The Guardians of Saveba: An African Fantasy

By Barbara Griffin

"The Guardians of Saveba" is a fantasy adventure story of a young African hero whose sterling character, bravery, and link to the spiritual world make him the perfect protector of Saveba—the only kingdom in West Africa to escape the scourge of foreign enslavement and colonialism. Despite the tragic backdrop of the Transatlantic slave trade, this is a positive tale replete with castles, kings and queens, villains, killer hawks, the underworld, and romance. Dive into this one-of-a-kind story of hope where people and animals unite to conquer evil. Although haunting images of the Middle Passage appear throughout the text, these painful symbols do not diminish the optimism at the core of the story nor the courage and integrity of the African people.

Unlike most legendary warriors, Sema is a gentle soul who abhors anger and confrontation. He is a brilliant artist and peacemaker who is more at home carving stone and creating music than battling foes and humiliating those who do not possess his gifts. Unaware of his exceptional identity, Sema lives an ordinary life in the village, along with his sister, as the foster child of King Tenkamenin and Queen Malia. However, midway through the story, he learns that he is a member of the Guardian Line, spiritual emissaries created many years ago by benevolent gods to protect Saveba from the destruction that has overtaken much of Africa. Embracing his sacred charge, Sema travels through the portals of time and space to confront the sinister otherworldly beings plotting to destroy Saveba.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667804637

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The Guardians of Saveba

© 2021 Barbara Griffin

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-66780-462-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66780-463-7

For my husband and our beautiful children.

The dark ships are coming to take our mothers and fathers away. We are only little children; can you please help us pray? The song of the African children floated through the skies for many years until finally drifting down to the gods under the sea.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Prologue

Underneath the sea there is another dimension where powerful spirits dwell. For thousands of years, the Unities have been overseers of good and evil in the universe. In the beginning, they strived to make the mortal world a place where only goodness existed. However, it was not long before they discovered the impossibility of completely eradicating evil from any realm where human beings dwelled. So, they settled for a compromise—a world of fairness and integrity leavened by a small dose of immorality every now and then. But even this concession failed, as people, over time, revealed a propensity for injustice if it served their selfish aims.

Disappointed in their inability to influence mortals toward justice and kindness, the Unities separated themselves from the affairs of human beings and allowed them to sort out the inequities among themselves. Still, however, there were those cases so egregious that the Unities felt compelled to intervene. The assault against Africa was such a case indeed. For hundreds of years, innocent men, women, and children were kidnapped and dragged to far-flung regions of the globe—against their will—to build civilizations for strangers who gave them nothing in return, except pain and heartache. Deserted by most of the inhabitants on the earth, the Africans cried out to the Unities who answered their call.

Unfortunately, the response from the gods came too late to save all of the continent. Every kingdom had fallen before the murderous invaders—except for one—Saveba. To save this last kingdom, the Unities created a line of spiritual protectors—emissaries from the sacred place under the sea. The first guardian was the child Nuru. Mmekutmfon, who followed Nuru, served for one hundred years. After Mmekutmfon came Mojintu, the current guardian of Saveba who has been protecting the kingdom for more than one hundred and fifty years. It is time for old Mojintu to return to his world. It is now Sema’s turn to be guardian.

Young Sema, the next guardian of Saveba, does not yet know his identity or his sacred charge. Even more, he does not know that evil spirits, the Menacers, who wish to destroy Africa completely, are frantically working to destroy him.

Because the Unities had anticipated such a scheme, they placed into the Guardian compact a safeguard specifying that only the King or Queen of Saveba could terminate the guardian through banishment or execution. Although the Saveban kings and queens have had no knowledge of the special emissaries protecting them, the guardians were never in danger since the King and Queen have always been people of stellar character and the Savebans always loving and kind. However, Tamar, the son of the King and Queen, and heir to the throne, is a different case. After observing the young man’s vanity and arrogance for some time, the Menacers grew confident that they could achieve their evil aims through him. So, over time, they began filling Tamar’s head with toxic thoughts to increase his hatred of Sema, boosting the likelihood that he would kill Sema after becoming King. The Menacers have been waiting patiently.

Chapter One

In Assongou, one of the last kingdoms in West Africa, lived good King Abioye and his wife, Queen Adanna. The queen was celebrated throughout the region for her beauty. Her ravishing face, framed by a glorious crown of indigo hair, was a sight to behold. The king himself was a picture of elegance and charm. The couple, who had ruled Assongou for many years, were greatly loved by their people. The king and queen had two children—a boy and a girl. When the girl was born, the people celebrated for three days. The queen named her Kibibi. Although the boy, Sema, had arrived eight years earlier, no one could remember a celebration for him. In fact, no one could say with certainty how he came to be the son of the king and queen.

Sema’s beginnings were wrapped in mystery. It was rumored that he had only one possession when he was presented to the king and queen—a black amulet tied around his neck. Some whispered that his arrival had been predicted many years earlier by priests and soothsayers, who spoke of a strange young man who would someday appear among the people. They said that he would not embrace familiar so-called manly customs like hunting, fighting, and pursuing badges of power; instead, he would be an artist—a creator—whose gentle heart would search endlessly for peace and unity among all creatures of the earth. The soothsayers also told his parents that the boy’s gifts would reach beyond this world in ways that would not be known to them. These things, they say, were told to King Abioye and Queen Adanna in the darkness of night.

