Yaw rushed to call the traditional birth attendants who quickly moved me into our bedroom and laid me on a mat with a big basin of water and cloth beside me. They put the towel on my forehead to cool me down as I was sweating bucket loads of perspiration.
In Fante traditional custom, a woman must not wail while bringing forth a child. I followed this rule dutifully during the birth of my two children & bore my pain in silence. However, for this child, I just could not keep quiet. I cursed Yaw for being an unfaithful harlot of a a man & cursed whichever stupid woman had fallen for Yaw’s sweet words. ‘Shh’, the traditional birth attendants told me, ‘It’s ok. If you scream out like this, you won’t have any energy to push the baby out and the baby will be too scared to come out’.
They bundled my baby and brought her to me and I should have been happy but I felt dead inside. Somehow, deep within me, I knew that it was over between me and Yaw. A solitary tear run down my face as I thought about Yaw smiling with another woman, eating her food, lying on top of her, whispering pleasant things in her ears.
After the pregnancy, I moved in to live with Aya and my aunties since it was customary for new mothers in those days to spend time with their female relatives. I was so weak that I spent most of my days just sleeping. Yaw was living in his house and he would sometimes come by Aya’s house to bring me toiletries for the baby including sweet smelling soaps, scented powder and baby oils as well as tins of biscuits, sardines and corned beef. I never conversed with Yaw when he came to Aya’s home. I had not had a solid conversation with him since my discovery of his affair caused me to go into labor. He would come into my bedroom & try to make conversation, starting with ‘How are you’ and moving to random, small talk but each time, I’d turn so that my back would face him and then proceed to give him one-liners till he got the message and left.
It was in Aya’s house that I started hearing snippets of information about Yaw’s paramour. I would pretend to be asleep while my aunties were in the room and they would gossip. “Yes” I heard one of them say ‘They say the woman is from a neighboring village and that all this while he claimed to be travelling to Cape Coast, he was actually going to stay in her house. That woman is trouble o! They say her own husband left her because she is so quarrelsome!”. Another time: “Yes, they say she’s also given birth o! She gave birth a couple of weeks ago but Yaw pleaded with her to wait till his other child is born & then he would name their child. Yaw said that the shock of her pregnancy could affect his wife. She became furious & after wailing that Yaw hates her, she demanded to stay in Yaw’s mother’s house till she delivered. She is a cunning snake. She must have known that if she stayed in her village, Yaw could easily sweep her & this whole incident under a rug but living in his mom’s home changes everything!” With every succeeding gossip, my heart sank even further & I became increasingly depressed while I felt so helpless. Then one day, I overheard this:”Yes, can you imagine that Yaw is planning to name that woman’s child one day before he names Araba’s daughter? The woman insisted that her son should be named first because after all, he arrived first and he is also a boy!’. My mind was made up.
The day before my naming ceremony, I woke up very early. At the crack of dawn, I got out of bed, washed my face, pulled on my cloth blouse and secured a cloth firmly around my waist. My baby was in Aya’s room since Aya insisted on babysitting because she had more child-rearing experience than I. Before stepping out, I picked up a huge tin of corned beef that Yaw had brought to me on one of his visits but I had never opened and put it in a small jute bag.
I was stepping out of the house with the jute bag when Aya called me softly ‘Araba, where are you going?’. ‘I need some fresh air Aya’. I said softly, almost pleading. I didn’t want her to ruin my plans. ‘Ebei Araba, but at this time? My child, both your baby & you yourself are both going to be ‘outdoored tomorrow’. It’s not proper that you step outside’. I pleaded with her incessantly that staying at home was making me sick and I just needed to take a short walk to clear my head. She reluctantly agreed.
I lied to Aya; I wasn’t taking a short walk. I walked all the way across the village to Yaw’s mother’s house. ‘Agoo’ I knocked on Yaw’s mother’s house & she came to the door. I had never met a woman who reminded me of a mouse more than Yaw’s mother. Yaw’s dad was a huge man who who frequently battered Yaw’s mom and perhaps, as a result of that, Yaw’s mother had turned into someone afraid of her own shadow.
