The People of these Days

Nkechi is like a pot of soup oh judges of the mortal soul. I have in my many jobs in the realm of humans never met a more complicated and dare I say confused woman.

As her chi I have come to plead for more time. Ganganaogwu, the one who sees the wind and determines its direction, I have come to plead for the mortal you sent me to guide to have more time in the realm of the living to fulfil what you Akataka, the setter of destinies have set for her.

Everything changed from when the white men came, they came with their diseases and their god. They came with them, strange medicines for their strange diseases and their god that required levies from farmers who lived in huts with thatched roofs to build large halls with zinc roofs for it to live in, a very expensive god. We have watched our people forsake our ways and cling to the Whiteman'. It has been generations upon generations we have seen changes the old gods and watchers of our heads did not foresee and it is only getting worse.

Nkechi in the old days would have been married and bore children; in the old days she would have a stead where she pounds ofo and mix it with palm oil to thicken her soup, she would have been pounding delightfully and singing songs that her suckling twins will respond to. Her Ada would have sat on a stool and sliced the okazi leaves delicately with the thin steel her father sharpened to enable her slice into the hard leaves with precision. Her Opara would have been returning from the farm with his age grade, his ntu hanging on his shoulders. Her di, the crown of her head would have been breaking kola nuts with his visitors waiting for the soup to be ready. But that is the old days, pardon me Oseburuwa if I reminisce. Those were the best times to be a Chi, our people's hearts were clean and their eyes revealed contentment, and their sleep was less troubled so Chi's could work on their hosts without fighting guilt or greed or confusion.

Obasidenelu, guardian spirits of mankind the women of today own no steads and do not happily cook for their husbands, but that is not why I am here. I am here on behalf of my host Nkechi, who has now began a journey into the spirit realm, into ala ndị mmụọ having just died at the hands of a fake doctor who have just performed what the Whiteman calls "abortion".ihe aru!

Ijango-Ijango dare I say that it is the third time she has done this. You may begin to ask within yourselves what have I, her Chi been doing. Our people no longer recognize the innate calling or warnings their Chi gives. Their minds are cluttered with so much worry, hate, desire for material possessions and constant thinking of the future as if they have the power to draw it near or paint it in the colors of the wishes their minds conjure. They have gone so far away from the old ways, discarded the teachings of their ancestors. They listen to no good advice, some chi's have left their hosts and roam the world of the living aimlessly, I met Wike's Chi, he left his host -Wike long ago because he reasons with no one. When I spoke to him, he said the people of these days have no caution with the things of this world, they forget who has given them life and live as though they can negotiate with whatever power the might think they have to smoothen their journey into ala ndi mmuo. They act as though they will suffer no consequence for their actions. He said his host was lost he could no longer appeal to his conscience.

Agbatta-Alumalu I know I have broken so many rules for my host when she found out the man she had given herself to was married with children, she tried to take her life with the Whiteman's concoction used to keep away the insects. It eats the body from the inside and it is the most disgraceful way to die. I know this because the people of these days use it to cut short their time, even Oda Opue the anti poison their ancestors used to tackle any poisonous drink or food ingested does not work on it. That is why I say the Whiteman's things are ghastly.

Olisabinigwe, as she was about to take the concoction, I made it slip from her hand, I stirred hard at her spirit to urge her to talk with her only living relative, Obi her brother, a good soul, who encouraged her to have hope. I know that my punishment awaits me for interfering repeatedly and almost revealing my form. Fortunately for me, the people of these days will not recognize a Chi even if it reveals itself to them, they will explain it away using big words like hallucinations, mirage, delirium and what they call science, removing the very essence of it; its divinity.

Agujiegbe, my host Nkechi is what the people of these days call a 'feminist' or she calls herself that and this is why I said she is confused. They say a feminist cannot, should not or will not, I forget how they put it, cook for any man, they will not submit themselves to their husbands and they will not look after their home like the women of the old days; their ancestors. Akwaakuru, they call their ancestors foolish, for their ways, they say that a man should cook and clean. They said they are equals tufiakwa! They say the men have nothing to offer them other than the appendage between their legs, they say if not that they need their seed for children, they are better to use a device which looks like a detached manhood they keep beside their beds. The things I have seen and heard is beyond me. They say they hate men but create a poor imitation of what the gods designed for a living breathing man. I have seen Nkechi use this thing in the dead of the night, she pushes it inside herself and out all the while conjuring the image of a man, imagining that he was doing those things to her.

Akanagbajiigwe, the women of these days talk too much and are strong headed. So my host identifies with these people that are 'feminists' but cries herself to sleep every night for not having a husband. She seethes with jealousy at women who are married and have children. It baffles me. I wonder, she does not want to be a wife but wants a husband.

She goes on this creation of the Whiteman they call a phone on something looking like a blue bird where she argues about men, she types words like misogyny and patriarchy and how the world will be better off without men.