ASAKE! A YORUBA LOVE STORY.

"Asake! Asake! Asake!"

Asake frowned as she struggled to keep her calm. It would not do her well if her mother heard the slightest bit of anger or bitterness in her voice. She knew what would follow if that ever happened again. There would first be a lecture filled with rebuke, telling her how she was an ungrateful child with a huge level of disrespect for elders. Then after that would come the admonition, telling her to strive to be a better person as she too will one day have her children, and would be sorry if they were not obedient and respectful of elders, especially their mother. Her mom, Arike would go ahead to say "Agbe to ba gbin agbado, ko ni le ma reti isu nigba ti asiko ikore aba de. Eni ti a ba wi fun, oba a je ko gbo."
All of that simply translated to "what you sow is what you will reap. He that has ears, let him hear." After the admonition which would include input from Mama Ireti, their nosy neighbor and her mother's best friend, there would come the long list of chores as punishment for her waywardness. As if the ones she had aready piled up were not more than enough. One would wonder how there was always something to do around here but Mama Asake never ran out of her chores for her three children.

image

Source

No would do. Asake was eagerly looking forward to her meeting with Akinlabi later this evening under the Mango tree at the forgotten square. If she managed to incur her mother's wrath, she could as well bid that goodbye. She could not afford that, not when she and her secret lover rarely got such opportunities. So, indeed she struggled and when she felt she could reply without any forbidden feeling etched into her voice, she shouted.

"Eeehhnn Maami!"

"Asake! E melo ni ki n pe o ko to dami loun. Abi eti ti n dun o ni?" (Asake, how many times must I call you before you respond. Have you suddenly gone deaf)

"Ahh. Maami. Ki n se be o. E ma binu ma. Mo ti n bo." (My mum, it's not that way. Do not be offended, I'm on my way.) With that, she hung the last set of clothes she had been washing and ran to the front of the yard where her mum sat, breaking melon seeds and gossiping with Mama Ireti.

She was still wiping her hands against her skirt as she reached them
"Maami. I'm here. You called." She went on her knees to greet Mama Ireti who replied her with a look that said 'oh. The troublesome child finally comes.' Choosing to ignore the woman whom she despised greatly, she looked to her mother...

"Ehn. O ya e. O kare. Anyway, lookat this yam I just got. Take it inside... When it's 4 p.m, set the fire and start cooking it. Baba re so pe oun fe je iyan at egusi lale yi. He's your father and you know how he is when he doesn't get what he wants." Asake's eyes widened in protest but she bit her tongue, keeping the words in. Not that it was any good. Any hope of seeing Akinlabi this night had just been squashed, but at least, she could spare herself the trouble.

"Alright Ma. I've heard you." Her mother dismissed her like one would dismiss a fly and she got up from her knees to pick up three heavy tubers of yam. Her younger ones had gone to the market to sell vegetables, tomatoes and peppers from their small farm as they always did on saturdays. That meant the house chores were her responsibility today. To her mother, she was simply training her children but Asake could not disagree more with her methods. Were she not a spliting image of the woman, she would think she had simply been adopted from the way the woman treated her. It was no surprise that she happened to love her father more. Amoo was a kind man, full of love and strength. A hunter who tried in his own rights to take care of his family. In fact, he was so good at what he did that he was the head hunter and he had the title, Olode Oloyede.

Unfortunately, his work took him away for days and they had to put up with their mother's hassling. She usually missed him when he was away and even though her rendezvous with Akinlabi had been aborted, her father's return was something else to look forward to. She would see Akinlabi some other time. With this on her mind, she caried on to the kitchen yard where she had to weed out the overgrown grasses before commencing dinner.

She had just started putting the yam into the mortar to pound, when her younger sister, Awero came running towards her.

"Aunty Asake! Aunty Asake."

She stopped and waited for the girl who was three years younger than her nineteen to reach her. Wondering what was making her pant like she had just been pursued by a lion, she prompted.

"Ee se o? Ta lo n sa fun to fi n mi beyen?" (what is wrong with you? What is it you are running from that is making you breathe that way?)
"Argh. Aunty Asake. Nkan ti sele." (something has happened.) That got her attention then and Asake quickly went to wash her hands so she could stand akimbo.

"Awero, what has happened? You better talk and don't keep me waiting." The younger girl remained bent over, both hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath.

image

Source

"It's Akinlabi o. Balogun... Balogun has chosen Akinlabi as one of the young men to join him in the war against Ogunmola. They leave at sunset. I heard the women speaking in hush voices in the market place. They say this battle would be brutal, and many may not return." It was all Asake needed to hear. Forgetting about every thing else, she ran out of the house, in search of her lover as her heart beat wildly within her chest.

H2
H3
H4
Upload from PC
Video gallery
3 columns
2 columns
1 column
2 Comments