The throne of Afugiri by traditions moves within the royal family for generations. It’s a sacred tradition that the King’s (Eze) first son would be heir to the throne and the throne moves to his brother’s family if by any means the Eze (King) doesn’t have a male heir.
Therefore Eze (kings) kept marrying until they marry a woman that’ll give them a male heir because they want the kingship to remain in their family as it has been for generations.
But Eze Nwadinobi couldn’t get a male child, he has 20 daughters already with 7 wives and he was already getting old.
But the oracle told him that he’ll have a son with one of his 7 wives if he is patient.
But as he got older and the hope of being able to father a child gets slimmer he started getting impatient especially when he sees how Emeka the son of his younger brother who may inherit the throne is behaving. He feared for his people.
So his best friend Mazi Kalu promised him that he’ll have a son if he follows his plans for him.
Mazi Kalu whispered to his ear that he should adopt a son and declare him as his biological son but at first, he declined because it will mean dishonesty in his dealings but because some elders in the council are gunning for him to cede the throne to his younger brother’s son which is the tradition; when a king doesn’t now have a son to sit on the throne, the first son of his closest brother will become heir to the throne. But the problem is, his brother’s son Emeka who should be the heir to the throne if he ends up without a male child, is known to be ruthless.
Emeka is the only son of his father and so he wasn’t properly disciplined so he became rude and ruthless because of the enormous power he has been over the royal family.
Eze Nwadinobi has observed Emeka for years and saw that he has no sympathy for the people under him and no respect for him as his uncle and Eze (King). He wondered at the fate of the Afugiri people should he cede the throne to him. So he decided to follow through with the plan his best friend Mazi Kalu gave him.
Mazi Kalu has impregnated a lady called Ujunwa and confirmed that the child she was carrying was a boy, so he asked the Eze to marry this Ujunwa in the presence of the people, that when she gives birth to a boy, that boy can pass as his son without anyone knowing but for the three of them.
That would be a secret between Mazi Kalu, Lolo Ujunwa, and Eze Nwadinobi.
The King adopted the plan and married Ujunwa, when she gave birth, it was a boy called Arinze and the kingdom rejoiced.
They threw a wild party for 4 market days; Eke, Orie, Afor, and Nkwo.
Ujunwa became the celebrated queen of the land and other senior wives started holding her in high esteem because she has a male son for the Eze but one of the wives called Ada suspected foul play but she held her peace as she decided to carry out her investigations discreetly.
After few years, one of the Eze (King’s) earlier wives became actually pregnant for the king and gave birth to a son called Obinna according to the old prophesy from the oracle that one of the wives of the king will birth him a true heir.
Before then, the son of Ujunwa called Arinze has been paraded and celebrated as the heir to the throne and some of the elders who are called the Onowus (kingmakers) have commenced training Arinze in the ways of the people and in the behaviors of a king should the Eze (king) goes to be with his ancestors, so that he would be prepared.
Ada has discovered that Arinze shared the same birthmark with Mazi Kalu but that wasn’t enough for her to prove that he isn’t the true son of their husband the Eze. The birthmark on Arinze is a common birthmark in the family of Mazi Kalu.
Ada continued to secretly investigate Ujunwa and her son Arinze if her child was truly the child of the Eze.
The Eze too has been worried about Arinze been his true heir because of the Oracle whose prophesy has come to pass that he’ll have an heir but he doesn’t know how to go about the lie he lied to his people that Arinze is his true heir.
Lolo Ujunwa was already scared, the truth about her son might be revealed so he confided with the Eze and Mazi Kalu and the Eze assured them that Arinze will be his heir; the truth won’t come out from him.
Ada tiptoed to the window when they were having this discussion, and so she was determined to fight against someone who isn’t the real son of her husband to inherit the throne; she believed that the Eze only made that promise to retain Arinze as the heir because he has been entrapped by the words of his mouth and not because he really wants that to be the situation.
So he went to the Eze and told him that she knows about what transpired between him, Mazi Kalu, and Lolo Ujunwa the newest wife, and told him that it was ok for him to go against the words of secrecy because he did that when he was cornered by the happens around him and the pressures of not having a male heir to his throne.
She then asks the Eze ‘what if Mazi Kalu was plotting to inherit the throne at his death through his son Arinze.’ That was when she got Eze’s attention as he nods in affirmation.
That when he dies Arinze is enthroned, and then Arinze’s real father comes laying claim on Arinze as his son, then the throne you want to protect for the royal family will automatically move to his family.
‘It’s even better Emeka your nephew sits on the throne than Arinze my lord’, she added
She then told the Eze (King) to reveal the truth so that his true son can be the heir of his throne so that the preparation to the throne which is usually done by the Onowus would commence on him and cease on Arinze.
