Yefon: The Red Necklace (33 page)

“Ei!
Why are you looking at that boy as if he is a piece of meat?” she asked.

I covered her mouth with my hand and pulled her to the corner. She wouldn’t stop talking.

“Shhhhh!”
I hissed at her.

“Look at him for a moment!
Hm! Hm! Hm!”
she chanted loudly, and I rolled my eyes, obviously extremely embarrassed.

This
wanle ngon
would get me in trouble one day with her big mouth. “Let’s go!” I ordered.

“But his friend though....”

I looked at the boy she was referring to. It was Verla. I remembered him from the boys who walked past our compound that one day.

“I only need him for one night. One night only! And I will show him that I am a real woman!” Kadoh bragged, jiggling from side to side as she moved.

I laughed to myself as I took one last look at my chocolate man and headed up the hill.

A bunch of children were queuing up at the newly built royal public tap to get some water. They wore small pants that went into their buttocks and they sang as they waited for their turn. Looking at them, I reminisced about my childhood. Things were once so free, and easy. All one had to do was shit and eat and the rest was taken care of.

How I wished I could go back to being a toddler again. But, then I would still have to grow up and experience everything all over again.

We drove back through the bumpy Shisong roads all the way to Squares. The roads were already bad and navigating them in a carriage without seatbelts was a battle for anyone. One would bob and sway from one side to another, heads hitting the top, and stomachs mixing together all the food one had eaten.

The “
big man hikotoh
” as carriages were locally called in those days was one of those things about the 1960s that I loved, and missed. Who needed Six Flags or Disneyland after a ride like that?

I lay on my bed that night. The silkiness of the sheets caressed my back and the moonlight poured straight into my face. I fantasized about my knight in shining armor. Even though I would be getting engaged against my will soon, at least I had the right to dream about whom I wanted. I thought about his kind eyes and tight body. I wondered if he thought about me like that. Was it wrong of me to think about one man but marry another?

-22-

THE KNOCK DOOR

Nso people gather a lot, and those in the palace gathered a whole lot more. One major thing I eventually came to learn from my short stay at the
Nto’ Nso
was that an event was always going on. The Fon of another village or a dignitary sent from Her Excellency, the Queen of England, was always visiting, someone was either giving birth, or dying, or perhaps it was the annual thanksgiving.

Something was always happening! And there was nothing more fabulous than watching the arduous preparations and assembling with royalty to watch hundreds of villagers, drink, dance, and be merry. Most times, they gathered because something bad had happened, but this time, it was because someone was getting engaged. Unfortunately, it was me.

At the first crow of the palace rooster, one much more civil than Ya Sero’s dry-throated
kiyuu
, an over-excited Shamwun, and an even more excited Loh, gently awoke me.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Loh cried, almost losing her voice.

A little startled, I opened my eyes to see Loh holding two small calabashes filled with
bii
.

Bii was said to be the secret ingredient used to embellish a woman’s beauty right before she met her husband. Sola’s mother used it on her quite often.

“Take off your clothes,” Shamwun said.

“Eh?” I was a little embarrassed by the order. Even though I had bathed with women for years and had nothing to hide, it got tricky if someone asked you to undress.

With Loh’s help, I did so slowly and suspiciously. The cold air coming through the wooden windows washed over me and my nipples became hard, embarrassing me even further. Shamwun left to bring my dress for the event while Loh mixed the
bii
with transparent oil.

“What’s that?” I asked, a little skeptical.

“Eucalyptus oil. We will rub this over your body.” I watched as she carefully blended the pasty mixture and massaged it into my skin with great care. It had a slightly fibrous feeling to it,
yet it felt so relaxing. To some extent, I found myself beginning to accept palace life. The perks were just...countless.

Shamwun soon returned with a long flowing fabric with cowries embroidered on the yoke. It was simply the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. Making a face, she studied my hair, obviously disliking its rough spongy nature.

“Loh, go and bring some shampoo from the junior cabin. We need to do something about this hair.”

