Familiar African Tales | Ekpo in GSS Exam By Mira Morah
“Psst! Pssst! Nora!” I didn’t want to turn towards her so I pretended not to hear her. I felt a tap on my back. I pretended it was just a housefly perching on my back. Another pinch. Pinch. Tap. I leaned back and tilted my head a bit. “Please do you know number three?” She asked. I shook my head. “Please let me just see what you’ve shaded, that’s number three shae?” “I’m not sure if it’s correct. Sorry.” I quickly whispered back and leaned forward to focus on my work. When I thought I was safe from any further interruptions, I began shedding again, piecing together strings of ideas and thoughts on how to attack the questions. I was so sure of them! Then I heard the ruffling sound of papers behind me. So this babe even went as far as bringing in micro-chips! “Issoraid!” I thought to myself…
THE VOICE OF EVE BY FELICIA OTOP
You were the first of his creation. I was just an addition to what He made. To help you fulfill your purpose. It was all about you, no me, all you. I came as a help to make you complete. But you felt all had been given to you. So you treated me like the others He made. You neither interacted or communicated with me. I needed companionship and he came to me. He told me many things you didn’t tell me. He told me lies to get to you, so he could make me his own. He knew if he owns me he owns you. Even though you didn’t see the value in me. Because you owned me, you owned the world. As a helper made for you and from you, I had no thought of my own. I was thinking through you and in you. I did exactly…
WEDNESDAY SERIES | THE SUICIDE NOTE 2 BY EDIKAN AKPANTE
he is also my lover! I’m writing this part with pains in my heart. I know you will condemn me, that you will be shocked by this, because I’m not that angel you had always thought me to be. I lived under the camouflage of a devoted church worker. I guess you are so ashamed of me right now, right? But I am so sorry. Everyone desires my body, yes, everyone! No one to love me for me.
PASTOR EMEKA BY EKENE
The way Emeka argued about the after-life would make one wonder if he was Jesus himself. He would quote Bible verses, shake his head vigorously and beat his chest to show he was sure of what he spoke of. It did not surprise us when Emeka began preaching in our neighborhood, but what made us perplexed was the white garment he wore with a big cross hung round his neck. He carried a bell which he rung as he echoed, “REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND.” He became prominent as he held vigils in the rooms of young girls seeking husbands, he would conduct his deliverance with seven candles and an anointing oil. Weeks later Emeka was poised in a Cherokee jeep, cruising around the neighborhood testifying of the goodness of the Lord in his ministry. Pastor Emeka had made a good impression in the neighborhood, until…
WHEN THE TRUTH LOSES THE POWER TO SAVE – By Augustus Bill
Sometimes we want to know the truth, but when we finally do, we realise more reasons why we should have believed the lie. *** It was Tuesday morning and Jay was already preparing for work, the laundry man had brought his piece later than planned, but somehow it never bothered him that he was hours late to the office, he was the CEO, and answers to only himself. It is not in his habit to be late, but he had only made a last minute plan to don his Hickey Freeman’s grey suit that morning, prompting the laundry man to delay in delivery. Jay, took a closer look at her portrait which was conspicuously placed on his dressing table, the photographer had captured those smiles so perfectly that they paired comfortably with the dim lights in the studio when it was filmed. He knows how much he loved her, and…
IN THE SPEED OF LIGHT: FROM AGES TO AGES BY FELICIA OTOP
There comes the transcending energetic conceptualism of movement, taking the formless state into a life of destiny. Speaking for a generation yet to be born, releasing thoughts into words and words into matter and matter into solids. Appraising that which is unknown to become known. Basking common feelings into deep reasoning and corrugating the process of linear knowledge for future revelations. In her energetic twirl the splendour of her decorum majestically embossed the deepest of all her formation as she raised her in her and him in him; intertwining the equability of her in him and him in her. What a decipher !! Condominium of functions given to each owner but jointly functional to make all related in accordance to their similar interests. Raising the pillars of destination in the energy of speed to light up the truth that gives reality its meaning by drafting a tenure of ruler ship…
WEDNESDAY SERIES | THE SUICIDE NOTE 1 BY EDIKAN AKPANTE
LIZZY “Becca!” I called to my friend as I dashed into our one room apartment. “Becca, come take a look, I’ve finally been given admission.” I exclaimed, searching through my handbag excitedly. Becca was my roommate as well as a friend. She was one girl I envied so much, for her looks, brain, and financial base. She seemed to have it all. Unlike me, Becca was already in 200 level in the university and I was far older than she was. But I loved her much; she was such a nice, quiet and sweet girl. She decided to take me in when I was thrown out by my aunt for always coming home late. She couldn’t understand my excuses for doing two jobs just so that I could save up for my academics when I would finally be given admission. “Lordamercy!!! No!!!” I screamed at the sight before me. “No,…
