A Tale of Two Marriages

By Ogaranya Tabowei

Pere was born into a middle-class family. His father was the chief priest of the community shrine. Although he was a brilliant boy in his primary and secondary school days, he was not able to go to the university because his father's magnanimity turned out to be a disfavour. His creditors could not pay up. He struggled through life until his father arranged his marriage. Although this marriage was blessed with children, it was a tumultuous one. It was an arranged marriage that was meant to raise children of average or more-than-average heights because the father, the mother, and Pere were below the average heights. Ebiere, the wife, was a tall girl from a family of tall individuals.

The marriage was devoid of courtship, which was a foundational error. The marriage crashed irrevocably.

He lived a parlous life until he met a mentor, Ebuka, whose financial assistance and pieces of advice pulled him out of the woods.

His first daughter, Jennifer, met her choice and got married to him after a period of courtship. This marriage almost followed that of Pere and Ebiere, her parents; but luckily, there was a detour. They were able to settle themselves and remained married for life.

The two marriages remained a contrast.

Pere became a Christian convert after the gospel of change that was preached to him. He became the Achilles tendon of the church that he built. He wished his parents were alive to see the difference between traditional religion and Christianity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781684987986

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Part 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Part 2

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Part 3

Chapter 23

Part 4

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

About the Author

cover.jpg

A Tale of Two Marriages

Ogaranya Tabowei

Copyright © 2023 Ogaranya Tabowei

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2023

ISBN 978-1-68498-797-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68498-798-6 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To my dear wife, Mrs Comfort Tariere Tabowei who stood strongly behind me like the Rock of Gibraltar in the course of writing this novel

Acknowledgments

My gratitude goes to my children, Stanley, Pamela, Ijeoma, Golden, Chukwuma, Ebiye, and Tony, who read the manuscript and added ingenuously to it. Of note is Mr. Jah'swill Azih, who started the secretarial job that ended up with my lovely daughter-in-law; Mrs. Timidigi Tabowei who almost turned out to be a second author of this novel.

The list of powerful critics includes my brother, Dr. Benjamin I. Tabowei, who took time from his ever-busy schedule to provide an immense piece of advice. My gratitude also goes to Mr. Azua Bayne Alaonu, Dr. Emmanuel Ugorgi, Mrs Bridget Tabowei, and Mrs Susan Opute. My special appreciation goes to Mrs Bumiegha Tubonemi, who read through the manuscript many times.

I will also like to extend my sincere thanks to my brother Barrister Tabowei and my nephew Barrister Okwuchukwu Okoro, who added a lot of zest to this novel.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Pere was born into a middle-class family in Oseakwa. Oseakwa was a serene big village on the western bank of the river Niger, a suburb of Umuoru, very close to the bifurcation of the river Niger to its main tributaries of rivers Forcados and Nun. It was populated by farmers and fishermen. The village had ten roads, which ran parallel to the bank of the river. After every ten houses, there was a street almost running perpendicularly to the roads from the bank of the river to the interior. There were two market squares, the big and the small. The big one took place every nine days while the small one was a daily market where fresh fish and fresh farm produce were sold. The big one was the biggest market between Wari and Onicha, along the banks of the river Niger.

Coconut trees, palm trees, and cherry trees were planted as ornamental trees. Beautiful tropical flowers adorned the streets and roads. The roads and streets were well maintained, dirt was picked up, and roads were swept daily under the orders of the king. As at that time the earliest explorers arrived in the village, every building was a mud house with thatch roofs. They had doors and windows without panes. Iron protectors were unimaginable. Stealing and robbery were unheard of. Traditional religion placed everybody in a good stead. Everybody feared the king. He ruled the village with iron fists, and his instructions were obeyed to the letter. The village was beautiful. When the white explorers arrived in the village, they were impressed and wondered about the existence of such a magnificent place in the jungle. They asked themselves if the villagers had their architectural and town-planning experience from the extraterrestrial sphere. Colonel Scott, the leader of the team, was a war veteran.

