The sun had already gone out of sight in Kwawa, and a cold harmattan breeze raised dust that further darkened the evening. Cocks and hens were now cackling as they secure the best place for the night. The smoke from the hut in the far end of the compound made strange figures as it ascended the sky. Keania sat on a wooden chair in front of his hut wearing his favourite 'kaki' shorts. He had gotten them during the second great war when he fought in the white man's army.
The dust raised by the harmattan breeze made it difficult for Keania to spot who was approaching the compound. He soon recognised the gait of the person and called out.
"Lenu" he said half smiling. Lenu had lost his left leg in the battle for Cameroon. He was now using a cane.
"How are these days" Keania said as he offered him another chair.
"As you can see I'm still alive" Lenu said, he was a man of few words and even fewer after the mine took his leg.
"Barisi" Keania shouted, as Barisi ran from the inner compound. "Bring some dried meat from your mother's hut" she had started to run when he added,
"and ask your mother if it is smoke we will eat tonight".
He turned to Lenu who was already smiling.
"It's the same thing in my house Keania" Lenu said, "they don't eat food the way the white men taught us". Keania just nodded, he had other things in mind.
Keania went into his hut and came out with a calabash of palm wine. The two men ate the dried meat brought by Barisi and drank from their drinking horns.
"I really need a son Lenu" Keania said, finally spilling out what had been bothering him all night.
"All my family land will be lost if I have no son and my family name will die" he added.
"Your wife is with child yet you are sad" Lenu said, and paused as he picked his teeth with his fingers.
"Have a little faith" he said finally, spitting what was left in his mouth out.
"I really hope it's a boy because this one took long to conceive" Keania said, as he drank the remaining palm wine in his horn.
The town crier's gong could be heard faintly the next morning. It got louder as it approached Keania's compound. Keania listened to the message as he lied down on his raffia bed. The village men were being summoned for a meeting at the village square.
The sun was already up by the time the men gathered the next morning under the Dara (Cherry) tree. The faint light from the sun scattered on the floor of the Dara tree like yellow patches.
"Keania should not be given this title" Nwinu said, he stood up boldly among the other men.
"His family cannot continue it" he added, looking at Keania. Who stared deep in his eyes. Keania didn't want this adventure of titleship to pass him also. He wanted to know what it feels like to be a titled since had not known the adventure of parentwood.
"Keania will have a son" Lenu said, struggling as he rose to the defense of his friend.
"We all know how long it took you to have those three boys" he added, then turning around as if he was gathering up something.
"we can't judge a man by just his possessions", he then sat down as the men nodded among themselves.
Ndaawa's labour lasted for hours in the night. Keania was restless as he stood by her hut while the midwives helped her. Barisi couldn't control hearing the screams of her mother, as she soon joined in little sobs of tears. Lenu sat on a chair next to the hut. When one of the midwives came out and told Keania that it was a boy, he quickly ran inside the hut to see for himself.
The next morning was a feasting galore in Keania's compound. He slaughtered goats for his visitors.
"They said I won't have a son" he said, as he danced to the rhythm of the ekwu drum. He had hired the best drummers from a nearby village.