The Maiden Dance

By Dr. Nonyelum Chibuzo Mba

Dr. Nonyelum Chibuzo Mba is from Nigeria. She is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Abuja, Abuja. She has a PhD in Feminism (Womanism) and Gender Discourse in African Literature in English. Her other qualifications are an MA in English Literature; a BA (Ed) English, NCE; a Diploma in Computer Science (Data Processing), Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism, WASC, and GCE O-Level.

In addition to The Maiden Dance, Dr. N. C. Mba is the author of Basic Study in Fiction, Literature of Black Diaspora, A Survey of the Twentieth Century American Literature, and Escapade (a novel). She has published several articles in various journals, contributed to books, and has a number of works in progress, including collections of short stories, poems, and drama. She is a member of several professional and other associations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Sep 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496989505

Dr. Nonyelum Chibuzo Mba

In The Maiden Dance, author Dr. Nonyelum Chibuzo Mba shares stories of girls’ initiations from childhood into adulthood and marriage. The maiden dance-the girl-child, culture-focused activity-weaves a net that draws other segments of the Zim and surrounding communities in the western part of Africa. Modernity becomes an eye-opener for several Zim youths, who see certain traditions as obsolete and infringing on human rights. Achieving change in the face of opposition becomes vital to societal transformation, limiting patriarchal oppression, and eradicating outdated traditions. The novel also portrays patriarchal issues, societal values of masculinity and femininity, and the subordinate position of the African woman.

Book preview

Chapter 1

The annual event for the girls comes up after the new yam festival, when the girls must have fulfilled another rite to show they have left the fattening room (where girls are handfed a heavy diet of complex carbohydrates to fatten them before their weddings). Ulumma denied her daughters this rite just to appease her brother.

To celebrate the outstanding success of a girl emerging from the fattening room is the nwikolo (snails) festival, which brings adolescent boys and girls together in the night to eat the nwikolo they gathered in the afternoon. Along the line, boys woo the girls; it is a free sex day because there is no punishment attached to sex that night. Many girls lose their virginity, while some run away from the boys. It happens at midnight and is a must for the girls to attend. Some of the girls who fall victims of such circumstances can get pregnant and become a heavy responsibility to their parents because no boy will marry them. The essence of the occasion is to appease the god who gives them children.

Snails, which are symbolic children, are collected, and if you don’t collect them, you will not have children. It is believed that when you eat that snail, you have many children in life, so the festival is for future mothers. Older women (say eighty years and older) will be there to collect a snail, and they will have a small girl (nwiha) serving them. The snail is collected in a particular sacrificial place, with a small stream and a groove. There is always a priest and priestess attending that shrine. That very shrine also has a python that is worshipped by the people. It comes out occasionally, and people drop items of food, which it later eats.

Snails must be available when needed. Even if the girls are one million in number, each will pick a snail, and boys don’t go there. Ordinarily, nobody harvests and eats the snails there or the person will die mysteriously. (What the girls eat is the faeces of the snails and not the main meat.)

After the ceremony, the priest makes a declaration that the boys are now free to meet with the girls and have sex with them.

The people of Zim attach much importance to a female child in terms of procreation and continuation of the family line. Zim is a land of warriors, and hunting of human heads is a common culture and evidence of a man’s valour. The Zim kingdom was originally a patriarchal society but became more matrilineal due to an occurrence in its past history: A warrior from Zim, Mr Udoma, a head-hunter and warrior, killed a woman in the Mbanta village during one of his headhunting ventures, which he did in order to join the war dance, a mark of strength in a man. He had to pay the penalty by sacrificing a virgin, which by right should have been his biological daughter. As tradition demands, such a killing, if discovered, requires ritual cleansing for the spirit of the dead to be appeased. He was then asked to do a cleansing and atonement using his virgin daughter. He instead requested one of his wives to release their virgin daughters for the sacrifice, but they refused. His sister came to his aid by releasing her virgin daughter to him. He was so disappointed in his wives.