I fought during the Second World War. I commanded the brigade where many Black soldiers, specifically Nigerians, fought in Burma, he said. I am doing my doctor of philosophy thesis (PhD) on urban and regional planning. I feel that my experience at Oseakwa would enrich my work. He therefore decided to discuss with the king, His Royal Highness (HRH) Abanawai, how his kingdom had advanced so much inside the African jungle.

I am the leader of the team, the district commissioner (DC) visiting your area, the colonel said.

You are welcome to my village. Do you have anything to tell us? the king replied.

His Majesty, the king of United Kingdom, detailed us to visit the colony, and your village is one of the big villages listed for the visit.

We are conquered people now, and we do not have any say. Whatever His Royal Majesty tells us to do, we will do, he replied.

How did you establish this kingdom?

This kingdom was established from time immemorial by my patriarch Abanawai the first. I am the tenth Abanawai. Going down the memory lane to discuss the historical antecedent will take us days on end.

How did your forefathers manage to plan this village to assume its enviable look? the colonel asked.

Are you interested in getting the answer and, therefore, the education?

Yes, it is my pleasure, HRH, to be educated, the colonel replied.

Would you not be afraid? the king asked.

Of course no. I am a retired soldier, the colonel answered.

Getting up from his palatial chair, the king said, My chiefs and the visitors should follow me to the waterfront, where the community shrine is based on the bank of the river.

The chief priest of the shrine, Okoti, made some incantations and danced round the king and the visitors before allowing them into the shrine. It was necessary that he did so because albinos were the sacrificial lambs for the shrine in the past. To them, the whites were equal to the albinos because they almost looked alike with their skin colors.

Standing at the outmost point of the cliff, the chief priest said, I will now demonstrate how the men and the spirit from the water would arrive in the village to assist us at all times, during the intercommunal wars, insurgencies, festivities, planning and executing the projects, and many more things.

He glided down the intricately juxtaposed rocks of the cliff to the bank of the river and made some incantations, to the admiration of Colonel Scott and his team. We the natives, therefore, owe them a lot of respect and gratitude, the chief priest said.

Seeing the beauty of nature of how the rocks were placed, the colonel marveled and exclaimed, God is great. There is no geologist amongst us here to report on this as one of the wonders of Oseakwa community. I will certainly make a good report of this in my noble diary to His Majesty, the king of Britain.

Gentlemen, let us get back to the palace, His Royal Highness King Abanawai directed.

As Colonel Scott wanted to take leave of the king, the chief priest of the community shrine trotted to the king and talked with him in low tones.

Colonel Scott, tarry a bit as the gods have just spoken. They are angry with your government but not with you as a person, King Abanawai said.

How? My government is Godsent, always working with the principle of equity, justice, and rule of law.

May you grant us the opportunity to have this truth commission with you so that our newfound love shall remain steady and cordial.

The head messenger and interpreter had a small discussion with Colonel Scott, and he granted them the audience.

The king then asked the village spokesman, Perekimi, who was an orator and very knowledgeable about proverbs, to speak for the community.

Perekimi got up and greeted them. Ha Ntu onunu. Ha Ntu onunu. Ha Ntu onunu.

The community that cooks with boiling water from the war boat without fire during wars. Big applause from the community members.

"There was intercommunal war between Oseakwa and Komebiri community, which lasted for ten moons. It cost us materials and time but not men because our gods took the center stage and fought for us. Our commander, the arrowhead fighter whom the gods used, was Ode. If he was shot or wounded at the war front, he would resurface from his shrine to continue with the war. The community used locally made gunpowder to prosecute the war. This is the reason why the community is otherwise called Ntu Onunu, meaning ‘locally made gunpowder that sank the boats with cannons.' Our annoyance with the white men and their government then was that they armed Komebiri community to the teeth with sophisticated weaponry, imported gunpowder, Mark 4 rifles, cannons, and many other armamentaria. The cannonades were setting our bushes, farmlands, and farms on fire. Your government assisted them to fortify seven big gunboats for the armada, but luckily for us, none went home. Some of the fighters were captured and became war booties till date. The damaged boats and cannon guns situated on the right side of the shrine's waterfront are the war relics. The fear of our repraisal attack on the white man pushed them away from us over the years. Now every Black man is a conquered man, and events of the past are now history. We and our gods have forgiven you, Your Majesty, and Oyibo land, England," he narrated. There was a loud applause from the community. Thereafter, Colonel Scott was invited outside to watch a mock battle that signified the end of hostility between the British government and the Oseakwa community.