FAMILIAR AFRICAN TALES | MY FIRST TIME BY NTEN MPAMA
Nten is a teenage girl who loves putting her thoughts to paper. Writing is to her what food is to the body. She is a ferocious reader and an avid lover of poetry. She also loves to bake and eat what she bakes. Her faith is probably the most important part of her life. She lives in Calabar with her family. This is her story about THE FIRST DAY I CARRIED A 20-LITRE CONTAINER This happened a few years ago, I was 13 years old and in SS1. My neighbourhood was experiencing one of the frequent water cessations. So, I and two of my cousins decided to get water from a borehole a short distance away from the house. What happened in the course of our trip to the borehole could only happen in Nigeria, where people feel they have a right of opinion over you because they’ve seen you…
The Ode of The Magic Man – In The Face of Two Worlds | By Felicia Otop
He exists in the two worlds of his thoughts but in the confusion of her reality. He communicates in double insight and his secret of attraction is deceit. He knows he is a king in his delusions but of no value in her reality. She is his, because she was attracted by his delusions. His deep values, emotions and thoughts give him physical experiences and push his visions not from the point of sight but from the point of thought. He looks real but he is a farce, a lie that works like magic, very delusional, disappearing in a flash just when she is trying to understand. He pushes his visions through energy as he sits in idleness of aloneness in his thoughts, he attracts the most outstanding of the ‘she gender’. As his thoughts draw the strongest of his victim. He likes to stay lonely but never wants to…
Familiar African Tales | Pained By Ngozi John
Iya Joke did not cry on the day her child died. She looked at the body and walked out of the room. She did not come back to the house after that. Last week, some children said they saw her at Eleyele Junction. She sat by the big church opposite the meat stall. Her wrapper loosely tied around her chest and her hair unkempt. They said she called every little girl Joke and even tried to pull a child from the mother’s hand once. The children who saw her yesterday said she sat in front of the church, still, like the figure of Jesus which stood beside her. Today I walked up to her. She did not recognise me. She used to shout, “Ore mi, my friend”, when she saw me on the road. But today, she did not talk. She looked at me as if I was not there.…
Silly Kene’s Visit To The Grave Side
Armed with only a torchlight. Kene pushed open the large graveyard gate. It gave a creepy sound. The air around the graveyard was eerily cool with the moon in her full bloom. Kene was not sure which grave belonged to his property owner’s dog, I mean, all the graves looked very much alike. It was strange news for Kene, on hearing that his property owner had thrown a lavish burial party for his dead German shepherd. Only in America did such absurdities happen. His people back home in Nigeria would call it madness. People were busy dying of hunger and starvation, here was his property owner spending money on an animal, Kene was busy thinking to himself as he walked around, using his torchlight to read the names inscribed on tombstones. He wanted to see it for himself; he wanted to confirm for himself that his property owner was truly…
Once Upon A Girl By Mirabelle Morah
Cynthia was always nice to me. She had the prettiest smile and the prettiest hair, not that I knew many girls but Cynthia lived next door. “You, come out and play with me.” She’d call out on Wednesday evenings. “Hey, come on and eat with me.” She’d say to me in school. “Would you be in church today?” She’d ask me on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I thought she cared about me more than my family did and so I trusted her with my trust. My everything. And my life too. It was carol night in church that day. Cynthia made me sing with the junior choir and I had only obliged because she was also in the choir. The air was cold outside and everyone was inside the church building. We stood by the baptism pool, looking into it from behind the fence. “Mama says once I turn 16 I…
Dear Dove by Veralyn Chinenye
Dear Dovess, When you smile you knock me out, I fall apart, and I thought I was smart. But now, all I get are long faces that knock off…. Your smile is fading out, I thought the more you smile the better the smile, but yours is gradually fading, because you no longer take time to smile. You force yourself to smile. You no longer smile with your eyes twinkling like stars. You force smiles, smiles are not to be forced, they come naturally to the face to beautify. What has happened to your smile, you remember the birthday present I sent to you with kind words from my bowels, I thought it did lighten you and give you hopes as you enter another year of your life with high hopes, high laughter, aspiration and loud smiles. I’m worried Dovess, as I peck on your window to watch you sleep,…