The land of Mbanta is the land of warriors and head-hunters, where tradition into manhood is strictly based on valour and their ability to bring home the heads of strangers. Nwaka is a renowned warrior in Mbanta. He is married to Orieke and Ugonnaya, who are blessed with male and female children. Orieke, the first wife, loves her husband so much but is never happy that he married Ugonnaya, who seems to be their husband’s favourite, being the new chassis (new wife) in the house.

Nwaka is a farmer and hunter. His yam barns are superior to every other in Mbanta. He is di ji (king of yams). Nwaka’s self-centredness and love for culture and tradition made him take a traditional title. After all, what does it take to be a titled man? he asked himself. His traps are equally fruitful, and he seems to lack nothing.

He has been so drunk in his warrior’s escapades that he thirsts for blood. On one occasion, he went to a neighbouring village, Ezima, where he killed a woman and took her head home, another indelible achievement.

It’s time for the Ikpukun festival, when warriors dance in the village arena, brandishing their machetes and exhibiting the newly cut human heads.

Ezebili is another warrior in the Mbanta community and a friend of Nwaka. In his readiness for the Ikpukun festival, he trekked to a faraway village and claimed the heads of two maidens. He guards his own family against head-hunters.

Secrets, the elders say, are not hidden under the sun, just like smoke cannot be covered. Godo, the palm wine tapper (someone who climbs palm trees to extract the sap to be made into wine) in Ezima village, calls himself the spirit man and his eyes eyes of the spirit. The entire land of Ezima becomes naked when he is high in the trees and communing with shreds of palm tree and sucking from its stem (the water of life), just as a child sucks his mother’s breasts. To Godo, eyes are dumb and the mouth sightless. Fast legs, he says, are the victims of fast eyes. The village is naked in the sense that the higher you climb a tree the more clearly you see the entire village.

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Godo groaned in pain as his legs failed him and he immediately climbed down from the palm tree.

Jubilantly, and with an air of success, Nwaka receded into the bush’s path towards Mbanta. Ekekeke ooooo! He heard Godo’s shout, and he ran towards the village with his ete (a sphere shaped flat rope made from the stem of the palm frond, knotted at one end for climbing palm and raffia palm trees) hung from his shoulders, his hat made of grass on his right hand. Nwaka’s alarm attracted the villagers as he ran towards the chief’s compound. Women, children, and men trooped after him with eagerness to hear his news.

Ekete, one man shouted to his wife, don’t defile this land.

Men’s meetings in Chief’s compound should not be attended by women, much less children! Nwaka was shouting, running towards Godo and at the same time retrieving a stick to drive back the women and children. Matters of killing are for the ears of men alone, and Godo’s focus is the chief and the warrior. As the saying goes, The animal that runs away today should not forget that another day will come.

Ezima is a more powerful community, with greater warriors than in Mbanta. Eze Onyiam (Chief of Ezima) quickly ordered his warriors to locate the killer of Anyiam – who happens to be Kitikpo’s wife. On discovering the culprit as a man from Mbanta, Eze Onyiam quickly despatched an emissary to the chief of Mbanta with the following symbolic message: Fresh palm frond across the mouth of each warrior, empty coffin, machete and stone, which they laid down before the chief of Mbanta and his cabinet without a word.

The atmosphere grew heavy. Ezedike of Mbanta knew they were no match for Eze Onyiam’s people in terms of strength. He solicited for peaceful dialogue instead of war. He promised them one eke market week (which is four days) to appease their gods and the dead and to replace the dead with a maiden.

The leader of the warriors returned with them to Eze Onyiam with the message of a peaceful settlement. The headless body was still lying in a pool of blood. The burial arrangement commenced immediately.

Back at Mbanta, Ezedike and his cabinet went to investigate who the killer was. So many heads were brought into the community. Nwaka had a lion’s heart and was not shaking. The redemption of blood comes at a high price.

