THE JOURNEY INTO MAN HOOD
The night of the maiden dance finally came to everyone's participation and the youths were in high spirit. The girls were buying make-up, jigida, with an outfit to match in Mrs. Nkem Okeke's compound while the male youths were sharpening their machetes and cutting palm fronds to tie around their waists for the event. The maiden dance is a simple routine in which the older women prepare the matured maidens that have attained the right to dance in the market square. The dance ends up with the females choosing to stand by any male they desire to marry, once they do so the male rewards them with gifts and escort them home and their initiation to womanhood is complete.
Uwago Menkiti sat his son down, and advise him, my son, you may not know this but my king has great hope in you, I have seen the way he looks at you wishing you are his son, the night you died and came back from the dead I knew, that you are destined for greatness, you will emerge victorious tonight you will lead our men into the land of hope this I know and for any reason do not doubt yourself.
Do you hear me? Uwago asked.
Yes, papa Ziki replied.
Go well and conquer it is well with you, meet me at the market square. But papa why do the king have great expectations of me?, Ziki asked.
Uwago paused with a smile, maybe because you have the attributes of a true king while his sons are a nuisance, see you at the market square.
Alright, papa, ziki replied with his heart elated with hopes
While the male after escorting the females home comes back to the village square the same night and gets briefed by the village warriors and guards on how to be brave. They are given a specific task which usually tests how brave they are, when they are through with it, the successive males are chosen. They gather and drink in respect to having attained their completion of task in manhood initiation.
The market was filled to the brim; everyone wants to watch the maiden dance to know the winner of the dance. Every parent would stand by their daughters and give them words of encouragement. The males are not present yet, they are putting on palm fronds to look like proper warriors, the only male absent is a junior who has embarked on a foreign country to complete his education.
The maidens are divided into two groups with a maiden leading her group, they face each other and dance in the same pattern, the choreography was conducted by a married woman who knew how to dance, the choreography was done a week before the dance.
Group A maidens were led by Adanna with Nneka as her right-hand girl, while group B was led by Ofunneka, with Kosy as her right-hand side After dancing, they disperse and look for their male youths to present them with a smooth white stone if it wasn't accepted she moves on until they pair up successfully if attempts to pair up for the initiation into woman hoodies are not complete, it means you have to wait for the next maiden dance, except a man pays your bride price before the next maiden dance then you, appear in the next maiden dance to complete the formality of your marriage you must dance with your husband.
The village artists and musicians were already beating their drums and gong which rhymed in perfect synchrony. Soon the village drunks took the stage and the people cheered them on. Shortly, the horn was blown seven times to signify the arrival of the King and his council and elders, the King gracefully walks to the middle of the gathering, waving his hand fan woven from hiding of a leopard skin. The people cheer him "Igwe!"He sits down and immediately the dance begins, the maidens enter and begin to dance, and the leader of each group leads their group as they move in and intercept themselves, face themselves and begin to dance, hips where vibrating while the people cheer them on.
Adanna and Nneka dance upfront leaving their group, they danced near the king who beams with a smile it was a plan to fish out Ikem's daughters for a challenge and they fell for the bait. Kosy and Ofunneka followed up and met with Adanna and Nneka and a vigorous dance began.
Other maidens stay and maintain their line and danced in choreography, they frankly didn't know if this new dance Adanna and Nneka suddenly adopted. Even Kosy and Ofunneka surprised themselves by following up and not succumbing to Adanna's intimidation. The four girls kept vibrating their hips, all caution was thrown in the air and the crowd went loud with applause and cheers.
The males suddenly appear in the arena, evening speedily approached as the sun finally embarked on a long journey, the cold evening was accompanied by a mist of darkness, engulfing the entire market square flame of the torch was lit, it was fiercely bright and the males took the stage, standing like bodyguards with their gifts in a pot awaiting the girls to finish.
At the end of the dance Kosy emerged champion while Adanna the runner up, Nneka and Ofunneka followed respectively. It was time to produce the white pebble and the champion was given the privilege to dance around and present her stone first before others follow suit, dancing behind her with white pebbles hoping to identify themselves with a male and make themselves women.
