was born the year the First World War ended and was aware of events of the Second World War in which his elder brother fought. He knew about the Vietnam War and the unending war in Congo.

He was an astute politician who had swung back and forth from Zikism to Awoism and understood the intrigues that led to the present war. He could not see the war coming to an end very soon and wanted his teenage daughter to be protected from the obvious ravages of the war by marriage.

Uju thought of her mother. Her face lit up at the thought of her and then dimmed. Tears welled up in her eyes. She was breaking her promise of not crying at the remembrance of her mother again. She had not visited her maternal home since she came back from school so as to keep this promise.

She ran out from her room, but her thoughts followed her. Mama indeed would have risen to her rescue. She never liked her place as second wife and stood unyieldingly against the addition of another wife after her.

Stories were told of how Mama was to be married to her friend who also treated her as his younger sister. Their relationship was discovered by her father who did not like the match because her admirer was a struggling young man who recently started his own business. Her father had to send her away to his sister’s in the city in order to break the relationship. A few years after, her father died, and she was brought back home. Meanwhile, Papa had gotten married to another woman not knowing mama’s whereabouts and how long she was going to be away. At her return, he visited her to console her on the death of her father. He told her he was married but would still marry her if she would still accept to be his wife. That was how she became a second wife. Papa was known to consult her and had regard for her views on sensitive issues. It is likely that he would have sought her opinion on the issue of marrying off their daughter in this manner.

Now, Mama was no more. The tears rolled down Uju’s face uncontrolled. She changed her course from heading to the sitting room and instead, walked out of the house heading towards the market place to her friend’s house, about four houses away from the market. She knew the tears would cease once she stepped out of the house to the street. It worked, but the matter was not over.

She virtually raced to Uloma’s house. She was glad it was an Orie market day. She did not have to stop to greet anybody on her way as the market crowd covered everywhere. She manoeuvred her way through the familiar terrain in spite of the crowd, looking straight until she passed the market, which usually spread to Uloma’s gate on market days. She made sure no relation or friend of the family saw her. If any did, her inattention to greet would be excused on the assumption that she did not notice the person because of the market crowd.

It is an inexcusable offence for a child to encounter an adult on the way and not stop to greet the adult before proceeding on his or her course. Uju usually stayed home on Orie days to avoid the crowd at the big market.

People came from far and wide every four days to the market, which is reputed to stock home grown foodstuffs at reasonable prices. Whatever takes her out of the house on Orie day must be very important and inevitable. That was how she rated the thoughts of her mind that morning. They were urgent and grave.

She almost bumped into Uloma who had just opened the gate from within. Uloma, coincidentally, was on her way to her house. They both laughed and embraced each other, happy at the meeting of their minds. Uju drew Uloma to a corner by the gate.

Uloma, there is something urgent we have to discuss.

Okay, where? Here or in your house?

Here. That is why I came.

"I am surprised to see you. Knowing your aversion to the market crowd, I decided to come over to your house to keep you company today only for us to bump into each other right here. So, what is this urgent matter? Is there another suitor? I wouldn’t want to hear that you are buying your father’s idea of marrying at this age without finishing your schooling. At least get your school certificate; I don’t know what my father would have preferred if he was alive, but at least my mother wants me to face my studies. She is not thinking of marriage for me now.

Uloma, mothers are different.

She almost snapped back to her mood on the remembrance of her mother earlier that morning but quickly pulled herself together. After all, Uloma merely mentioned her father’s death with a show of maturity. Why should she always have wet eyes at the mention or remembrance of her mother? She continued with the trend of the conversation.

In fairness to my father, he thinks he is doing me a favour because of the war.

Then he should allow you to have a say in that regard. It is high time our parents allowed us to make contributions in matters that concern us. Matters of the heart and career are what you live with all your life. So, one should be allowed to make the choice so that she will be courageous to bear through if it turns sour at the end, God forbid, knowing that she has no other person to blame. I’m not saying we should be allowed to do whatever we like. I am just saying that they should consult us in such sensitive issues. After all, God Himself told man come now and let us reason together". The point is that our parents think they know it all. I submit to their supremacy as parents. We cannot argue with them, but this is a changing world. Anyway, enough of my sermonizing to parents who are not even here to hear my views. What is this urgency that has brought the frog out in the afternoon?

It is a plan that will keep the butterflies away.

Orara (flower), rest assured that I will diligently play my part in any scheme that will protect the nectar from wanton destruction.

Uloma, this is a serious matter.

And I am serious too. Come, let us go inside. Uloma’s home was the ideal place for their discussion that morning. Her mother, a very industrious woman had gone to the Orie market. She has stalls in the three big markets in the neighbourhood –Orie, Nkwo and even the distant Eketa. The Afo market is much farther. One has to cross the Imo River to get there. That was probably why she did not pitch for a stall there because she would have to ride her bike to the market very early on market days. She sold cola-nut in large quantities. The product, though not quite native to the Igbos, is highly revered in Igboland. It is used to welcome guests to the house and is highly celebrated at important occasions. The importance of this commodity made Uloma’s mother popular both at home and in the markets. With her wealth from the trade, she single-handedly brought up her three children after the death of her husband. Uloma’s elder sister had married. Her younger sister had gone out to play. So the house had the serene atmosphere that Uju desired for the discussion.

Although she rushed out of her own house trying to ward off her sorrow over her mother’s demise, she also knew that the atmosphere in her house would not have been conducive for her planned discussion with Uloma. She has the privilege of being allocated a room to herself as the first child and perceived grown-up, but her siblings were fond of barging into her room unannounced for one reason or the other. The burden of her heart that morning would be better discussed without any such interruption. Since there was no one else in the house, the two friends sat in the comfort of the sitting room. Uju summed up her mission in one sentence.

Uloma let us join the militia.

Militia? Those hop-hi people?

"Yes. They are civil defenders. In the war, they are regarded as Para-military. Sometimes they even go to the war front if there was sudden shortage of trained soldiers. But they are hardly at risk because they operate from the rear. Most times, they don’t even get any close to the war front. They are used for menial duties in the camps. Uloma, it will be a means of contributing our quota to the end of the civil war, so we can go back to school or don’t you want to go back to school? Do you like the way things are, though, you are not being embarrassed by the butterflies? Even if you are not interested in the programme, I want you to consider it for my sake. That is the only scheme I have thought of that will take me away from this confusion. My father