chapter 2

In the evening, new, fresh palm fronds were passed round the whole village signifying a new war. Weak men ran inside their homes, gathered their wives and children and started a meeting on how they would successfully run away from the village without been seen. It was the next day, as early as the cock crowed that Echi got hold of his own palm frond. The dark greenish leaf disintegrated into different parts. As Echi observed the edges of the leaves, he knew his death was near. The death he had longed for and waited for many years was finally at his doorsteps. The passage to his dear Olanna was finally in his own hands. He strained his eyes to see the small drop of blood that was on one of the leaves. It was the smallest drop of blood he had seen on a leaf since he started receiving the palm fronds of war on his threshold.

The thirteen emissaries sent to Umunsogbu returned in the afternoon with their leader, Chika leading the way with the message of Egwusinala in his mouth. After a solemn march round the village, they paid Isiewu a visit before the town crier was sent to gather the people of Umuolu for an urgent meeting at the village market square. 

“Umuolu people! I salute you!” Chika shouted.

“Yaa!” The people responded.

The village market square was filled up now. Every brave man of Umuolu came out with a weapon of war.

“Umuolu people! I salute you!” Chika yelled.

“Yaa!”

“Great people of Umuolu! I salute you!”

“Yaa!”

“I was sent on an important journey to carry the head of the messenger of the chief priest of Umuolu. I have completed my mission and I have returned with a message from their chief priest, Egwusinala.”

Chika paused and called one of the emissaries to come forward. The puzzled emissary came forward with a goatskin bag on his hands. He talked in low tones with Chika for a while and handed over the bag to him before leaving. Everyone could notice the scorn in the old emissary face as he left. Chika faced the crowd.

“People of Umuolu! This is the message of the people of Umunsogbu.” 

Chika dipped his hands inside the goatskin bag and brought out a human head. He raised the human head higher so that everyone could get a clear glimpse of the horror that was before them.

“This is what Egwusinala said I should tell the people of Umuolu.”

Isiewu stood up as if an unhappy insect had stung him on the buttocks. He stared at the head of his son dangling freely in the hands of the Chika. The well bruised head swayed from side to side until Chika dropped it back inside the goatskin bag.

“This is the message of Egwusinala,” Chika said as he tried to raise his voice a little bit higher. “The chief priest said that if Umuolu people wants war, he is ready to give them war and if they want peace, he is also ready to give them peace. I told him that we have already chosen war and we are not changing our minds then he laughed and looked at me in the eye balls and cursed our chief priest. He said that Isiewu charms are not as strong as his own and that our warriors should not be deceived to fight for a man who have sinned against the gods but I refused to believe him because I trust and respect our chief priest. I defended Isiewu in front of him and he told me that in the eyes of the gods, our chief priest is unjust and full of evil. I could not believe him. He told me to ask Isiewu what he had done to his daughter, Agunwa.”

There was confusion in the crowd as every man who had kept a secret bad hunch for Isiewu tried to spot where the chief priest was hiding. But the confusion quickly ended and Chika continued.

“I told Egwusinala that I have never heard of any girl named Agunwa in Umuolu. He ignored me and told me to ask Isiewu to bring back the body of his daughter that he slept with and smoothered in the night. I was shocked when I heard him accusing our chief priest of raping his daughter but I decided to seal my mouth and reserve my feelings about all these evil things I heard until we are all gathered here today. People of Umuolu I am more troubled than most of you are. This is the message of the chief priest of Umunsogbu.”

Chika ended his words with a slight wave to the crowd of people who were already grumbling and feeling ashamed of Isiewu for raping Egwusinala’s daughter. Immediately Chika stepped down, Isiewy dashed out and stood in front of the crowd. The fear he had once harbored if he was caught deceiving the people completely left him. He gave three powerful salute accompanied with fist punches towards the air before he spoke angrily.

“People of Umuolu, I asked you sometime ago what would you do if your enemy throws shit at you. What would you people really do if shit was thrown at you? All of you were present when I asked the question and one of you said that he will make sure that his enemy feeds on the shit. Great people of Umuolu, the chief priest of Umunsogbu is only using this means to pull us apart. He is using this means to dissuade us from going to war with them because he knows the hands of the gods is guiding us. Imagine what he did to me! He brought the head of my son and gave it to our chief warrior just to bring shame upon us. Is that not a big insult to the the chief priest of Umuolu?” He asked the crowd who were already paying attention to him tentatively.