Once the male accepts a female he holds her hand and comes forth to the king for his blessings. Kosy danced around, she spotted Ziki and came forward and presented him with her pebbles he looked away from her, pretending not to notice her and she stood still dancing, attempting to show him everything she had as if she needs to convince him. She turns around and vibrates her hips, almost making contact with him, he moved backward and the men kept laughing. She moved on agitated and embarrassed she danced near Ziki's enemy Kamdili who accepted her stone and she sighed in relief, she held Kamdili's hands and walked past Ziki for the king's blessing. She looked back only for her to see Ziki and Adanna matching behind her, holding hands together, her face flushed in anger and for the first time her love for Ziki was replaced with hatred
.Nneka approached Obieze and he accepted her and came forward for blessings. Their friendship began after he helped her carry her pot of water home and she felt pity for him, she knew Obieze is very kind-hearted unlike his savage brother Kamdili. The next couple surprised everyone and it sent ripples of whispers into the air, Ofunneka presented Somto with pebbles who presented her with an egg, and they embraced. Ofunneka had never liked Somto from the beginning, she always found a way to embarrass him in public and also insult him, so to everybody's shock she went for the same Somto who wasted no time in accepting her. The people started talking wildly "So it was love Ofunneka was trying to suppress by insulting the young man anytime they meet face to face, now they end up together."The dance has ended and everybody was dispersing to their various homes.
The male youths escorted their loved ones home and slowly came back to the village market square for their initiation into manhood. This initiation has no failure or conqueror, the whole male eligible for manhood graduate together, there is no room for failure, it is done by age grade, a task every male must fulfill to be called a man. The males began to gather slowly in the village square, they are all complete; Ziki and kamdili led the males into the deep forest at night with palm fronds on their lips, and the youth matched ahead in front while the village warriors make intimidating noises following them behind. All they have to do is divide themselves into groups with the knowledge that danger lies ahead of them; the warriors would not intervene except the condition becomes critical
Ziki leads the first group of males with Kamdili following behind him, he felt so uncomfortable but tried to dismiss his fears. The other group was led by Somto. Obieze was sticking on to the leader of the second group like a shadow, he was so scared. "Wait, so you finally took Adanna, that cheap girl," Kamdili said and with a sudden swiftness Ziki struck like a viper; the punch sent Kamdili sprawling on the floor. A fight broke out and nobody tried to separate the two boys they kept launching blows after blows and Ziki was much of a night hunter, he dealt more punches on kamdili who saw clearly that he was losing and went for a wrestling stance, interlocking Ziki in a visor grip. He pushed forward hoping for Ziki to lose balance, it worked for him and Ziki started falling only for him to drag Kamdili and twist himself with such speed and agility that Ziki raised his right leg and used it to step on Kamdili's stomach, with just skill and technique used by wrestlers flipped Kamdili who was sent flying in the air and falling over the other side. Kamdili has had enough, he went for his machete and Ziki went for his too and they both swing it and their matches met with a loud metallic sound in the air. They drew back to launch a fresh attack, other boys watching dived in and held both Kamdili and Ziki. The other warriors gathered and began to flog the boys mercilessly "Idiots! Did we ask you to fight your selves? What is all this?"A horn sounded eventual, the other group traced the sound and joins the first group and the boys began to talk out of excitement "What happen?" Somto queried, "Who started a fight?" Obieze met the horrid gaze of his bleeding brother Kamdili and muttered "My brother is at it again, this time Ziki dealt with him."The warriors assemble the youth and the leader Ekene began his speech "My fellow Umuenyi people, this is the time boys are forged into men, united in one heart, forget rivalry forget hate, for unity sakes, for glory sakes we need to stay focused else you remain boys sulking unto your mother's breasts while the men of Aguiyi will come into our village, kill us all and capture our women, is that what you all want?"NO!" The boys chorused with their voice loud enough to attract any nocturnal beast in the bush."Now we need to regroup, this time around Kamdili and Ziki will be leaders, choose your boys carefully, divide yourself and go in and hunt. Any group with a reasonable kill will be rewarded and inducted into manhood, this time the warriors won't venture into the forest with you boys. I can see that you don't need protection; we will wait for boys to be forged into men at the entrance of the forest."After the sorting, Kamdili ends up with Obieze as his right-hand man and Ziki ends up with Somto as his right-hand man and they divided themselves into two groups. Ziki's team went north, while Kamdili's team took the left, an opposite direction, and went into the forest hoping to turn round and converge together at the entrance of the forest. The hunt has begun and this time the boys are willing to fulfill their journey into manhood.