THE DOUBLE TRAGEDY
ALAPA PETERS
“Ahhh, I am finished!” that was Na’a Julle shouting uncontrollably at the top of her voice. Then with a snap, we all rushed out of the hut and headed for Na’a Julle’s which was situated just a yard away from ours. On reaching her hut, the sight we met left us dumbfounded. There, on the floor of her hut, lay her twin sons, Shaudo and Sa’abilla. Dead! And as if it was planned, in a few seconds, the whole village was thrown into a state of confusion, as villagers joined in shouting almost simultaneously. At that point, we needed not to be told that Gaddjo and Kojoli intruders had invaded our poor village, and consequently started slaying the Sapeo inhabitants as well as setting their huts ablaze.
Just within the twinkle of an eye, I began to see flames on virtually every hut and they appeared like burning caps on human heads. Mothers were running helter-skelter bellowing their children’s names, naked children were screaming and running without direction. The smell of burning grass filled the air.
Where are the Sapeo men? Where have they gone to? These questions reechoed in my mind as I watched with keen desperation. Suddenly, there approached a stampede of village youths with bamboo sticks in their hand. But what would the sticks do to warriors who were armed to the toes? For a moment, I went dumb. There was a total blackout in my mind as I began to envisage my own corpse in my bare hands!
Then like a flash, I started recapturing the events that took place some hours before this unfortunate incident surfaced from nowhere. I thought of the way our poor hut was lit by the small sized kerosene lamp that was bought by grandmother a week before, after she had practically broken her mud safe and had used her two-year savings to purchase the lamp. I thought of the way we came into the hut in our ill-fitted ragged clothing on two pairs of almost invisible feet, because they were thickly covered with dust from the village playground; how we got our thatch mats and began to catch sleep on empty stomachs.
The thoughts of losing my grandmother and our little hut, my younger brother and even my life, dawned on me. But while I swarm in the river of my thoughts, I felt a grip on my shoulder, and with a swift movement, I was lifted up my feet only to open my eyes and find out that I was lying on a hefty man’s broad shoulders, being carried away hurriedly to a proposed ‘safe’ place. After we had moved a short distance, I was dropped like a bundle of meat in a shallow hole by the bush path, amidst a group of known faces.
It was a temporary rescue to hide us away from the horrible monsters. I was able to recognize my grandmother and my younger brother among the ‘lucky few’ that were hidden in the hole. We had to wait for the whole ordeal to come to end before claiming what remained of the once admired ‘Sap-city (as it was particularly known).
Little did we know that we were about to face the next challenging adventure. The allied forces were still around when there came a sudden change in the atmospheric condition. It was about to rain! The thought of being in the hole while it was filled with water, or the danger of running out of the hole to face death, were the two dreaded options we had. It was like standing in between the devil and the deep blue sea.
We all stayed in the hole, waiting for nature to decide our fate. In about few minutes, the trees began to sway violently and no time, it began to rain cats and dogs. The water was filling up the hole as mothers began to lift up their children as if to present to the gods for sacrifice, all in order to protect them from being drowned. Nobody dared to go out. My grandmother watched me intently as she shivered in the cold. I regretted the day I was born! Trees began to fall effortlessly, our huts melted away as the flood washed them down, right before our very eyes.
I thought I was dreaming when we heard running footsteps approaching the already half filled hole. My heart pounded in fear, and all I could think of was that the monsters had found us. We were finished. But no! We later saw the face our saviour. It was Garah, the king’s servant. He had come to inform us that the ‘human slayers’ had gone! With sighs of relief, we all came out of the hole, drenched to the born marrow, as I hugged my ground mother in tears.
“They are gone!” I turned round to assure my younger brother.
“And we are safe now.” We ambled down to our yard with full hopes of rebuilding the ‘once beautiful Sap-city’.
