Getting Out of Oroga

Agu Ochendo was the first son of his parents and they were very proud. When he was born, they named him Agu which means tiger but he was not a run-of-the-mill kind of tiger. He was Agu n'eche mba. The Tiger that keeps guard of the city. It was a figurative name but little did they know that the responsibility of keeping his community was going to be thrust upon him and he would have no choice in the matter. Agu's father was the most skilled marksman in the kingdom of Oroga. It was a skill that had been passed down from his great-grandfather to his father and then to him. He hunted and killed wild animals effortlessly. When his mates praised him for his excellence, he was always a little embarrassed because he did not understand why any person would see a target and miss it. But it was not through hunting that Ochendo made his fortune.

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Ochendo and all the members of his community came from a long line of war mercenaries. History had it that they hailed from a group of warriors that had disobeyed the order of a tyrannical king. According to the history that was passed down from the founders of the community, their ancestors were the greatest warriors East of the Niger river. No kingdom fought them and remained a kingdom afterwards. After the retirement of the Great King, his son took power and became too greedy, using his formidable army to conquer every kingdom in their vicinity including erstwhile allies. His warriors were gradually dying off, and those who survived were never home to raise families.

After one war, the warriors decided that they were done serving the tyrannical king. They returned to the kingdom in the middle of the night and took away their families from their homes and began the journey that finally ended in settling at Oroga. The settlement was in the middle of a thick rainforest about ten kilometers of the coast of the Niger basin. The king sent off emissaries to find the warriors but they searched everywhere to no avail. After the warriors and their families settled down in Oroga, they made a living by selling their skills as mercenaries in wars between other kingdom. That was the story that was passed down from Ochendu's great grandparents to him.

Ochendu was the best marksman in the kingdom, having killed three tigers with nothing but a spear and his bare hands. He was the most sought-after of the mercenaries and his service was well rewarded. Through the spoils of war and the money he earned as a mercenary, Ochendu amassed great wealth and became the richest man in all of Oroga. As a result of his fame, far away kingdoms would often hire him alone to help neutralize threats to their kingdom and avoid wars and spilling of the blood of their citizens. It did not take long for Ochendo's colleagues to grow jealous of his success. Among his colleagues was his cousin, Nwafor. Ochendo treated Nwafor like a brother and shared most things with him. One day after he returned from a job across the Niger, Nwafor took a barrel of palm wine to his cousin's house to celebrate his return. Ochendu told him stories of the job he had gone for. They broke cola and drank the wine. When Olamma, Ochendu's wife woke the next morning, her husband was not breathing.

There was great sadness and mourning in Oroga and Nwafor was the saddest among all.

"My brother from another mother," he wailed. "Now, who do I run to in my times of trouble?"

No foul play was suspected concerning the death of Ochendo. The popular opinion was that he died from the injuries he had sustained from the fight. Ochendu was buried and the funeral ceremonies were performed according to the tradition. Agu had to grow up fast in order to take care of his mother. Olamma was a strong, good-natured woman but the death of her husband broke her to pieces. While Agu tried to put her back together, Nwafor busied himself with secretly converting Ochendo's farmland to his own. Unfortunately for the Ochendo family, they did not know all of Ochendo's properties. By the time Nwafor had possessed all the lands that Agu did not know about, he went about seeking ways to deprive Agu of the lands where he and his mother farmed. This made Agu very angry and he reported the matter to the king's council. What he could not have known was that Nwafor had bribed them all. The matter of land dispute was decided for Nwafor.

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Agu could not bear it. A great injustice had been done to him and his family and no one would come to their aid. But he remembered what his father thought him. The land was a god of its own and if one felt that a piece of land that was rightfully theirs had been taken away forcefully, such persons could summon the land to bring justice. Agu had never had to do these things when his father was alive, but he had no choice. In anger and frustration, he gathered the materials prescribed for calling up the god of land and went to the land in dispute. It was early morning and, rays of sunshine was beginning to filter down through cracks in the heavy clouds. Agu stood and faced the East from which the sun rose.

"Ancestors of Oroga, my most profound greetings," he said as he held a cup of gin in his hand. "God of creation, my most profound greetings. God of land, this drink is for you. I have not come to condemn or to fight. I have come to submit to your impartial judgement. I no longer have a father to fight my battles but you are just and your judgement is always right. Grant this land to the rightful owner and show yourself strong."

He poured out a libation and continued his libation until the flask was empty. As he turned to return home, a heavy rain began to fall. He did not know the significance of most of the words he said in the libation but he had seen his father do it once before. What he found most fascinating was the idea of calling up dead ancestors to intervene in the affairs of men. Agu was not sure that he did not just waste a flask of expensive gin but what ensued the following morning convinced him. Ochendo woke him from sleep the next morning and begged him to accept his father's land. He also confessed to having taken all the lands that he was not aware of. Agu was pleased with himself but he did not know that Nwafor had just become a greater enemy. The rumour quickly spread that the god of land had visited Nwafor in his sleep and warned him of impeding disgraceful death if he did not return what rightfully belonged to the family of Ochendo.

Months turned into years and Agu and his mother began to thrive in the kingdom once more. Soon Agu was recognized as a better marksman than his father. His skill at wielding all kinds of weapons was unparalleled in Oroga and other kingdoms. His fighting skill took him to strange lands and as he travelled he returned with many gifts of ornaments and precious stones. The location of the kingdom made it a meeting point of many traders from far away lands. Trades were being facilitated by access to the Niger river and the Atlantic ocean from where goods-bearing are delivered to the city. In addition to merchants, there were also slave traders who came from many different countries for the purpose of purchasing African slaves to be used as work in plantations and other farms in their native countries. Agu had forgotten his quarrel with Nwafor but there was still anger in Nwafor's heart. He plotted how to bring revenge on Agu for humiliating him all those years back.

Nwafor had a brother who had been secretly trading slaves from neighbouring communities but never in Oroga. His name was Nwogu. Nwafor planned with his brother to sell Agu to slavery. On the agreed date, Nwogu went to Agu with his business partner from the other side of the Niger river to discuss the job for which they had visited Agu. After they had discussed price and paid half of it to Agu, they left with his promise to go and defeat the insurgency which they reported to exist in the kingdom they mentioned.

Before first light the next morning, Agu dressed and began his journey across the river to deliver on his promise. As he stepped of the boat on the other side, the slave traders were waiting for him. They were too many for him to defeat. His assailants eventually subdued him and took him to a boat that would transport him away, leaving behind his mother and Oge, the girl he wanted to marry. It was when they chained him in the boat that he realized what had befallen him since none of his assailants would speak to him. The place they kept him the ship was cold and wet. He tried to free himself but the chains held him down. Somewhere in the middle of the ocean, his captors brought him to the deck so that his owner would check him. The guards had guns and swords and they thought there was nowhere to run. As soon as Agu was free of his chains, he disarmed the three guards and jumped into the ocean. The guards searched for him but he seemed to have drowned and there was nothing they could do about it.

The water was colder than anything Agu had ever known and he had difficulty breathing. He managed to get a hold on the ship and sailed with it for hours until he could see a small island. He let go of the ship and swam to the shore of the island. For years, he lived there alone until one day he wandered off far to the other side of the Island and found other former slaves that also thought they were all alone on the island. He could not find his way back home but he was grateful to be alive. After nine years on the island, he took a wife and had his own children. He told them stories of how he got there and of his life in Oroga. Until this day, the descendants of Agu still live on that island and their hatred of the Oroga tribe knows no bounds.