Moonlight Playlet: The Lot of Lost Souls.

By Chioma Benedicta Okwuelum 

ACT ONE, SCENE ONE

Moonlight reveals the Narrator, seated on a stool under the mango tree in the village square. The audience; youths and children seated on stools and logs of wood. Their sitting positions forms an arch to enable a perfect view of the narrator.

Narrator: (Clears his throat) My people I welcome you all. I am happy that the sun left us in health and the moon has met us also in health. Today, I wish to unburden my heart off this story. The story of the futility of life and man's incapability to determine his fate.

Audience: (In unison) We have come to hear and learn.

Narrator: Now this is my story.

Audience: (In unison)  let's hear and learn.

Narrator: There was a time, when men were men, when the feathers on a red cap numbered how many iroko the bearer has decapitated. When gray hair was a symbol of wisdom and youthfulness an age of bravery.

Audience 1: Ezi oku. True talk.

Narrator: This was the time, I journey to the prestigious community of Umuebu, to the abode of a friend, Uzondu, the son of Akpati, the offspring of Edike, the greatest yam farmer of his time.

Audience 2: (Raises his hand in gesticulation) Hmm, Ogbu iji.

Narrator: It was during this visit that I saw and heard in part this story but curiosity cajoled me into filling my tank of knowledge to the brim.

Audience 3:  Onye ajuju efuzor.

Narrator: (Nods while looking at Audience 3) True talk my brother. (Looks away from audience 3) In Umuebu, lived Ikenge who begat two sons before his journey to the land beyond. His first son Afamefuna was a great hunter. The best among his age grade. But he was too ambitious. He wanted more than being a great hunter, he wanted to be the greatest of his time. Then his second son, Ikemefuna, was a great yam farmer. His barns were always stalked with yam tubers even during famine.

Audience 2: Umu we ji na tu eka.

Narrator: These brothers lived in harmony. Then one day, it came to  Afam's mind, to embark on a journey to a far away land to fetch his honour.

Audience 4: (Excited)  Eh eh I know this story. He wanted to get an elephant's tusk eh?

Narrator: (Smiles at audience 4) Are you not being faster than your shadow? Allow me die before you bury me.

Audience 1: (Shrugs) Sorry, please don't mind him. Continue.

Narrator: Wayor Wayor ka eji na lacha ofedioku. Hot soup is not eaten in a haste. I am confused as to where I stopped on my journey.

Audience 5: The elder brother went in search of his honour.

Narrator: Thank you very much. So he decided to hunt for an elephant and deliver it's tusk home to earn the title "Ogbuenyi."

Audience 5: (Anxiously) Did he succeed?

Narrator: (Moves his hand swiftly towards the audience.)  Vum! He journeyed, leaving his brother behind. To fill this vacuum created by Afam, fate presented Ikem with a beautiful damsel who he made his wife. Ikem soon forgot his brother for days became weeks and weeks became months. Mouths rumoured that Afam was seen in Aboh, Ukpara, Akoku and sometimes Bini. Was he travelling in a cyclical manner? Mmm onu uwa. Ikem buried the thought of his brother and then decided on making his own family. No matter how the eyes cry, they can never cry blood. Ikem consoled himself and moved on with life.

Audience 3: (Stands furiously) But was Afam really dead?

Narrator: (Laughs) Who said he died? No journey is ever too tough for the brave. Afam succeeded on his hunting. He started his journey home with the elephant tusk. Oh what an heralding welcome he should receive.

Audience 4: (Cynically) I think you are forgetting the story. Did fate allow for a grandiose welcome? Not at all.

Narrator: (Sighs) Fate! Fate! Man's foe and friend. Can the vultures be absent at the meeting of corpses? A hunter does not pretend to be blind when he sees a game. So, at the verge of entering Umuebu from Amai, the hunter's eyes caught a big antelope in Umuebu bush. The bush where women frequently fetched firewood. It was not farmed on. This would make a big feast, Afam said to himself and "kpa" went his gun shot. He ran to get the antelope. What he saw sent cold down his spine.

Audience 3: (Bewildered) What kind of antelope would melt the heart of iron eh?

Narrator: Sing with me. I call and you respond "inine".

Call:  umuwa biani bene.

Audience: (Clap and respond in unison.) Inine.

Narrator: Eje nim je kulu mmili.

Audience: Inine.

Narrator: Elum unor item eti wafu.

Audience: Inine.

Narrator: Ijeoma aha ijeojor.

Audience: Inine.

Narrator: Afam quickly ran back to Amai where he mourned for days and buried his fears before returning home.

Audience 1: (Curiously) But what did he really kill?

Narrator: No matter how heavy the head is, chopping it off is never an option. Let us delicately look at the matter, so we don't judge wrongly. On Afam's return, he met his brother in ashes. The story that followed answers your question my people. But who would tell? Though the heart was burdened to death, the mouth could not carry the weight of the words and so the stomach swallowed them.

Audience 5: A corpse buried in a shallow grave, would one day be revealed by its stench.

Narrator: (Gives a nimble nod) True talk my brother for what Afam could not tell his kin, he told to a stranger when he, seeking solace, wrapped himself in an embrace with the god of wine, pouring his secret into a stranger's gourd.

Audience 6: (Pitifully) The iroko tree has been made a mere pineapple. What a pity!

Narrator: The talebearer did not wait for the sun to set before setting the harmattan fire that reduced the forest to a desert.

Audience 3: (Stands) Let us sing this song.

Call:  oku uwa ekwe okuku.

Res: uya uya nlini uya.

Call: oso uwa ekwe ogbigba.

Res: uya uya nlini uya.

Narrator: (Signals them to stop by waving his hands) Ikem in his fury, wiped out his lineage. Afamefuna became Enwefa.

Audience 1: (Impatiently) Did he kill his brother?

Narrator: As swift as thunder and lightening. (Melancholic) Then he wore the beads that sent him to the land beyond, leaving his father's compound bare as the womb of a barren woman.

Audience 3: But what about the stranger? The one with the tongue of a blade.

Narrator: His fate is in the hands of Olise. (Sighs) My people, the antelope that Afam killed is left for you to ponder on. I have gone and I'm back o!

Audience:(In unison) Welcome.

Light Fades.

                                                      

Chioma Benedicta Okwuelum is a graduate of English and Literary studies in Delta State University, Abraka. She has written some unpublished creative works encompassing poems, short-stories and plays. Nnamdi, a short-story she recently concluded is weaved around the African belief and preconception appertaining to reincarnation. Currently, she is writing a short-story entitled, Human Library which mirrors the emotional struggles different individuals in the society encounter in the course of their existence.