“Now, he has decided to lay false accusations on me just to confuse all of you. Have you ever seen me with a woman in my hut? No! Nobody from Umuolu have ever seen me with a woman in my hut. If none of you can prove what Egwusinala has said to Chika then all of you should be assured that I am innocent of the crimes that have been laid on my head. Great people of Umuolu, we shall go to war as soon as possible because the chief priest of Umunsogbu has bitten more than he can chew. We cannot continue to keep quiet and receive the shit he pours on us when we have capable able-bodied men who can force him to eat shit. The gods are wise and we need to follow their advice. The gods are all screaming in my ears for us to go to war. We need to listen to the voice of the gods, the voice of reasoning and great knowledge. We shall wage war against Umunsogbu tomorrow and it must be in the early morning when the sun is yet to return from its trip and the birds are fixing their nests. We shall take them unawares and slaughter all their men. A man cannot slap you on the cheek and expect you to turn the other side for him. The gods forbid such an act of cowardice. The gods have condemned the people of Umunsogbu and have turned their backs against them. What will remain of them tomorrow is a pool of blood and scattered bodies that has been cursed by the gods. Great people of Umuolu! Let us be wise and follow the will of the gods. I salute you!”

The war took place the next day with the men of Umuolu wearing stripes of palm fronds of war in their forehead as they marched through the boundaries between Umuolu and Umunsogbu. They left their wives and children and diviners who refused to fight based on certain reasons in the hands of their chief priest.

The war was fierce. It was the worst war Umuolu people had ever fought since their history. They marched to Umunsogbu with charms and amulets that had been specially prepared by Isiewu but were taken aback by the ambush that was laid ahead of them in the boundaries they shared with Umunsogbu. The shocked men of Umuolu turned to face the enemies who were behind them only to find out that they were not the warriors of Umunsogbu but mercenaries from Umuoku who had been paid well by Egwusinala to fight by their side. The warriors of Umuolu heard noisy chants coming from their left side only to discover that the chants were from the people of Umuise who were approaching them with machetes raised high. They turned to their right only to meet the people of Umuigwe - people with no chief priest coming out from the bush with well sharpened blades. They made to flee, to escape but stopped when they saw the warriors of Umunsogbu and their chief priest in front of them, holding machetes that told them plainly at that moment that they had lost the war. 

Egwusinala walked towards Chika. The warriors of Umuolu did not move. They were powerless. He raised his machete up and the warriors of Umuolu watched as their chief warrior stood quietly until his head split into two. They felt betrayed.

With their chief warrior dead and gone. All hope were lost. One by one, the warriors of Umuolu dropped their machetes. The machetes fell down from their hands as each of them let the horror that was about to befall them sink deep inside them. Their chief priest had lied to them and was safely hidden inside Umuolu. Isiewu had failed them.

What followed suite was painful for the eyes to behold. The warriors were cut down by the mercenaries of the neighbouring villages and the warriors of Umunsogbu. Their bodies were torn ruthlessly with the sharp blades of their killers. The warriors of Umuolu made loud cries as their heads were disassembled from the rest part of their bodies. Large amount of blood flowed that day. 

In the end, all that Echi had wished for, came to pass. The chief priest had lied about their victory but he had not lied about his death. He knew it would not be too long before he would reunite with his dear wife who he had solely missed. He was one of the last set of warriors to die and when he died, he did not feel bitter or sad like the rest of the warriors felt instead he felt happy, happier than he had ever felt in his life. He felt pleased to die a good death.

The amount of killings that occurred that was so much that it took Egwusinala and his people a few weeks to remove the odour caused by the smell of the dead bodies of Umuolu warriors. After the bodies had been removed and successfully offered to the gods as a sacrifice before been burnt, they held a big feast and invited all the neighbouring villages to join them in thanking the gods for a glorious victory.

The place were all the warriors of Umuolu were slaughtered was called Mili Obaram meaning water of blood because they have never been so much blood shed in that land. After some weeks of rest, the people of Umunsogbu raided Umuolu in search of loots. They destroyed every hut they laid their eyes on and took away the women and children.

Meanwhile, Isiewu on hearing the news of the destruction of Umuolu warriors from a messenger who he had sent as a spy, gathered all his divination materials and fled the village of Umuolu in the middle of the night.

After an unyielding search, the people of Umunsogbu gave up on finding Isiewu. They left Umuolu after making sure that they had burnt every man’s hut and returned to their village to share the loots they had brought back home with the rest villages that had assisted them in the war. Women of Umuolu were raped mercilessly. Children of Umuolu were turned into slaves and worked until they could not move a limb. Many women and children of Umuolu died but none of the people who had a hand in their deaths cared. All that matter to them was that a son or daughter of Umuolu was paying for the blood they had spilled in the past.

The people of Umunsogbu were bitter for a long time as they accused each other for letting Isiewu escape. The only way the dispute was resolved was by giving each troubled man a woman from Umuolu to use as he pleases. Thereafter, anytime the loss of the chief priest arose in their minds, the men of Umunsogbu pounced on the women of Umuolu with lustful eyes until they emptied their sacks deep inside them.