She then gently dragged me to a wooden tub that had been fixed right in my room and helped me into the water. Having someone else scrub your back feels like you’re having a massage with just a hint of sexual tension, but today, I was too uneasy to enjoy any of it. For me, it felt more like a blade scraping on my back. I was extremely uncomfortable.
A pot of aromatic plants and resins were boiling slowly on a small hearth nearby, and a delicious smoke soon filled the room, helping me to relax a little.

“Arrangements have been made to carry you to your compound as tradition demands. A man must ask for your hand in your father’s compound,” Shamwun said aristocratically.

I nodded stiffly, entertaining the sad thought that there would be no such marriage happening if Pa was still here.

An older woman who smelled predominantly of garlic was brought in to braid my hair. She was called Magic Fingers, and she spoke with an eerie, wide smile each time.

“I give you special Goddess braid,” Magic Fingers bragged as her thin long fingers wove masterfully through my crown of hair. She told many stories as she worked, but I was mostly bored and found my gaze lazily following an agama lizard outside in the yard.

“My princess, I plait all this way or that way?” she asked, using her hands to indicate left or right.

I shrugged carelessly. “Anyway is fine, Auntie. Thank you,” I said quickly, hoping that she wouldn’t have to speak again. The hot air from her mouth could fry groundnuts.

“Okay,” she smiled and continued.

A few hours with Magic Fingers eventually paid off as my hair was braided in a beautiful up do style that wrapped around my head and was adorned with cowries.

I admired the image of the neat cornrows in my bath water where Loh washed me with lilies and other flowers moments later. The steamy hot water soothed the aching back I got from sitting up for a couple of hours while my hair was plaited. I still felt an uncomfortable tingle in my body every time Loh touched me.

My breasts were carefully painted with
bii
, and my nipples tingled each time a brush was passed over them. I looked away shyly. My waist was covered with a long flowing wrapper of many colors.

“Aren’t you just the luckiest girl in the world?” Loh asked once I was fully dressed. It had taken about three hours of work.

My
scarification
was very obvious in the bridal outfit and I felt self-conscious. I wondered what Kome would think if he saw me. Had he heard about my knock door? I hoped he wouldn’t happen to pass by accidentally. I secretly worried about this as I was helped into a special carriage, followed religiously by Loh.

I was very surprised when I arrived home. As we approached the premise, I observed that what used to be Ma’s hut was now a bigger mud-walled dome with royal markings on the wall and horns at its entrance. I was very confused. How long had it taken to fix up the place? My ghost groom was really something.

Our compound was filled with uncles I hadn’t seen since Pa’s property had been seized. As the carriage came to a stop, my mother and aunties danced to the
nchum
, and welcomed me.
Ngwv
∂
vs
were thrown in my face and their unique smell caused my nose to cringe every now and then. Their loud squeaking reminded me that they were as scared as I was and that odd detail soothed my nerves.

“My daughter, you have made me proud,” one of my uncles said, and all I could think about was how he probably argued the night before that I was worth x or y pounds. Was I any different from these
ngwv
∂
v
s thrown in my face? I had a price just like them, and now I was going to belong to someone, just like them.

The dancing crowd swayed me sluggishly from side to side. I noticed how funny it was that these extremely voluptuous women didn’t need to move much when they danced. With
minimal effort, their buttocks jiggled to the rhythm of the
nchum
, as if they had a life of their own.

I was eventually led into a small corner of Ma’s hut where preparations were being made.
Ngwv
∂
v
s garnished with salt and palm oil sizzled on the grill over the three-stone fireside. A fat woman was turning fufu in another large pot nearby, sweating profusely as she did so. I prayed that a bead of her sweat would not drop into the pot. My family was required to prepare our traditional meal of
kiban, nyoosji, and khatikatih
for our special guests. Yenla cornered me when Ma went to welcome the palm wine people. I wasn’t ready to meet with her, but I had no choice.

“Is this what you want?” she asked, staring me down.

“Is it not what you want?” I inquired meekly.