As the years passed, a plague of evil spread across the continent of Africa in the form of foreign invaders whose greed drove them to destroy the lives of men, women, and children living and thriving across the sprawling land. During the siege, many kingdoms fell. Assongou was no exception. Everyone was killed. Only young Sema and his sister, Kibibi, survived by escaping deep into the forest. As much as he could, Sema, the young prince, took care of his little sister by relying on his youthful skills. Although he was familiar with hunting and was an excellent archer, he refused to kill the creatures living around them. Instead, he and Kibibi survived on plantains, mangoes, guava, cassava leaves, and wild sorghum—fruits and vegetables growing in abundance everywhere.

After several weeks had passed, eleven-year-old Sema and three-year-old Kibibi heard loud voices shouting their names. Because Sema thought that the sounds were coming from the invaders who had killed his parents, he remained silent. He quickly placed his hand over his little sister’s mouth to quell her chattering. Then, mysteriously, he was overtaken by a strong feeling that the people searching for them were friends. So he took Kibibi by the hand and moved closer to the shouting. In minutes, the brother and sister stood face-to-face with two men and one woman, whose kindly smiles assured them that they were not in danger.

The rescuers were from the Kingdom of Saveba. They had been sent by good King Tenkamenin, who had been especially fond of King Abioye and Queen Adanna. The king had been told by his adviser—old Mojintu—that the royal couple’s children may have survived. When Queen Malia, the king’s wife, heard the news, she insisted that a search party be quickly dispatched to find the children. None of the king’s counselors believed that there could be survivors, since the annihilation of the Kingdom of Assongou, as with other African nations, was virtually complete. But King Tenkamenin ignored them. The miracle was now a reality. Sema and Kibibi were rescued and carried to the Kingdom of Saveba.

King Tenkamenin and Queen Malia immediately fell in love with the handsome boy wearing a curious black amulet around his small neck and his outspoken little sister. Without hesitation, the royal couple decided to adopt the children as their own. That night Sema and Kibibi were given a quiet place to rest and plenty of food. On the following day, a magnificent feast was held in their honor. The whole kingdom turned out to mark the arrival of the king’s new boy and girl. Everyone in Saveba was swept up by the whirlwind of celebration—everyone except one—the king’s eldest son, Tamar, who hated the very idea of the two newcomers.

Although Tamar had other brothers and sisters, he considered himself the favored child of King Tenkamenin and Queen Malia. As the firstborn of the king—the next in line—he was admired for his prowess in everything requiring strength and agility. No one could beat him. Tamar was determined to prove to his father that the interlopers—Sema and Kibibi—were worth nothing. Unlike Sema, Tamar’s heart was filled with poison and his head with confusion.

It was not long before Sema and Kibibi began to adopt the ways of their new home, becoming beloved members of King Tenkamenin and Queen Malia’s family, despite Tamar’s coldness toward them. Five years passed swiftly, and all seemed well. For King Tenkamenin, however, there was just one problem with his new son—Sema’s fondness for art and the creative ornaments of life. The king shared with his wife his concern that Sema, unlike Tamar, lacked an appreciation for boyish activities like wrestling and hunting.

Despite his anxieties, the king was proud of the young man. Sema’s ability to create magnificent objects with his bare hands or with his sculpting knife, and in some magic way infuse life into the pieces, was a mystery no one could explain. The king had not seen it for himself, but several people in Saveba swore that they had witnessed Sema speaking to ferocious animals—lions, tigers, and serpents—coaxing them into calmness. Tamar, his adopted brother, scoffed at such silly tales. He thought that Sema’s so-called strange powers were useless. Never would he be convinced of the boy’s worth. Not only did he have contempt for Sema; he was jealous of his father’s fondness for him.

Just a few weeks earlier, Tamar overheard his parents bragging about the gift Sema had presented to them. With his small crimson knife, Sema sculpted, from alabaster stones, a sprawling translucent city that radiated in the sunlight and gleamed softly under the luster of the moon. Sema had spent several mornings and afternoons carving the varied-shaped buildings, adding tedious details such as doors, moldings, windows, and staircases. Dominating the middle of his cityscape was a towering eight-sided building, a perfect place for handling the imaginary city’s important affairs. No one in Saveba had ever seen such an odd, complicated structure. Framing the entire metropolis was a gate guarded by nine strategically spaced warriors. The stone men were clothed in claret-colored wraps draped across their shoulders. They wore high boots fringed at the top with layers of metallic roping. Around their waists hung amulets, trinkets of gold, and massive swords.

The king and queen were proud of Sema’s architectural wonder, judging it to be the most precious possession within the royal shrine. One evening, they invited all the villagers to view Sema’s work. Although the people were impressed by Sema’s exquisitely designed pieces, some could not help feeling disturbed by the colorless buildings.

What is this place? One woman whispered to a young man standing beside her. An old man was heard to say that the whole thing seemed strange—not of this world. As they left, the people thanked the kind king and queen but could not shake the feeling that Sema’s stone city was a sign of bad things to come.