The Rioting Graves

Ose stream was indeed filled to the brim by a mass of humanity from different places. Some were returning from Nkwo market square, some from farms and a good number of youths from Uga village and environs had converged to have a noon swim in the Ose stream that very afternoon. It was while they were seated under the shed of an oil bean tree, eating their cake that Ojiofor sighted Obilo. He was a young man of war, and of giant status known among the people of Nkwerre and others who were worried and terrified about the sophistication of Nkwerre in war execution in recent times. He was feared even among war veterans who had encountered his father, Anyim, so many times, especially during the Eshi wars and Oguno War.

Nobody takes away victory from his warriors in any war he was leading. And there was also something no one could take away from Obilo. That thing was his humility outside the war fronts. He represented the face of calamity against his foes during wartime. No one could pick any drop of smile from his face during the preparation and execution of any war. However, outside war and its fury, even a blind man could count all the white teeth in the mouth of the infectious Obilo. It was a beaming trait of his late beautiful mother who hailed from Uga.

In Uga, Obilo was known by the name of his grandfather, Ochemba, the father of Olaugo, his mother. Ochemba was the highest ranking seer in the whole of the Igbos of the North during his time. He was said to have reincarnated Obilo, his grandson, while he was still alive. For this, he consciously made sure that he never met Obilo in real life while he was still alive. He died on Eke Ukwu market day, just eight days after the birth of Obilo. People said he came back full prepared in Obilo, with his invincibility powers and now as a warrior.

Among Ndi Ikpa, Obilo was known as Otumba Nwa Ajaka- Otumba, the son of a man with Albinism, even among people who had not seen him but only heard about his war exploits and status. A mention of his name was indeed a threat during peace time among the neighboring villages. His paternal grandfather, Ajaka, was born with albinism in Umuokwaraoha kindred in Ndikpa Village. Ajaka's mother, Akuba, lost her husband, Egwim, when she was pregnant with Ajaka. Egwim was the elder brother to Ihentuga, who was the father of Uruma, who begot Ojiofor. Ojiofor's birth name was Anochiam. He was fondly called Ojiofor, a title name, because of his position as the head of Umuokwaraoha kindred. Whosoever was the head of Umuokwaraoha kindred automatically becomes the Ojiofor of the entire Ndi Ikpa. It was a hereditary position among Igbos, for the most senior family in the land.

These cousins had met on this stream of Uga with lots of pretenses to offer each other. It was the dialect of Ndi Ikpa spoken by Anochiam that gave Obilo the impression that Anochiam hailed from Ndi Ikpa, a place that chose to be blind when Ihentuga sent his elder brother, Egwim's widow, Akuba, away just one month after giving birth to Ajaka, who at that very moment had been well recognized as a child with albinism. A skin type they had never seen or heard about in the history of their Obigbo family. In fact, in the whole of Ndi Ikpa village, it was in the Okorocha family that such a feature usually occurred.

In the history of Ndi Ikpa village, the Obigbos were the first cousins to the Okorochas, and they still maintained that bond till date, which forbade intermarriages between the two families. That they saw as taboos. They were all descendants of Okwaraoha, who was the first man that migrated from Dunuora village to settle in Amaide country. It was a general belief that Okwaraoha was the first that settled and named the village Ndi Ikpa after it was given out to him and his group. It was a versed land graced with beautiful flora and fauna. As the gods may have decided, these two great cousins had met themselves here, on the bank of the Ose stream, in Uga. One was indeed enmeshed in the boiling rage of revenge right from birth, which had been rekindled now in Uga by mere observation of dialect. And the other, with the sense of history, could only wish history became a present reality so he could turn everything around and sanctify as much as human ever could, to redeem his life.