Destiny of a Black Queen

By Kayode Odumade

Alice is a product of love has no bounds. Her white father was the heir to the
throne, but he fell in love at first sight with a beautiful black woman in an unusual
place and during unusual times. The love relationship between her parents
was so strong that traditions, culture, race, and death couldnt break it. Theirs
was a love relationship made outside the four corners of this world. However,
two of the only three people in the world who truly loved Alice died. Alice was
going to change traditions that had lived with people for over hundreds of
years, and these people didnt want change. So this made Alice grow in a
world that those closest to her constantly planned betrayals, manipulations,
and schemes against her. Her only living true love would be caught in the web
of her adversary, but unknowingly, every of their evil plans moved her one step
toward the fulfillment of her destiny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503594340

Kayode Odumade

Kayode Odumade has been able to put his creative imaginations in writing. His imaginative story telling ability could be traced to a few decades ago when he started telling captivating fi ctional stories to children, like him, who were glad to be outside in the breeze under the moonlight for relieve from the tropical heat of the day. His experience in the different stages of his life plays a major role in his writings which are presented in fairy tales today.

Book preview

DESTINY OF

A BLACK QUEEN

Kayode Odumade

Copyright © 2015 by Kayode Odumade.

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: 09/29/2015

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

715938

Contents

Introduction

1

2

3

INTRODUCTION

S he was born into the royal family, but she had to be strong to defy all limitations placed on her by nature and human judgment. From her conception to her old age, she always had at least one invisible adversary plotting her elimination, and every plot unknowingly was toward her fulfillment. The biggest adversary is within, but how it would be revealed and her actions after the revelations are worth finding out in this intriguing story of many sec rets.

1

P rince Richard, in his early twenties, was the only child of King Matthew II, who was in his early fifties. He didn’t take life as serious as the king would like him to. The prince was born in Buckingham Palace and then returned there when his father became the king after the death of his grandfather, King Matthew I. The prince, just like the recent heirs to the throne, went to various public schools and earned a degree in sociology with a GP of 2.1 from the University of British Columbia, Canada, before joining the Royal Air Force at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an officer cadet. The prince also traveled to various continents to do charitable works, especially areas affected by natural disasters. The prince was a typical royal that could have anything he wanted, but that was not challenging enough for him. He wanted to struggle to get things, not have his entire request on a platter of gold. That was why he opted for things that were not common with the ro yals.

His mother, the queen, worried about his private life; and she cautioned him to settle early with a lady and avoid the mistake his dad, the king, made. She wanted him to marry in his twenties and not in his mid-thirties like the king, but the problem the prince had was not unwillingness to settle. He had come across beautiful ladies, but they all seemed to throw themselves on him, and he felt they wanted him for who he was and not because of love. He had dated ladies from different cultures and backgrounds to find that perfect partner, but nothing encouraging had come out of it. He left the shores of England to school in Canada, but as soon as they knew who he was, the ladies began to blackmail one another just to be the perfect partner for him.

Upon his return to England after his undergrad in Canada, he met a beautiful Indian lady in London; and after months of dating her, her younger sister began to throw herself at him. Being a gentleman, he didn’t want to take advantage of the younger sister who was prettier than his girlfriend, but he systematically withdrew from the relationship. He couldn’t imagine having a sister-in-law like that, and he didn’t want two sisters fighting over him which could turn into a royal scandal.

In the winter of 1965, King Matthew II was supposed to visit one of the former British colonies for a conflict resolution but fell ill with a flu. He was advised to stay behind by the doctors at King Edward’s Hospital, so he sent his amiable son, Prince Richard, the heir to the throne. Mauritius and Britain are at the center of a dispute for Chagos Archipelago, a group of fifty-five islands in the Indian Ocean. The Mauritian government threatened to claim the islands if the British does not relinquish their grip on it, and that threat was actualized by some angry militants causing an unrest and violence at the island. The head of the Mauritian government, Mr. Kavi Maurice, met with Prince Richard at Port Louis, then they left for Diego Garcia to inspect the damages. While at the island, they visited the International Federation of Red Cross camps to visit the injured victims, and he gave a speech that he was not representing the political class of his country but the monarch. He didn’t go on that visit with any member of the British government, and he hoped he would resolve the conflict without it getting politicized.