Colonel Scott with his entourage thanked the king and departed from the palace.

They quickly named it Oseakwa, the paradise in the jungle. They made it both the educational and missionary center, adding to its original function as the biggest market. It therefore commanded a triad of important functions. The missionary team built a missionary house, which catered to the Reverend Father and other church workers. If the priest did not travel out of the country on holidays, he retired to the missionary house for the duration.

Bowe, Pere's father, was able to acquire the title of olotu. This was the class of the greatest yam farmers in the village of Oseakwa. His mother, one of the two children of her parents, was the only wife of the father. She suffered from poor obstetric history. She had eight deliveries comprising of five males and three females. Only Pere and his three sisters survived the ugly neonatal period, which was common stock in trade in Nigeria then. His parents thought well and wished him to rise to the heights especially in education. They felt that they missed being educated in their golden formative years. They had come to realize that education is a sine que non for leaving the best legacy to him. They came to this conclusion quite early in the life of Pere. They knew that the age of subsistence farming, which was the hallmark of village prominence once, was totally eclipsed. Education had become the most important subject and was the centre of attraction of all and sundry.

His early tutelage until he started elementary school at the age of six years was purely by his parents. He was not allowed to visit his uncles and others. They wanted to inculcate in him the ideas of sincerity of purpose, service to humanity, and the love for God. They wanted him to be able to stand for himself early in life since he did not have any male siblings who would aid him in village squabbles. Group-assisted fight was a common feature amongst the village youths. It used to be very unfair to the youths who did not have many siblings, as Pere's case was.

Throughout his elementary-school days, he was the best in his class academically and in terms of neatness. He was always the class monitor, and in his final year, he was made the school prefect. He was loved by all teachers and pupils alike. In spite of these good attributes in him, he was not perturbed and did not see himself as someone different from those in his peer group.

He gained admission to the best secondary school in his locality. He continued with the winning trait and became the school senior prefect in his final year. He had good grades at the school certificate examinations and gained admission through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination with merit. After the release of the JAMB results, Pere went home to relay the good news to his parents. However, this was where Pere met the brick wall in his educational career until his old age, when he had to go to a good night school to acquire a university degree.

This turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back. The unexpected event had therefore created a big canyon in Pere's life, which tore his wishes asunder. The determinant factor in every educational pursuit is the financial capability of the parents. The parents could not hold their unhappiness after hearing of the thousands of naira to be invested in their son's educational pursuit. It was not child's play, and their anticipated belief in producing the first university graduate in their immediate family had been crushed. They could not hide their disappointment before their son and their relations. These were followed by open wailing: miserable gnashing of their teeth and biting their fingers. It was said to be a drama better seen than imagined.

Daddy, I can see that you are not happy, Pere observed.

Not exactly, Pere's father replied.

Have I committed any crimes by gaining admission into the university, sir?

No, my only dear son.

What then is amiss? Pere asked.

You may not understand our immediate problems, Bowe answered.

Keep me on track. I want to be educated on the subject matter, Pere said.

Wiping his tears with part of his loincloth, Bowe told his son, Those who owe me have refused to pay up their debts. I am a poor man. It is a terrible experience with me.

Pere boisterously demanded to know the debtors. I am ready to be a debt collector. They must pay us immediately."

My dear son, calm down. Life is not that straitjacketed. It is like a moving wheel. Sometimes you are down. Other times, you are up. It may not be smooth for everybody at the same time, Bowe advised.