The Eze (King) couldn’t be more confused. Presenting Arinze as his true heir would reveal his earlier deceit, and it would mean betraying his friend Mazi Kalu who was only trying to help him retain his throne.
The King decided to send Arinze away to the city and when he was gone, he decided to bring forward Obinna as his new heir. At least he couldn’t look at the boy he once called his son and heir, and now say to him, ‘you are no longer my son and heir, I had lied.’
He confessed the truth of what transpired to his elders in council and they forgave him but he couldn’t stand to tell Arinze the truth face to face because he loved the boy.
While in the city schooling, Arinze still held it in mind that he is the heir to the throne of Afugiri but sadly, when he returned from the city, he discovered his father has been long dead and his supposed younger brother Obinna has been enthroned so he got so enraged.
At first, he thought Obinna usurped his position and authority while he wasn’t around but later he was shocked by what he found out.
When begin inquiring while he wasn’t told when the Eze (King) died, they told him that it was because he wasn’t the legitimate child of the King, that Mazi Kalu, the late King (Eze) best friend is his father.
He couldn’t take it, he said, ‘as long as the King told him that he’ll be the king of Afugiri and didn’t tell him otherwise, that he’ll fight for the throne.’
That was how the rivalry for the throne started between him and Obinna.
He is now very wealthy and he started campaigning against Obinna and the need for a change from the traditional style of kingship to a modern elective style.
Arinze cannot claim the throne as long as Obinna is alive, his campaign wasn’t working because Afugiri people respect their age-long traditions of kingship so he was determined to kill Obinna and take over the throne but he has to do it discreetly so that no one knows that he was involved since he has publicly declared himself as an enemy to the Eze.
What came to his mind was to pay a powerful wizard to cast a curse on Eze Obinna so that he can die as though of natural cause.
The wizard who was dressed in red, with a staff that has on it the skull of a monkey would appear suddenly in the Eze’s (king) palace and cast the spell on him and then disappeared in the thin air; this spell was meant to kill the Eze (King) in the next 30 days.
Obinna the Eze became feverish, his legs began to swell, and he was in intense pains and lost the strength even to talk. Each hour, he loses a bit of his consciousness as he remembers those around him less and less.
He couldn’t even explain what happened to him.
After all, elders came to see him, they invited the Oracle of Afugiri, a man known to be powerful in matters of the spirit. This Oracle is also committed to protecting the royal family.
The Oracle was dressed in a Leopard skin, laden with cowries and he had a palm front in his mouth. With some bones and cowries on cow skin, he was able to commune with the spirits and after he communed with the spirits by reading the signs on the cow skin he had spread on the ground and pours the cowries and bones on, he was able to sense the curse and the solutions.
He told the elders that the Eze will need to be administered with the Magic bean if he is to live and they have only 30 days to get the bean before the Eze fades into the spirit world.
When the elders inquired about where to get the bean from, he told them the beans can only be found in the forbidden forest and only the bravest of warriors can go and bring this magic bean.
The elders shook their heads in disbelief because they have hope never to have anything to do with the forest that has existed only in their folklores till now.
Warriors have to be summoned immediately from the 11 clans in Afugiri, the bravest and then they’ll be coached and sent to fetch these magic beans.
When the Elders were done, the Oracle came and fortified them with spiritual powers and gave them some instructions and elements to us when confronted with certain kinds of creatures, mermaids, and evil spirits and warned them on the ‘Dos and Don’ts’ of certain lands they’ll be crossing on their way to the forbidden forest.
Right now, they are now ready to go.
As the rest of the villages escorted them to the borders where humans don’t venture into, you’ll begin to hear the cries of mothers, wives, and children of some of these warriors because they know that not all of them would return.