While entering from one tent to another, he noticed a lady who didn’t pay any attention to him but her work. This was different for him because when he entered the other tents, the Red Cross representatives stood still till he left the tent. He inquired about the lady in question, and they simply called her Bose, and she was drafted to come and help along others from other African countries. After his inspection of the camp, Mr. Kavi Maurice wanted to return back to Port Louis immediately for a joint press conference and the official banquet, but the prince pleaded that his work was not finished in Diego Garcia. He was royal, so all further engagement was postponed until he was ready to go. While the head of the government was sending directives to his officials back at his country’s capital, the prince went in search of Bose.

He went again into the tent where he found her attending to one of the injured victims, but it was the victim who stood still that tapped her shoulder when they recognized the prince who was standing at the entrance. She looked back and greeted him casually and returned to doing her job. The prince noticed she was a beautiful dark-complexioned lady who was dedicated to saving a life than losing it because of the presence of a monarch. He was impressed with that, and he offered to help her administer medications to the victims. She asked if he had ever done this kind of job before, and he confirmed he had. She was stitching the arm of a victim, and asked him if he could do the same to another who was fast losing blood. He took a first aid kit and walked to the next camp bed to attend to the victim she instructed him to stitch. He began to stitch the victim, and she noticed how he was handling it, and it impressed her. Bose started a conversation asking him about his past experience. He told her that he went to areas of natural disasters to volunteer when he was growing up, and this had changed his perception about life. She had finished attending to her victim, so she walked up beside him to talk to him because she didn’t want to wake up the victims who were already sleeping. She noticed how experienced he was taking care of the victim, and she couldn’t help but comment on it. You are stitching him up faster than me, but it is kind of a rough job you are doing. He was shocked to hear her say his job was rough because nobody had ever challenged his judgment. How do you mean it is rough? She replied, I will not like my forehead to look like that. I believe the experts would do a neater job, but that’s just my opinion. This was what he had missed all his life, somebody to tell him the truth about any situation. While he was thinking, she thought he took an offense, and she quickly apologized that she has a big mouth that speaks without processing the implication of what she says. He said he was fine with handling the truth, and he reminded her that he never claimed to be an expert in stitching people’s forehead. They both laughed, and he mistakenly pressed the needle into his finger, and blood gushed out. She quickly treated him. He then asked her to be his guest at the banquet that evening, but she declined because she didn’t come with any evening gown. He tried to persuade her to return back to Port Louis with him so they could get her a dress, but the prince was not going to have his ways with this unapologetic lady who did respect him but didn’t fear him. They formally introduced each other, hoping that would make any difference, but it didn’t. So he left the tent in a sad mood because he was beginning to experience the life he craved for, but he was not sure he could handle her rejection.

The prince was very quiet on his way back to England, and it didn’t take a day for his mother to notice his calm countenance. She asked him how his official trip to the Indian Ocean had gone, and he gave out little to suggest it was great. He was at his residence at Clarence House in London for a week after he returned, and he didn’t show up at his office at St. James’s Palace, and the media began to speculate that the prince must have caught a virus while in Africa. He thought about that dark-complexioned lady he met. He recollected her distinct features: her attractive slender face, her rich shiny black hair, her dark eyes, her broad nostrils, her full lips, her moderately placed ears, and her sweet but confident voice. He couldn’t get her off his mind even when he wanted to, and all he recalls is how slim and tall (about 6 ft 1 in) she was, with the curves of a typical African woman. When he read one of the headlines, he thought to himself that he had been infected with the love virus far away in Africa. When he resumed his official functions, he was once asked at a charitable outing for the less privileged why he canceled his previous engagements after his return from Africa, but he simply told them that he empathized with the victims he met at the camp. He also used his first official interview after his return to acknowledge the Red Cross team that worked tirelessly to assist the victims.

The king also noticed the calm appearance of his son, but he didn’t want to believe what was written in the newspapers because his son had seen more horrible things than what he saw in the Indian Ocean. The queen had asked him to question their son about his sudden calmness so, he decided he will call his son to talk to him. He wanted to know if the burden of the kingdom had begun to tell on him. When his son turned twenty-one two years ago, he had become more involved as a counselor of state, and he represented the king more often now. The perfect time never came around because of the various functions that the king had to attend, which he had delegated some of them to the prince, especially those outside England, because of his health. After months had gone by without any improvement from the prince, the queen asked the king to find time to talk to him because she was beginning to think he might hurt himself.

