Chapter01

The sun was rapidly losing its brightness and was about to set when Ewuare, weary from the day's work, retired to the base of the huge Iroko tree that seemingly watched over his yam farm, for his usual after-work lunch of roasted yam and palmoil. The wind that blew earlier had stopped, the rustling of the leaves had ceased and the rain had abated. Ewuare had earlier dismissed his farmhands for the day and weak from the day's hard work, he sat against the tree waiting for the pieces of yam on the fire he had made, to roast.

He could not go through this daily rigour at his age for much longer he thought, as he sat. He wished that Dawda, his only son, would show more interest in his farms, so he could retire soon.

For some time, everything had been still, it was as if Ewuare was alone in the whole world. Ewuare rarely experienced dreams, and bad dreams, the few times he had experienced them, always gave him sleepless nights. He had this belief that dreams are stolen glimpses into the future. And that dreams, if they do not come true now, will surely come true in the future.

Ewuare was still considering different solution to his problem when somehow the combination of his tiredness and the stiliness of surrounding got tlhe better of him. He dozed off into a light sleep.

On this day, as evening fast approached, Ewuare, still asleep against the tree, fell into a dream. In the dream, he saw himself in a vantage position on a tree looking directly into a market place. He could discern the faces of the buyers and sellers in the market which was jam-packed.

Suddenly, from a corner or the market-place came a joyous cry. Ewuare could see a young boy running into the market-place, shouting and pointing in the direction from which he came. All activities stopped, as all eyes turned towards the direction to which he pointed. More joyous shouts could be heard and Within a few moments, everybody in the market-place was clapping and chanting, the joy on their faces as they all moved towards the direction, Ewuare had never seen before and would never forget.

His eyes followed the direction of their eyes, and he could see at a distance, a column of warriors obviously returning home from a hard-fought battle, wedged in on both sides by excited people all singing and dancing. As the warriors approach, the market men and women abandoned their wares and joined in the celebration. As the procession got to the market-place, Ewuare could see from where he sat, a young warrior carried shoulder high by others. It then occurred to him that the songs of praise which filled the air, were in the young man's praise as people struggled with one another to touch the young man's outstretched hands.As the procession passed right under the tree on which Ewuare sat, he stretched to have a better view and to identify the man everybody showed so much affection.

He saw himself in his younger days dressed in battle gear, sitting on the shoulders of four warriors who he could not recognise. He saw himself stretching to touch the hands everybody, and the happiness on his face was immeasurable. Although Ewuare in the dream wished it would last forever, gradually, the scene faded away right in front of his eyes as the procession moved away from him.

The choking smell of the burning yam stirred Ewuare, and finally woke him from sleep. Momentarily, he forgot his dream as he tried to save what was left of his yam. He found that all the pieces of yam had got burnt and were too blackened to be eaten. He therefore decided against eating before going home and went on to put out the fire. It was then that his dream came back to him. He felt highly disappointed that it had been a dream, for Ewuare, although very wealthy, had for most of his life lived 'subdued. For reasons known to himself alone, he had gone around most of the time carrying an unhappy look on his face. Momentarily, in the dream, he had felt on top of the world. For that short period he had experienced the kind of happiness he had always sought. His wish since he was a young boy had been to see the perpetual unhappy looks on the faces of the common people of his kingdom, transformed into bright and happy faces full of hope for the future. For the short duration of the dream, he had felt like a hero amongst his people. He had had the feeling that he was responsible for the transformation which had taken place in their lives.

Disillusioned, he dismissed the dream from his mind and went about gathering  his farm implements together. Sweet dreams never come true, he reminded himself. It is only bad dreams he should beware of. The last time he had one, he had dreamt that he walked backwards, away from his relatives, with a broken leg. The following week, his father had broken his left leg in a fall. 

Eventually, he died nursing it a few days later. It was while searching for his farm implements,  that the palace messenger arrived. Ewuare's attention was required in the palace by the king.

The next day, Ewuare woke up earlier than usual in readiness for a visit to the king's palace, for a meeting of chiefs and elders of Amada Kingdom. He took his time dressing up as he was going for an official function and always liked to appear his best on such occasions.

Finally satisfied, he stepped outside his hut and walked the distance from his hut to the gate of the compound. He had inherited the compound with only eight huts in it upon the death of his father when he was middle aged. As the first and only son of his tather, he had also inherited his wives, their children and their relations. He was responsible for the welfare of all of them. He had Over the years, built more huts in order to accommodate them better and had finally fenced the compound for protection. In those days, the fencing of a comnpound was the preserve of only the very rich.

