Ekpenta

Umebundu laid on his bed and wondered about his actions. His mind drifted back to the time he went for the consultation wih the dibia of Ajommuo. He remembered how he sat in the dark room with his head bowed while the dibia performed his rites. The dark room had a damp smell mixed with smoke from the constantly burning incense pot. There were several human and animal skulls hanging on the wall in front of the dibia and some were stained with both sacrificial food and blood. He remembered that what scared him the most was the malicious looking edifice that represented Ajommuo the god of crisis.

"Umeh" the dibia called him "come before Ajommuo, place your hands over the pot and state your purpose of consultation." Umebundu crawled to the dibia and placed his hands over the clay pot that contained all his sacrificial items. The dibia stood up and danced to his incantation. "O ruo nu omume. Ikili kili ka a na ga ukwu osisi onu. Ajommuo puta bia rie ri. Umu gi akpogi okwu. Gua bu onye na ekwu na ozizo uwa nile na anu uda onugi. Onye na azo okpa igiri e ruo. Puta bia zaa oku gi. Anam akpo gi bia welu isi. Umebundu na akpo gi bia za ya okwu."

At this point Umebundu knew there was no goint back. He had to fulfill his purpose of the consultation with the dreaded god Ajommuo. The dibia then prompted him "Umeh as soon as the sacrifice catches fire, then you know Ajommuo is in our midst. You must look into he flames and speak your purpose of summoning him and you must do so with confidence, no matter what you see in the flames do not avert your eyes. Looking away only means that everything you ask of him would also befall you. Most importantly, do not remove your hands from the pot. The flames will hurt you but you would not get burned. Do you understand me?" Umebundu nodded his head. He was too afraid to speak least he loses his courage.

The dibia did some more incantation of praises to Ajommuo and proceeded to cut off the head of the black hen in the pot. He spilled the blood all over Umebundu's hands and also spilled some on Ajommuo's edifice. Then he dropped the lifeless headless hen back into the pot. He bent down and took a handful of black powder from another pot beside his stool and added it to the pot of sacrifice. He then added some kolanuts into the pot and gave a piece to Umebundu "Chew this and spit out the chaff into your hands and remember all that I told you." Umebundu obeyed while. As soon as the chaff from the kolanuts touch his hands the pot of sacrifice went up in flames.

The heat from the flames was much more than Umebundu expected. His hands briefly moved away from the flames in shock but he recovered quickly and hoped that the dibia or worse still Ajommuo did not notice his brief mistake. He concentrated his attention on the flames and spoke his purpose "Ajommuo the great god of crisis, I am Umebundu the first son of Odika Nwanze. Ajommuo my younger brother Dinta, wants to embarrass me in this our village. Just because he has more sons than I do and he because he also has a bigger yam barn, he feels that he has arrived. He wants to claim the Nzeh title left by our late father Odika the great hunter, before I can gather enough money to do so. I can not let this happen Ajommuo. This is why I have consulted your dibia. I need you to strike him with ekpenta. Yes Ajommuo let him be plagued immediately by leprosy before he can steal my birth right as the first son of our father Odika. I want to see how a leprous man can obtain the Nzeh title in this village." As he spoke in confidence he looked in the flames and saw his brother stricken down by leprosy. He saw his brother's family abandoning him to his illness. He also saw himself taking control of his brother's farms and becoming a wealthy man. He saw himself claiming the Nzeh title and all these pleased him.

That consultation was a month ago. Now both Dinta and Umebundu suffer from the dreaded ekpenta. While Dinta's wife stayed back to care for her husband, Umebundu's wife fled at the first sign of leprosy. She took all her children with her. As there is no one left to help him, Umebundu has been forced to rely on the little help and care that trickles down to him from his brother's household. No one but him knew the genesis of the ekpenta they were both plagued with. He was sure Ajommuo must have notice his slight hand movement otherwise why else was he laying here being plagued by what he wanted his brother to suffer alone.

With the help of Dinta's wife, their kins men had gone far and wide seeking help for help from various well know healers in the land, especially those who have been known to heal ekpenta, but not none of them have been able to successfully heal the brothers. They then concluded that the brothers must have been cursed. Umebundu knew that Dinta's wife secretly suspected that he had something to do with the curse, so he took the chance to deny it whenever he saw an opportunity. Two days their kins men decided they would consult several powerful dibia in the land to seek for waya to break the curse. This scared Umebundu, he prayed they would never find out his involvement in the plague. What is they went to Ajommuo's dibia? Then his case would be totally lost. He would rather hey both died of ekpenta, than him getting exposed.

On days like this when he laid on his bed, hungry and alone in his deserted household, he would think of his actions in the past, and he would say to himself "Umeh, was it worth it? The consultation to Ajommuo, couldn't I have done without it?"