Blood test

The man couldn't understand why they are fighting change for the better. What he was proposing is for everyone's good but he could see from their utterances that his 'good and everyone' is what the clique don't want to hear. They felt he was disorganizing their source of income, the little relevance they felt their presence is worth before the people.

"Humans are not for sale" the man that came back after eighteen years away is telling them. "Why are we blaming the whites and the Arabs for the slavery of centuries gone when the same thing is what we are legalizing here in our ways today?" he continued. The gloomy faces of the elders of Umueke looking back at him is enough to tell him that there is no way they are buying what he is marketing but he doesn't care. His idea is to voice it out to all before tabling it to the government leaders. The villagers seem to be cautious whenever it comes to government involved issues.

"We have heard what you are proposing, it sounds good but tradition isn't what you went to stream in the morning and then come back in the afternoon to change just like that. The elders of the elders need to deliberate on it and whatever they agreed upon is the final" one elder quipped.

The funny aspect is that he observed them as they empty the local wines and the Gin he bought. He even knows that the crowd is in that number due to what they knew he will come with. He knows that some youths even side with him on many issues due to what they know he's coming with anytime he calls for a meeting.

Since he came back from schooling and working abroad, he had seen all the anomalies around him that he marvels how come he had not seen anything wrong with it before his travels. He knew many are not seeing what he's seeing so he needed the approach he had been using. Utilize their weakness to your advantage now that you can for delay are always dangerous.

The elders that adjourned the meeting had gathered at the compound of the traditional ruler not to deliberate on what Mr. Joseph was riffing on but Joseph himself. Almost ninety percent is fuming and breathing from the mouth in anger.

"Elders, it's getting out of hand each passing day. If we don't do something about this Joseph man, something terrible might happen to us"

there was muttering in the way of consenting and concurring all around. One after clearing his throat for long to draw attention said:

"What do we suggest we do to safeguard sanity in this Umueke community? This man since he came back from abroad has been nothing but a mosquito on our scrotum. How do we handle this man?"

"Elders, some of us knew that we don't know and that's the fact. Most of us knew that the man isn't entirely talking nonsense, even if he isn't presenting things in the manner we are used to. Let us at times let him know he isn't alone on his ideas"

There was great murmuring and muttering, banging on the table by leaders that took quite a time to arrest. Some were visibly cursing the man that came out with that suggestion.

"You see why that man is the problem that refuses to go away? It's people like Mazi Okeke that are sponsoring that man. I know this thing I am saying will get to him before I reach my house; but I don't care. What will he do? What has he given since he came back, save that rice he shared to the chiefs and one bottle of gin. But the insults have eclipsed all those since he started his madness. It should be time we do something about that guy" the man tethered, eyed conspicuously around before slowly taking his seat.

The king and his cabinet decided that the meeting should be adjourned for five days. After muttering from the elders, they dispersed and waited for five days. When many had gone home leaving the king and five of his cabinet, they entered into another round of innermost caucus meetings on the same subject, Joseph.

The king himself wasn't mentioning his reasons for being against the man that he has enjoyed his hospitality more than any other since assuming the post. His fear he had been detailing to his wife in the comfort of his palace and never for once voiced it out to anyone. It's the wife he went to once more with the renewed fear that tripled after Mr. Joseph latest human selling tirade.

"When he was talking I could see he had other ideas he was bringing out subtly one by one. There is no way he is not after something" the king was voicing out to his wife.

"If you people had allowed women to be part of those summons, I would have read him to know where he's heading to"

the husband eyed her for long before deciding it isn't what is in his mind she just voiced out.

"I read him well, soon he will be gunning for this chair I sat on and nothing more. You only need to see the crowd that man is pulling. All are young men" he said, eyeing the wife.

"So what you are saying is that six of you have concluded on what to do with him?" The wife asked.

The husband eyed her for a long time, once more wondering if he had not derailed their plot on the man by telling his wife. Her insinuation each time that Joseph guy issue is raised had been nothing but throwing doubt on his ability to read the man well.

"But I thought the man is planning to return to the country he came from in a year plus time" the sigh that followed, that sigh confirmed his suspicion of his wife standing on the man.

"So, a man that returned to where he came from won't come back to where he went there from right?" He retorted in anger.

Three months later, two local female teachers in the primary school brought a case against Joseph of being behind their pregnancies out of wedlock and the the elders far and near gathered and started a case against Mr. Joseph. They made one error of wanting to disgrace him far and wide by allowing open doors to the town hall Joseph was proposing to knock down and rebuild to modern kind.

" You have seen what we are seeing the people of Umueke and you have seen how those who claimed to have your good in mind are having that good by wasting our daughters. A man that can not put his pants up, is it his thought he can?" Little murmuring ensued.

"To think he still has that smirk on his face in an abomination of this kind will tell you who we are up against, forget the money being wasted on you but focus on his character, the real him" all eyes turned towards Joseph.

"So, what do you have to say to this double wastage Mr. Joseph?" One elder said.

" I thank you elders for wanting to know my part. That shows we are progressing more than we can ever believe. Some in the centuries gone would have set up stake and hung me there and set fire under me. Some would have seized me and sold me to whiteman as a slave. But here we gather to hear my part. Thank you for that"

muttering and murmuring ensued.After a while, it subsided.

"Yes, I am smirking because it's ignorance we gathered here to express. Even you chief, I can tell you if you are truly the father of your kids. There is what's known as a blood test to determine that" he said as murmuring ensued and all eyes turned toward the chief he pointed at.

"I don't know those girls or about their pregnancies or care about who sent them or who is behind this madness. But I can help you find out if you are all that interested" another round of murmuring ensued.

"So this is why you are talking about selling humans the other time and this is how you are worrying about the girls' good?"

"Well, the hefty bride price is the reason behind half of the wives in this town being from neighboring towns. It equaled selling girls to me. Fifteen marriages I have witnessed since coming back here, ninety percent are to girls outside the town and we all know the reason. The money being asked for and things involved equals selling of humans"

After another hefty noise from all that gathered including the girls, the chief was able to arrest the noise after little deliberation with others said:

"Em, we are going to adjourn this and look into that test thing Mr. Joseph is talking about and have more times to query the two women more on who is behind their ordeal and tell you when to resume this case"

The gathering was dismissed indefinitely for elders to deliberate as they said.