Uba Atkins - They Came

They came. They came to Nigeria, two white Americans,one opposite of the other. While one was deeply religious and married with children, the other was extremely worldly, single and never wanted children. Ironically enough, Ron, who has a family that he dearly loves almost lost his only son, while Mike, who didn’t want any child has ended up with a black son. I call it ironies of life.

You can call me Egesi. It is not so important to know me. It is to know something of the new, and of the old, that I am telling you this story.

The previous afternoon, the family of Ron arrived in Umudi without much anticipation but with undiminished enthusiasm. The village offered them what they'd never had, both something new, and something old.

The village of Umudi on this ordinary Friday afternoon was like the rest of the other days: slow and unhurried. The past two days however had experienced an increased human and vehicular shuttle to Dr. Ugo's residence. For a medical practitioner, he was very popular and had a strong network of important people as friends. Dr Ugo had friends in the military. Some of the military governors were his friends. One time, even the Governor of the state had visited his home with the full government presence of convoy, sirens and gun-carrying men in khaki green military uniforms. The villagers of Umudi were convinced that Dr. Ugo was one of their most illustrious sons. Couple this to the free medical consultations and prescriptions he spared to the indigent families, it wasn't difficult to understand the ceaseless activities in his large compound and the enormous respect he commanded.

In this part of the country when a successful man arrives home and he is the type who takes a mingling interest in his community, he is served all kinds of gossips going from the tangible, the credible and the necessary, down to the frivolous, the nebulous and the outright bullshit. Despite himself, Dr. Ugo was down to earth. These contributed to the heightened level of respect and gossip he and his wife received unsolicited. The doctor also did a lot of sieving.

The doctor had taken in the two sick white boys. Ron's boys. Dr. Ugo had only the gossip to diagnose their ailment, but no medical cure had yet taken effect.

I sat that early morning, fidgeting in a hut, with Pa Nwafo, and some other men of the village. The men who sat with Pa Nwafo were stingy with words. After the breaking and passing round of kola nut, Pa Nwafo, in a fragile low voice, re-iterated what I had earlier on said to him: that Dokintar Ugo could not come because he was taking care of the two sick boys. He paused and took two pinches of snuff before clearing his throat for the umpteenth time. In the ensuing minutes, Pa Nwafo dashed my hope of immediately hearing why I was summoned. Instead, Pa Nwafo recalled how just the previous day, I had brought those "oyibo" family to him, how he followed with his ears their come back, how the children fell into a ditch at the spring water, and how the boys took ill. He paused and scooped another pinch of snuff into his nostrils. He sneezed noisily and used the back of his palm to wipe the nose. He offered no apology.

"I am a very old man. All my age mates are dead." He gave a weak smile before continuing, "I have defeated death. If I haven't, why am I still alive? All I do now is lying down and if I go to urinate, somebody must hold me." He paused again for a longer time."There are things I know about this village which many of you don't. Our fathers told us some while we experienced the others as children".

Turning his attention to me he said, "My son, you are a small boy even though you are a man and have your own family. You must believe what I am about to tell you. What I'm about to tell you is what I saw as a little one in this village and my father properly explained the aspect that I did not witness to me. What is happening to those two children is not ordinary sickness. It is something that has come to kill them. They contacted a force greater than them when they fell into that small ditch yesterday".