That summer, the king hosted a garden party at Buckingham Palace, and it was a perfect opportunity to discuss with his son. The party was full, as expected, with people from all walks of life. While the merriment was going on, the king found his son and took him to a private room to discuss with him. They talked about the events that had happened in the last six months, hoping that he would talk about something significant, but the prince didn’t say anything worth noting. The king asked if the burden as one of the counselors of state was beginning to affect him, but he informed his father how he enjoyed every aspect of it. Knowing his son was very passionate about the people of Britain, he asked if the politicians were very hard on the governed in terms of taxation or any other parameter. When the king couldn’t get anything useful from him, he gave up and asked why he had been withdrawn. He told him the queen and he had noticed it for a while, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it tonight because he had postponed it for months because of their tight schedules. The prince said he was just trying to rediscover himself, and it was nothing that he couldn’t handle. Then his father asked about his private life, especially if he had any woman in his life; but when he kept silent, his father assumed he was heartbroken and told him a short story about how he handled the females as a young prince. In concluding the story, The king said I want you to always remember that your desires from your mind can be bought with money, but you must earn your desires from your heart. The talk was meaningful for the prince; and his father told him to be thankful because in his days, he was only allowed to marry a princess, unlike now when a prince or princess could marry a commoner. He said he hoped their talk would encourage him to move on from his recent heartbreak, and he said the English ladies still had much to offer a prince like him.

They both returned to the center of the party refreshed and happier, and the queen noticed that her son looked brighter than he was in the last six to seven months. She knew her husband still had the magic in his mouth, and that was why she believed he would be the best king ever to live. He had a way of making problems look easy, and she was glad that he also used his magic on their son. She asked her husband what it was all about, and he simply said relationship issues, but he was hopeful that the time they spent together would help.

Prince Richard asked his office to locate the list of the team that went to the Indian Ocean during the last winter so he could organize an award ceremony for them. He wanted to use the award ceremony to encourage more people to volunteer with the Red Cross to make Africa a better place. His staff members got to work by getting the list of all those who were present at the campsite from the International Federation of Red Cross when the prince visited. Some of the volunteers were dead, so their family members were invited to receive the awards on their behalf.

The award ceremony was fast approaching, and the prince asked for the list of all those who had indicated they would attend the ceremony. He was pleased to see that a Bose Dina had indicated that she would be present, but on the invitation, the venue was not disclosed because he was not sure she would attend. With her assurance of attending, he decided to have the award ceremony at St. James’s Palace because he didn’t want his parents to witness a possible rejection from his mystery lady. He had planned that the awardees would be given a tour of Buckingham Palace after they receive their awards. He had hoped before the tour he would be in good standing with her during the award ceremony. The award was going to be one of his charitable duties to encourage volunteers worldwide.

As the invitees arrived at St. James’s Palace, Prince Richard was peeping out of his office window in search of Bose. He noticed the elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen walk with ushers into the palace, but he was yet to pick her out from the crowd. He remembered that she was in work khakis when they met eight months ago, and it was going to be difficult to pick her out from the crowd. After the invitees were seated, he gave an opening speech to welcome them. He also informed them this was going to be an inaugural annual award for volunteers and first respondents to natural disaster management. He told them that it was their selfless attitudes that encouraged him to come up with such a foundation to also cater for the families of the dead volunteers. He acknowledged that they were always in the eye of the storm, and this was going to be his way to ginger-up the discouraged volunteers. After his speech, the names of the awardees were called out, and he spoke and shook hands with them before presenting the glass statuette with gold-plated inscriptions to them. It was a long list, and he didn’t know why his mystery lady was placed number 45 out of 49 names but unknown to those who prepared the list, they were saving the best for the last for him he thought.

Finally, her name was called; and while he was still trying to compose himself, the announcer said it would be collected by her brother, Mr. Dina. He couldn’t believe that she was dead because the statuettes were usually collected by the person’s family member if they were dead. He was kind of disappointed that she was not there, and the thought that she was dead was just too much for him to take. He was short of words to say anything to her brother when he presented her award to him. Instead, he just shook his hands. He didn’t seem to hear anything again until he was informed by the announcer that it was time for the tour in Buckingham Palace with the invitees. An aide quickly walked to assist him off the podium while the ushers directed the invitees out of St. James’s Palace. He said he would join them on the tour later, that he needed to attend to something of urgent that came up shortly before the ceremony. His aides were not sure what came up because he was looking forward to this particular event, but whatever it was, it affected him, one of the aides thought.