Ezedike said to Nwaka, Two virgins are required in order to avert calamity from befalling Mbanta before nightfall tomorrow – and they must be your biological daughters. Nwaka had five beautiful maidens, two from Orieke and three from Ugonnaya.

At the event of his misfortune and the fear of being killed if the penalty of sacrificing is not met, Nwaka approached his wives to release two of their virgin daughters. Both women refused. When the heat became too much, the two women told him that they were not his blood relations but his wives. Go to your sister, Ulumma, who is your blood, to give you her virgin daughters for sacrifice, they said to him.

Nwaka was not willing to die. He therefore went to his sister and pleaded with her to save his life. Ulumma could not bear the loss of her brother, so she released her two virgin daughters to him for the cleansing, even without notifying her husband.

That event marked the significant reversal of custom in Mbanta village and some immediate surrounding communities. Men value their sisters more than their wives or even their biological children. When Nwaka died, he willed all his property to his sister.

Chapter 2

Chetachi was a young, beautiful schoolteacher in the village of Zim. She had an admirer named Mbogu, who made frantic efforts to woo and win her. As a schoolteacher, her primary assignment was most important in her priorities unlike some others who don’t take their work seriously.

Her father was Obidigbo and her mother was Ihuoma. Obidigbo was very fond of his wife and at the same time very proud of his assumed success. Obidigbo fondly called his wife Ihum in the exciting and proud manner of a satisfied husband. Obidigbo was a farmer and businessman. He had a small shop in front of his compound where he sold provisions, hot drinks, and food items. His shop was a resting place after the day’s hard labour on the farm, and he owned several.

Chetachi was the first of Obidigbo’s children, and Zim is a society that believes in schooling male children.

Obidigbo refused to heed the advice of his close associates or follow the common belief in his village that it’s a waste of time training a female child. It is commonly believed that female children are created for a specific purpose which is time tagged: when a girl is born, it is almost already known when she will marry. With this belief, fathers are conscious of a day that is added to their daughter’s age. This is why some parents do not wait for long before betrothing their daughters. He believed the choice of a girl’s life partner was the father’s responsibility, educated or not, and was of the opinion that a good father should plan his daughter’s life. He told his friends and mates, Prepare your daughters for a better marriage. Train her well for family economy.

The men in his village made a joke of Obidigbo for what they called his foolish notions and porous knowledge about the culture of the land and the procedure of bringing up female children. They gave him the nickname family eco, which is a short form of family economy, though nobody had the guts to call him that in his presence.

Obidigbo trained Chetachi through primary school and Teacher Training College. Obidigbo said to her, Cheta nwa m, you are a special child to my family, and as such, a special destiny awaits you. Now that you are of age, you should marry to continue my mother’s lineage.

This was not new to Chetachi. She was already growing out of favour of her villagers for being so educated. She told her father, I know I will one day marry as other girls do. I have that in mind.

Aha-a-a! My daughter, you are my true child. In that case, I will tell my junior brother to get ready for the marriage rights in the next eke market day.

She had not known she was betrothed to her father’s younger brother. She was dumbfounded. She did not know what to do, especially as she was so fond of her father, who believed his daughter to be a reincarnate of his grandmother.

Chetachi was so close to her school pupils, and Ojim and Otikpo didn’t play with her. As small as they were, they visited her after school, fetching water and firewood for her and helping with household chores.

Obidigbo’s mother, Orieji, was so proud to have a granddaughter like Chetachi. Orieji no longer farmed much. She was a widow, and her son, Chetachi’s father, took adequate care of her. Orieji consented to Chetachi’s marriage to her younger son, Olori. To her, Chetachi should not marry into any of the other families to avoid populating another lineage. She was the most educated female in Zim during that period. Chetachi’s father agreed.

Being a grade two teacher, Chetachi was highly admired by several young