My Wildest Dream Poem by DOMINIC PREMPEH

I met Chinua; In Umuofia
The land of Okonkwo and Unoka
Where bloodshed was manly
And stories of war was bravery
Wrestling, farming and warring
Ushered boys into manhood, occasionally
Peace was talked about, frequently

Yam, the food crop, was grown by men
Cassava and vegetables were tendered by the women
Foofoo was the festive delicacy
And yam with oil was for the whole family
Men needed to rule their homes with a heavy hand
And those who could not do that was thought an ‘agbala’
This was the fate of Unoka

We talked, Achebe and I
I was passionate about Okonkwo
His fear of failure and of being thought weak
I befriended Unoka
They saw him lazy, I saw him an entertainer
My best statesman, Obierika
The narrator of the other side of the story

The struggle was fierce
Between bloodshed and peace
Between the gods and personal instincts
Between converts and the ‘lost’
And between the clan and Okonkwo
But Unoka made me know
That the sun shines on those who are standing…

Abame became no more
Achebe and I heard this after their war
Nwoye, weakling like Unoka, had joined the converts
After Okonkwo and family became exiled
For his stray bullet killing Ugbuefi Ezeudu’s son
He wished Ezinma, her daughter, was a boy
He would have replaced her with the weak Nwoye

The return to fatherland was massive
Okonkwo would work to receive the highest title
And initiate his sons into the ‘ozo’ society
But a man can never rise above his ‘chi’
Even though when a man says yes, his ‘chi’ agrees
Okonkwo had killed the Whiteman’s messenger
And had hanged himself

“This man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia
You drove him to kill himself
And now he will be buried like …”
Obierika’s voice trembled
As I watched him shiver at the messenger’s shout
And coiled to his shell
I woke up with a Nooooooooo!

(May 2014. Ofoase)