By that time of the day, early morning activities were already going on around him. Children Sweeping and women going to and coming in from the stream nearby, all came up to him top exchange early morning greetings. Even his chickens were not left out. They walked boldly up to him, expecting from him the usual grains he loved to throw at them, while he watched them rush from one side to the other after the grains. But he disappointed them that morning.

He stopped once on his way out of his compound. He stepped into his son's hut, but he found the boy still fast asleep. He had given him a whole hut to himself because of the boy's importance to him and to elevate his status within the compound. As he walked through the gate and moved towards the king's palace, more greetings from women coming from the stream came his way.

Ewuare's, life story is nothing short of hard work. His father, Ture, from whom Ewuare inherited half his present wealth, was himself a successful yam farmer and had instilled in Ewuare the virtues ot hard work. Hard work makes a man, he had persistently told him because only the strong and courageous survive and prosper.

Ture, an early riser, thought one of the ways to instil the sense of hard work into his son was to take him to the farm early in the morning, and to get him as busy as everyone else working on the farm.

Fortunately for him, Ewuare turned out to be a very obedient and hardworking young man who always eager to learn. By the age of fourteen, Ewuare knew everything there was to know about yam farming. including planting and harvesting, and could deal with the market women just as his father dealt with them. His Father loved him dearly for his achievement at such a tender age. Later in he years that followed his father left him completely in charge of his fams while he retired.

Upon the death of his father, Ewuare inherited his father's six huge farms. By that time, not many people remembered the yam farms originally belonged to his father.

So, though born with a silver spoon, Ewuare through sheer hard work, respect for others and cool-headedness, carved out a position of wealth and respect for himself among his people. By the time be was thirty years old and took his first wife, be had already been made a honorary chief.

Soon, he became a contidant of the king. The king, impressed by the good suggestions and  advice he usually received from Ewuare, invited him occasionally to the meetings he held with his traditional chiets and elders of the kingdom. No One as young as Ewuare had ever been invited to Such important meetings.

But, Ewuare had no cause to be joyous over the honour the king had done him because of depressing events in his personal life. Men of his tribe cherished male children. A male child, it well brought up, they reasoned, would eventualy become an achiever in life and would carry on with the responsibilities and the good name of his father, A household witlhout a male child, they reasoned, would eventually collapse and its members would scatter, therefore putting an end to the lineage. The birth of a male child was an event ot great joy, and special rituals usually not performed on female children were performed on all male children born in the kingdom. They called on their gods to guide the male children and make their stay on earth as long and eventful as possible.

Ewuare's young wife, Efuye, for many years after their marriage, bore no child. Her failure to give birth to a child was greatly responsible for Ewuare's state of depression, despite his achievements.He consulted with medicine men far and near, but none could cure his wife of the illness that prevented her from having a child. The medicine men he consulted believed that since they could not cure Efuye of her illness, the young woman must be possessed by evil spirits. Therefore, they advised Ewuare to send her away and take another wife. They reasoned that as long as she  stayed with him, his wish for a child, especially a male child, would never come true.

However, because Ewuare loved her, he kept Efuye in his household against the advice of the medicine men and married another wife. After five years of marriage the second wife bore three female children. Not happy at the string of girls the second wife gave him, Ewuare consulted once more, the medicine men, who informed him that the first wife he married, and who was still living with him should be ejected before a son could come his Way.

Desperate, but But still very much against sending Efuye away, Ewunre took a third wife and hoped that the gods would smile on him ad give him a son to take care of his household after he have died, He found it difficult to eject a a woman whom he loved and who had served him faithfully since he married her, Stil, the third wife bore only female children. In four years, she gave birth to two girls. Dejected, he then reconsidered the advice the medicine men had given him.

Eventually, he decided that Efuye, his first wife, should leave his household. It was while he was considering the right approach to take towards ejecting her, that Efuye informed him that she had conceived and was expecting a baby. Miraculousiy, so it seemed, she gave birth to a boy, Ewuare was ecstatic with joy, All his friends came to rejoice with him and his wife, Efuye.

Try as much as he did after that, none of his three wives bore a son again. Ewuare accepted his fate philosophically, thanked the gods for giving him the wisdom and courage to have kept Efuye his first wife when everybody urged him to send her away, and vowed to groom his only son to achieve more than he had achieved in life.