Life before Technology...
As I sat clutching my raffia bag between my legs, I looked
back over my shoulder and saw mama wiping tears from her eyes with the multi-colored wrapper she tied loosely around her waist. She waved at me feebly and I
nodded instead of waving back, I was afraid to let go of my precious belonging.
I heard the canoe driver shout and push the canoe away from the frothy shore, we are on our way! I thought as he
leaned back and pulled the long stick out of the murky water and repeated the
process again. Slowly, we pulled farther
and farther away from the shore until it was completely covered up with the
early morning mist that surrounded the river most mornings. I sighed heavily as
the fat woman beside me readjusted herself on the hard planks we used as seats.
I was on my way to uyo to visit my
mother’s brother and hopefully start the modern school that the missionaries
just opened in the area.
I wanted to go to school, but I didn’t want to leave
mama and my younger sister, Eno behind in our village. We were currently
enveloped completely in thick, white mist; the canoe man continued to push the
stick under water but not with much effort now as the strong current carried us
along. I wondered wildly if we were going in the right direction, but there was
no telling since we couldn’t see where the boat was heading. He started calling
out, warning other canoes of our presence, his voice sounded hollow in the
grayness that surrounded us, I bent my head and prayed that we go in the right
direction; I didn’t want us to get lost and be swallowed up by Ukoyium, the great mammy water that
ruled this river. Only two months ago, my friend, Udo and his mother had been
swallowed up on their way from a neighboring village where he was taken to for
medical treatment. The canoe bobbed gently as we entered another current. I
tightened my hold on my bag and kept my eyes open as wide as possible, I wanted
to see the mammy water before she attacked me. The man sitting in front of me
coughed and leaned forward, slowly resting his head on his folded arms, he
closed his eyes. I stared at him as if he was mad, sleeping? How was he able to
do that? I pondered as I heard another hollow call back from another canoe,
suddenly, their canoe grazed ours as he silently glided by. I exhaled; this method
of calling out to each other had been in use since my grandfather’s time,
that’s what my father told me when he was still alive. I must have drifted off
at some point, I woke up with a jolt as another canoe rammed into ours in the
mist, the fat woman beside me shrieked and grabbed my shoulder, her nails dug
into my flesh as I winced trying not to panic or cry. The sleeping man in front
of me opened an eye in the commotion and shot it again as our canoe man deftly
steadied our canoe and moved off in another direction, I stretched my aching
body as I tried again to figure out how he knew where we were going. He didn’t .
After several hours in the mist, the sun finally came up and we discovered we
had gone a full circle and almost heading back to my little village. Several
passengers started abusing the canoe man and telling him how a skilled canoe
man would have known we were not going anywhere. I wondered if anyone would
have been able to perceive anything through the thick mist. We finally entered
uyo shores close to evening, we were tired, hungry, and stiff from sitting in
one position all day, as I climbed out of the canoe into the insipid waters of
the shore, pins and needles shooting up and down my leg, I thanked God that
Ukoyium didn’t swallow us, but I wondered how to get word out to my mother that
I arrived safely. It was much later in the night, when uncle Effiong had fed me some cold Ekpankukor and he was
reclining outside the one room bungalow he lived, that his friend Bassey, a
trader came to visit that I finally got my answer. Bassey was going to my
village in three day’s time, he agreed to take word back to mama that I arrived
safely and school was not in session till a fortnight. Instead of travelling
back, uncle Bassey agreed to teach me arithmetics and English until the modern
school reopened.
Though I was a long way
from home, in just one day, I knew my life had changed forever.
