PROLOGUE

eeeee! screamed the mid-wife as she delivered the baby, I had no nerve to ask what the problem was, I knew deep within me that she was back…again

CHAPTER ONE

Awero

Daughter of the great warrior

Awero

The one who never falls

Awero

A woman like a man

I smiled as I felt the sun rays filter through my window…it was a clear morning, the kind I always wished for. The birds chirped sweetly in the tress, and a particular one flew right before me and settled to pick up a little grain, I peeped and watched as it gleefully swallowed up its newly found treasure. It looked like a picture…a painting, like those of the famous Western painters I had heard about, only I couldn’t paint this scene as much as I would have loved to. And so I pictured it in my brain and stored it up till whenever I would be able to let it all out…a time I dearly hoped for. As I drew in my mind’s eye, the intricate details, it seemed like I had never seen anything so beautiful, unless, of course, myself…I laughed at the thought of this, why do I always have to be so narcissist? “Awero!” I l heard my mother call, I ignored it, and immediately drew the covers over my face as though I was not yet awake…”Awero”, she called out the second time, this time I could hear her footsteps approaching heavily towards my room, she always walked twice as fast when in a rage, she flung the mat covering the door aside, and reached out to pull the covers from my face, all the while yelling “do you always have to be so lazy, can’t you see that the sun is fully out? Your mates are already working in the farm and sweating behind their mother’s pot of soup, and you are here sleeping like no body’s business, would you get up and go find something to do!” Not looking out for an early morning dispute, especially on such a beautiful morning, I stood up reluctantly, stretching and yawning… mother side-eyed me at this and let out a long, dragging hiss, she pulled at her wrapper, retied it and gently strolled out of the room. I let out a quiet scornful laugh, took out my wrapper and tied it. But I wasn’t ready to go out, and so I knelt near the window and continued staring outside. I was caught midway through by a hard slap at my back, it was mother, and this time, she was fuming hot “Awero, what kind of child are you, I thought you were only cursed with laziness, I didn’t know the gods also gave you the spirit of disobedience”…”mother…” I started, but she had no time to hear me out, not like I had anything to say anyway, she pulled me by my ears and led me to the backyard where a basket load of cocoyam was waiting to be peeled. “finish this before I get back from the market, so gbo“, “yes mother”, I replied, cursing under my breath, how on earth can someone finish peeling a whole basket of cocoyam in just a few minutes, at that moment, I could have sworn she wasn’t my mother, but then, what do I know?