After he put his disappointment behind, he attended the remaining part of the ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The tour was already over by the time he got there, so he went into the banquet hall to join them for refreshments. The queen also joined them, and she was happy with the feedbacks that she heard about his project, but his emotionless expression was something for her to be worried about. The king was not available because he had to attend to a privy council meeting, so his wife represented him. She tried to get his attention, but he was avoiding her so his emotion doesn’t betray him. While the other invitees were interacting with one another, the prince spotted Bose’s brother, and he walked toward him to commiserate with him on the death of his sister. Upon sighting the prince walking toward his direction, Mr. Dina left the person he was chatting with in the hope of an opportunity to meet the prince one-on-one. To his greatest surprise, the prince stopped in front of him, and they began to talk about life in Africa generally.

Mr. Dina said to the prince, Sorry, sir, I didn’t get to meet you properly. I am Engineer Dina, the older brother of Ms. Bose Dina. Prince Richard replied, Yes, it is my pleasure, and I must say I was shocked that your sister couldn’t make it. I didn’t hear anything about the volunteers that lost their lives, and that was why I set up the foundation and award ceremony, to appreciate their selfless efforts while on this earth.

Mr. Dina replied, That is thoughtful of you. I am sure the departed souls would like the recognition that you bestowed upon them. I guess they are unsung past heroes.

Apparently confused, Prince Richard asked, How did your sister die, if I may ask?

Oh, sorry, sir, my sister is not dead. She couldn’t make it because she is in Liberia in one of the refugee camps doing what she loves to do best, Mr. Dina quickly replied.

With a sigh of relief, Prince Richard said, I am so sorry to assume she was dead. Please forgive me. I was made to understand that all the invitees that didn’t come in person were all dead.

Smiling, Mr. Dina said, I am sure you will not be the first to assume she is dead. We in the family also think that way when she is gone for months into these war-torn areas.

The information brightened the prince, especially after getting to know what kind of lady she was from her brother. He moved about the invitees’ table more purposeful, and both his aides and his mother couldn’t understand his mood swing. Unfortunately, none of his aides noticed when he was speaking with Mr. Dina, so nothing within the banquet hall could be attributed to his sudden happiness.

Prince Richard had thought all through the week on his strategy on what to do to woo the mystery lady. He sent his aides to contact the Red Cross African office in Liberia to get the names of the various refugee camps and their representatives at each camp. Although Liberia was not a British colony, he thought of the ways his charitable organization would assist without it being politicized. He needed to start something quick that would take him to the region before his mystery lady disappears again. He looked through the memos on the Liberian first civil war to see the area his charitable organization could fit in. The areas of concern he outlined for the aftermath of the civil war were the following:

1. Stop senseless maiming and killing of citizens.

2. Reinstate displaced residents.

3. End raping of women and children.

4. Educate child soldiers.

5. End hunger.

He sat with some of his aides to look at the areas his organization could assist, and they all agreed that the first item on the list would require a military solution to stop the killing. It was ruled out, and the next one would require more than a charitable organization to reinstate over a million displaced people. After a thorough look at all the areas listed, the supply of food and medical materials was more like it for his charity. He quickly asked his aides to get him the list of philanthropists who were in England and the rest of Europe to begin with. He had planned to organize a charitable dinner to raise money for the refugees in Liberia, on the advice from some of his aides, he included Bosnia refugees. His aides informed him that most of the philanthropists would prefer him to channel his charity to European states in war because of the mismanagement by African leaders. This mismanagement was the main reason for wars in that region. His aides explained that the wars in Africa were usually identified as ethnical, which was more of a disguise and a convenient way to sell their hidden agenda to the vulnerable rebels. His aide further informed that ethnic and religious diversity plays an insignificant role, but it was the economic and political factors is the main culprit in African conflicts. He said that was why the Western world sees the conflicts in Africa as human disasters caused by mismanagement of their natural resources. After a brief on the conflicts around Europe and Africa, the prince decided that he would spread his charitable dinner around the two continents for now, and he would be silent on which refugee camps he would donate them to.

The prince analyzed all the conflicts that were either starting or ending in the year 1966, and he noticed they were wars in Algeria, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Bosnia, and Chechen. Just like his aides had advised, the European conflicts were a result of their independence while the African conflicts were economical and political. The Western world didn’t like to distribute food and medical materials to refugee camps in Africa because they felt the food and medical materials will never get to the people who actually need them, and the prince believed they had every reason to think that way. However, with few people like his mystery lady, he was sure something good could still come out from Africa.