The 11 clans of Afugiri provided 3 brave warriors making the total warriors selected to be 33 in number. Before you could be selected as a warrior, you must have passed the tests every warrior must pass.The first test is the test of courage, where you’ll be taken to the bush with your eyes tied and left to pass the night alone. You’ll be given a gong so that if by any time of the night you lost courage, you’ll strike the gong and the men would come out and remove the cloth tied on your eyes but you’ll never be considered as a warrior until you could pass the night alone with your eyes covered. Each of the 33 warriors knows what it is to walk in darkness. Before they became warriors, they spent a night in the bush with their eyes covered with clothes, their ability not to hit the gong at the sound of strange movements in the bush which they couldn’t see but only left their imagination to interpret whatsoever the movement may b
Bushbabies are creatures that look like humans, they are dwarfish and black and they are usually seen carrying Mats. These Mats are rumored to cause whoever can retrieve it from these Bushbabies wealthy, if you can collect or steal it from them, it will earn you good fortunes in life.Dike the chief of the warriors reminded them they need to concentrate on their journey as these Bushbabies aren’t harmful as long as you don’t steal their Mats from them.A very wealthy villager has promised in secret some of the warriors a huge sum of money should they bring to him a Mat from the Bushbabies.As they journey through the path of these Bushbabies, suddenly, 3 of the warriors disappeared and it took a while before the rest knew that 3 of them have sneaked out in search of a Bushbaby’s Mat.Dike spoke to the warriors to wait for him while he sets out to search for these 3, he suddenly saw them running towards him like a mu
They got to the river and quickly built a raft from the woods they found in the surrounding. They used their ax to fell and cut trees into logs, they use grasses as ropes to tie these logs of wood together.They have already wasted 4 days in the dungeon of the Bushbabies, and an extra 1 building a raft to cross the river believed to be filled with mermaids.They built 3 rafts, each raft carries 10 of them.They needed to cross the vast river before evening when the mermaids come out, but the river was so vast, so while they resting after a log paddle, they noticed a very beautiful lady hanging on one of their rafts, her face was so beautiful and so innocent. You can only see from her head to the top of her chest as the other parts of her body were covered in water.She seems like a helpless lady seeking help, one of the warriors forgot that he shouldn’t engage them for any reason as their intentions aren’t pure.He was mov
As they dropped down from the river where they just encountered mermaids, everywhere was quiet, no single noise was heard anywhere.Dike signaled everyone to remain quiet and as they carefully toss each step so as to avoid dry woods and grasses; dry woods might break under their weight and cause some noise and dry grasses when stepped on may make some crispy sound.So they were carefully throwing steps as they were moving along. They kept moving, they could see nothing dangerous though. So they were gradually losing their guard despite Dike repeatedly making gestures to them to remain as quiet as possible as they walk through this strange land.So one of them shouted when bitten by an insect and before other warriors could look back, he got whisked away.The warrior who saw the movement of what took him away shouted and wanted to pursue, another strange creature also carries him away instantly.Th
‘you’ll see them flying on broomsticks, putting on black hoods, with protruded caps, they are very wicked and seeks to harvest our blood if we let them, but we can resist them’ Dike said as they approach to cross the territory of witches.He then asked everyone to bring out from their bags the portion given to them by the Oracles, ‘don’t waste it, when a witch approaches you, stay composed and make sure it gets close enough then you pour this portion on the witch and it will dematerialize before your eyes, but remember, don’t waste it and don’t use it unless it’s necessary. If you waste yours, you are gone’ he added.While they were threading quietly through the path, the witches were watching them from their covens. They laughed hysterically that they just have food walk into their lands.They usually travel to the villages at night to hunt for blood, they turn into birds, or rats and
Dike reminded them, that if no one looks back no matter the sound, or noise, nothing will happen to the person.Even if you hear the voice of your wife or baby, please don’t look back, they are deceptions, your families are in the village, they can’t be here and the forces that live here can’t harm you unless you look back. When he was done speaking, He told them to proceed as he’ll lead from behind.Don’t even look back if you hear my voice calling for help; just keep moving he added as they went ahead of him into the ‘Land of No-look back’It was the elders who shared the story of the land to them and why they called it a land of ‘No look back’ their warriors observed many years ago that the forces in that land can’t harm anyone who doesn’t look back, then they went on to share stories of several of their warriors turning into pillars of salt, a rock of stone and into so many t
No matter what is flying above you, the screeching noise over you, don’t look up.Our ancestors who were warriors named it ‘don’t look up’ when they discovered that the mysterious flying creatures in this land can’t harm anyone that didn’t look up to see them.No one has been able to see so as to describe the creature on this land because those who saw them turned to ashes instantly. But we don’t need to fear. If we don’t look up no matter what, we’ll make it through this land without any harm. Dike addressed them as they made it into the land.They could see piles of ashes from various spots as they take each step. These spots are warriors they’ve heard their folklores who couldn’t survive crossing this path not because they were not mighty men of valor but because they looked up.Each step the warriors take they see another pile of ashes that remi
Don’t stop running! Immediately they took to their heels. They practiced running with a heavy log of wood as warriors so it wasn’t too difficult for Dike at first to lift the sick warrior who looked at the creatures with a mirror and run.The sick warrior, his name is EmekaThe other warriors were way ahead though they regularly look back to see if Dike was running fast enough with the unconscious Emeka on his shoulders.That was when they saw a dog-like animal, coming after Dike closely. This animal is 10 times the size of a man with a fierce-looking face and a protruded sharp tooth from under its mouth.It is said that these strange-looking animals have a good sense of smell therefore no one can hide from them, once you set your legs on their lands you just keep running. That was how the name of the land came about.The animals can’t run as fast as humans but they definitely don’t stop coming after