“But. . .”

“But, what? I’m doing what you asked me to do, and still it’s not good enough?” I asked vindictively.

I should not have been so defensive, but I was, and couldn’t help it. She tried to hug me, I think. I saw her compassionate face, and she was closing the space between us but Ma ran in excitedly.

“Your groom is here!”

I heard loud hooves coming to a halt outside and my heart began to beat fast. This was it. I could hear voices outside, but my
sha
η
g
was warming up and my heart was beating so loudly that I couldn’t hear what was being said.

A few of my female cousins who had the same physique as myself were brought in. They sat with me and all of our heads were covered with an identical wrapper.

According to tradition, the groom had to show how well he knew his bride by picking her out from a group of similar women. If he picked the wrong woman, he would have to pay a fine until he found her. It seemed ironic given that we had never met!

The new Fai of the compound cleared his throat and spat out a huge glob of something, which fell right next to my feet. The only thing I could see clearly was that greenish yellow pile of mucus. I quietly shifted my leg to one side. Even though the sight of that mucus was making me gag, I just couldn’t look away. After
staring at it for a few minutes, I forced my gaze to shift to a few green bottles of palm wine visible from where I was seated.

“
Vibay, wonnto’
, and all the elders,
wonle ngon
, I greet you. State your business,” Fai asked rhetorically, addressing all who were present.

Fon Nto’ obviously wasn’t there since his title was not included in the salutation and I later learnt that it was because he had an important appointment with one of the
Bamum
chiefs and would be meeting us later on at the palace.

One of Veyeh’s uncles stood up. He had cracked, old feet and was wearing brown sandals, and as he walked around talking with a lot of gestures and movement, I hoped for his sake that he wouldn’t step on the sputum. He greeted us all and went straight for the kill.

“Our in-laws, we are here because we have seen a flower in your garden that we would like to pluck for our son.”

As he spoke, he approached us and I couldn’t help but think about how his feet smelled like old shoes.

Pointing in our direction, Fai asked dramatically, “There are many flowers here. Which of them is it?”

Then the game began. Luckily for the prince, this was not biblical days where Jacob had to marry both Leah and Rachel after fourteen years of hard labor because he accidentally picked the wrong one.

I wondered where Kadoh was. She would have been a great consolation now. Thudup! Thudup! My heart beat quickly as the prince approached with his entourage. From my limited point of view, I couldn’t see his face through the opaque wrapper over my head, but I could see the well-manicured toes in his slippers, and those of a few others who I would later find out were Veyeh’s little brother, Samba, and a few footmen.

The drumming began and the entourage walked around thrice to study the women. When I felt his shadow upon me, it was warm and weird, and I wondered if he would know it was me. Of course he didn’t. He picked someone else. From her voice, I could hear it was Yuri, one of our old family friends from around the
Mah
area.

Everyone started laughing. I did too because it was kind of funny. Nothing is ever completely bad. There is a fun side to
see in every activity—even your death. I have come to realize that it is always only a matter of perception.

Prince Veyeh made the wrong choice three times, and every time he did, my in-laws would taunt him mercilessly and a few pounds would be dropped on the floor until he came right in front of me.

“This is Yefon.” he said. His voice was rich and even though he spoke Lamnso, it was the accent of the elite. Every word was pronounced correctly with the utmost clarity.

It didn’t end there. My relatives had to taunt him some more so Veyeh could prove that he was man enough to handle the intricacies and hurdles of married life when they arose. If he were a common man, he would have really gotten a hard time, but with his royal status, they only bothered him with a few questions like, what is her favorite color, favorite meal, and easy things like that, which of course, he knew nothing about. I mean, the man had never even had a one-on-one meeting with me and would not until the following week or so.

After his family had paid the price with little sacks of cowries for each question about me he got wrong, the Fai of the compound asked one last question which showed the whole hypocritical nature of the wedding.
My fate was being discussed in my presence as if I wasn’t there and not one question was asked of me. I didn’t count in this equation.