At the dinner organized to raise funds and relief materials for the refugee camps in the European and African continents, people from all walks of life were present. He had captains of industries, business magnates, and politicians around to support his foundation. The attendees were skeptical when they saw the names of the countries where their donations will go. A very concerned attendee said, Donations to African camps usually cause more conflicts, and the majority of other attendees agreed with him. They said people were willing to donate, but an efficient distribution mechanism should be put in place before they donate. People give to nongovernmental organizations, but the story that comes after that is usually unpleasant to the donors. Children still die of hunger, and those camps are run like the strong alone can survive here. They were made to understand that it was the strong that enjoy donation while the weak die of malnutrition and diseases.

The prince stood up to address all their fears; he said, I hope this foundation would effectively distribute the donations to the people that need it the most. I understand what is happening in those African camps, but it still does not help if we fold our arms because more children will still die that way. Two wrongs have never made a right before, but what we can do is to think ahead and anticipate the problems associated with the distribution of the materials and mitigate against it. I will encourage you to allow your children to experience what it takes to be called a humanitarian because while growing up, I traveled to areas in Asia that were affected by earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and typhoons. That actually changed my approach to life as a person, and it had guided most of my decisions as an adult. I have my father to thank for that experience, and I will want you to give your children that experience also. If we have more volunteers, I believe that the death rates in refugee camps would reduce. Another way to avoid the donations not getting to the intended recipients is for us to give more than what we gave before. I believe when we give overwhelmingly, the camp thieves will only steal what their hands can take at once, leaving a larger portion behind. We need to give more so that more people could be reached. Life can change in a twinkle of an eye for any of us seated here. Do not ever allow some miscreants discourage you from giving. I am happier when I can put a smile on a face that was meant to cry. Thank you.

The prince’s speech did the magic, and not only did people donate food and financial materials, and also some volunteered to go to these camps to help. He promised he would get a roster for the camp visitation so the volunteers could plan their itinerary.

That week, the prince’s aides mapped out a schedule and sent it to all the people who put down their names as volunteers, and the distribution of relief materials began. The prince employed more hands to oversee the project, and he went into partnership with many of the mega retail stores. With a tight schedule in the king’s diary, the prince couldn’t go for any of the camp visitations.

After three months of the distributions, people from Asia and South America and other developing nations began to demand assistance from the foundation. With the success of the first few months, donors came from all parts of the world, even in Africa. It was an irony because most of the African leaders donated to the prince’s foundation. The king was happy that his son was taking responsibility in his own way, but he cautioned him that he couldn’t neglect his monarchical duties at this time.

While at her Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) campsite, Bose heard the good things that the prince was doing, and she regretted her cold behavior toward him when they met. She thought he was like most of the children of affluence who didn’t care for the suffering of the majority of the masses, but she was wrong. She now believed it was his visit as a teen to campsites that changed his approach in life. She had seen a lot for a lady in her early twenties. She had seen the rich and famous reduced to beggars because of a natural disaster, and everything they labored for disappeared. She had seen young girls of about nine years old being raped repeatedly even at camps and children dying of hunger. She could count the ribs on the bodies of hungry children and had tried to join together body parts that were mutilated. She had seen the soldiers meant to protect take advantage of the helpless. She had witnessed so many burials that she had lost count, and she now sees life in itself as vanity. She had seen it all; she had seen a woman forgive a man who used her and her daughters as sex slaves for seven months just because he had a gun in his hands. The woman’s day came when her drunken captor fell asleep after having sex with her eldest daughter and left his gun exposed. She picked the gun and waited for him to wake up and told him that she would have killed him but that would not take away the trauma he had caused her daughters and her. He couldn’t believe his luck because another captor had been killed by his victims, so he released the family and led them to the campsite. She had seen a rape victim, who got pregnant and had a baby as a result of the rape, breast-feed newly born whose mothers died because of childbirth complications. She was breast-feeding at least six children even when she herself couldn’t get food to eat. She was encouraged by the zeal within the camps because there were still people who had good hearts even in the harsh circumstances they found themselves.

Bose Dina came from a very wealthy family. Her father was a Harvard-trained medical practitioner with international repute. He owned one of the biggest private hospitals in Lagos State in her home country of Nigeria. Her father relocated to Nigeria after his studies abroad to practice his medical profession and instantly became a success during the Nigerian Civil War. Dr. Dina had his first two children (Bose included) in the United States while he was studying, but he kept the information away from his children because he had the last two children in Nigeria. Bose Dina studied estate management in the University of Lagos, and she lost every desire to purse her career after graduating and then developed a passion for helping the needy and less privileged. She left everything behind to join the International Federation of Red Cross, and she had assisted in many refugee campsites within the continent. She was a very reserved lady who dislikes the limelight, but she worked so hard at the background. Her family