Pere was surprised to find his parents in this pathetic mood since he was living in a fool's paradise. He had overestimated his father's riches. He had acquired the greatest title, which was the prestige of the rich people in the village. I used to think that taking olotu title was tantamount to undeclared wealth that could send me to the moon if the need be, Pere said. To him, the said university fee was supposed to be child's play to his parents. He started to see life from a different perspective that all that glitters is not gold, as Shakespeare recorded in The Merchant of Venice. He recalled one of the Ibo proverbs of one of his classmates, Mana is agaro, was aga, which, in English, means "If is does not fit in a sentence, was would fit in. Pere said he should therefore rethink his life. If he could not acquire education to make money, he had to look for alternative means to make money. Pere quickly reasoned, Each time a man took any risk, there were two possible extreme ends: either he succeeded or failed and might die or survive. I have, therefore, decided to dive into the life of uncertainty like a man who sailed out into an uncharted, open sea without a compass. I would be at the mercy of the sea waves to succeed, sink or swim, or be marooned in an unknown island. Which way it is going to be, I have decided to take my destiny in my hands." He then decided to move to the streets, in search of the golden fleece, which was making money by any means possible. The money that thwarted his life ambition had to be made through fair or foul means.

His instinct quickly pushed him into two areas of fast moneymaking. Which direction do I settle in? he asked. Is it into refined petroleum products or go into drug pushing? Both of them were associated with risks but highly lucrative. His first option was petroleum products. This was the time when petroleum products—petrol, gas, and kerosene—were in extreme scarcity and obtaining them from the black market was the norm instead of being the abnormal.

Pere moved straight to Warri refinery gate to become one of the touts. Here the tanker drivers siphoned petroleum products and sold to the touts from their trucks, at the expense of the gallonage station owners at giveaway prices. They were ready buyers. He became very comfortable in the process. He was apprehended and released twice by law-enforcement agents who were more corrupt than the touts. Definitely there is money in this petrol-touting business, but shall I remain a stooge in the hands of the police? he asked. I have become a fishpond behind the fisherman's house. Anytime he cares to eat fresh fish, he must resort to me. I must abandon this business for the alternative one, which is drug pushing. He had made enough money to buy himself a Peugeot 504 station wagon to carry out his nefarious activities. Pere, while abandoning the risky petroleum-touting job for another risky courier job, forgot that the cane that was used in flogging the first wife shall also be used in flogging the second wife. They were all risk-prone jobs.

It was later realized that Pere actually abandoned the petroleum products touting when he was given a wonderful magic wand. This was a traditional medicine that turned everything into whatever he told it to turn. Everything around him was treated with invisibility, like the famous fiction novel of H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man. While in the petroleum-product-touting business, he made more than enough money and was able to spread joy across the board. His interest was especially among the unfortunate elderly women; many of them had been abandoned by their relations.

Pere, why are you spending so much money on these old witches? Gbudugbudu asked.

Do not mind him. His interest is more on those good-for-nothing old people, Ekene added.

He is always hobnobbing with that barren old woman called Isegwe, Famous, who had just joined them, said.

If he is not careful, he may be barren, too, like her in his later life.

Whatever your views and statements are, it is my avowed decision to assist them. We must be asking the Almighty God to grant us the grace to be old like them, Pere answered.

To be old and barren? God forbid, Ekene mused.

Have an open mind while dealing with everybody. Do not expect any favour or remuneration for any favour you do to people. You are only doing such for God Almighty, Pere said.

They felt that they were the witches preventing their successes and some of them were barren. One of these barren ones, after receiving much of his largesse, decided to present him with this magic wand, which was her last property on earth.

Pere, you have been my only hope, the source of my sustenance in my old age, Isegwe said. I will bequeath this magic wand, my last gift to you. I have nothing else to pay you back. Let it assist you to find solace in life.

Amongst us in Nigeria, there is nothing like Social Security system or health-insurance scheme. Old people's home is none existent. The elderly people were supposed to be cared for by the family members. This was the reason the African extended-family-system care remained the best in the world. In Nigeria, one would not hand over his or her