I have passed this road over a million times and I have never ceased to be reminded of what I was told happened there many years ago. Amidst the parched grassland, one can see far away, the desolate figure of the old primary school, stooping in dejection. I could view in my mind's eye the once vibrant playground teeming with children of all ages but now deserted as if even Nature mourns this place that was once a cynosure of all eyes.
According to Mom, she was barely two when the incident happened. The story had also been passed down to her by her Mom, my grandmother.
The school of only three blocks was the first to be built by the missionaries, who came preaching the Gospel and educating the children in many villages. They had asked for a meeting point and a piece of land on which to build a small school. Many parents had refused their children going to the white man's school while many others saw this as a great privilege, for their children to learn the White Man's language. So each day, children would troup in there to learn and of course to also play.
This didn't go down well with Amikolo, the village's bravest and greatest wrestler simply because he felt the white man's teachings would disrupt the order of things and make the women wiser and less submissive to their husbands. He already heard how Ugo's wife was challenging him by saying that Man and woman was equal before 'God'
"Tufiakwa" he spat out, a man and a woman can never be equal, in his world, this was sacrilege and he was going to resist it even if no one else does.
His conquests had brought him so much fame and women, he had a harem and wouldn't want that kind of infiltration into his large family, so he forbade any member of his family attending the school or listening to the White Man's teachings.
But Amana, his first wife refused to obey him, she felt that he was being too high-handed and didn't see any reason why he shouldn't flow with the trend.
The next morning, being a resting day she decided to go and see for herself what was happening in the school, she wanted her children to be able to speak the white man's language, just like Ugo's children and many others.
It was a fateful day because when Amikolo heard that she had flaunted his order, he had silently gone to the back of his hut and sharpened his Cutlass. In a state of fiery fury, he went in search of his wife in the primary school, hiding the cutlass in a sack bag.
What happened next would forever daint the image of that school, for Amikolo chopped off the wife's head, taking everyone unawares. There was pandemonium and everyone including the children on the playground ran for their dear lives.
Amikolo was sentenced to death by hanging, his wife was buried that same evening, according to the customs and traditions of that time. The ground of the primary school bathed in so much blood was covered with soil and was declared a cursed land by the elders of the community.
Till date, the old primary school has continued its sad journey, in desolation and isolation.
As I passed the place yet again, I pictured the cheerful chatters of the old and young, now replaced by the haunted whispers of an era long forgotten.
Thank you for the challenge.