She asked me in her high-pitched voice how I was doing and why was I out of the house in my current condition? I replied, “Oh, my-in-law, I’m so sorry, Yaw actually asked me to bring imported corned beef to my rival because he said that he wanted her to make sure that she uses it to make stew for his guests who will come to the naming ceremony this morning. He doesn’t want her to use any other meat or fish.” I added, “He said that he forgot to bring it to you and this morning and he had to rush to the store so since I had my own tin, I told him not to worry but I’ll bring it to you for the event.” Yaw’s mother smiled and relaxed visibly. ‘Oh, as for my son & his abrofosem- his white ways! So it’s only corned beef he wants in the stew? Ok my child let me take it to your rival.”
“Oh Maame”, I replied, but why are you making me a bad person erh? How can I, your in-law, send you to give something to my rival? No let me take it to her then you can introduce me. I’ve not even met my rival o!” “Oh is that so” she said looking shocked,, “my son has not been fair to you, I thought he had introduced you two. Don’t worry let me take you to Senyiwa”. My heart skipped a beat. So that was the name of that home wrecker? Senyiwa. She thought that she could use 1 year to come and snatch what I had used 9 years to build? I smiled bitterly.
Yaw’s mom ushered me into a room in her house. A woman was lying on a mat facing the wall. A baby started crying in another room “Senyiwa, this is Araba, your rival. Why don’t I leave the two of you together and check on baby erh?” As Yaw’s mom left, the woman rose from the mat and stood up to face me. I glanced at her, from her head to her feet because I wanted to figure out what she had that I lacked which had made her ‘ensnare’ Yaw.
And as I stared at her, I started cursing Yaw silently in my mind. Senyiwa’s features were direct opposites of my own. Where I was short, she was tall. Where I was light complexioned, she was ebony skinned. Even our eyes were different, hers small, mine large; her fingers were long & graceful while mine were petite. I cursed Yaw for ever telling me that I was just the ideal woman he wanted. So was he lying to me when he told me how he loved the fact that I was petite, how he loved my big eyes and wouldn’t want to look into any beady eyes? That was the day that I learnt to take it with a pinch of salt whenever a man tells me I’m just the woman he wants. I always tell myself, ‘the fact that he claims you’re his ideal woman doesn’t mean that he doesn’t find other women ( who look so different from you) attractive!
She stood up and I realized that she was topless and was only wearing a cloth wrapped around her waist. Which kind of woman did that- went to meet her mother-in-law and rival topless? This was what Yaw wanted? “So you are Araba” she said calmly, a taunting twinkle in her eyes…
TO BE CONTINUED
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39 comments On Rivals
O come onnnn!!! Why do u always do that? it’s not fair! What an encounter, the imagery is so clear, its as if I was in the room with them…..can’t wait 4 the next one!
Ekuba please don’t keep me waiting, ThanQ.
Lol @ Seeta: It’s not me o! I can only put up 1400 words & there’s only so much I can write in that. Don’t worry, next installation will be here this week! 😀
Are you setting up rivals to totally hook up? 😀 I’ve got my pop corn ready, this is absolutely going to be good. Please continue now!
@ ; ): hahaha. Honey, sadly it’s not all women who end up hooking up o, so I’m not sure if these 2 will! Wouldn’t the world be a better place though if more women had hot sex together? 😀
make them hook up! make them hook up! ;'( lol don’t mind me. Continue the story already la! :*
hahaha @ ; ): ok, i will alter the course of history & what my granny told me & make them hook up for you ok? lol. just kidding. don’t worry, i’ll right a totally hot story about two women across the atlantic hooking up wink wink
*write*
okay fine! don’t let anybody hook up. x_x I am backing off, slowly.
Continuation NOW!!!
Lol @ Kiki: I swear that one of these days, the lovely readers of Adventures will kidnap me & force me to continue this story just like how an author was kidnapped by his fan in Stephen King’s novel- I think it was called Misery or Miserable? I forget
‘Misery’ and don’t even joke about a thing like that! (Nightmares)
Cant wait for the next installment…i cant decide if i want a full-on brawl or a respectably delivered you-cant-hold-a-light-to-me speech.
@Ekuba @Naa Adjeley, Looks like I am alone in wanting them to totally hook up. You guys, come on! Fight then hook up. yes? say yes.
@ ; ): you’re all alone in wanting them to hook up lol. Please access the state of your (*ahem: dirty) mind & change it for the better lol
*assess* jeez am I high today? lol
you really want my dirty mind to change? Be careful what you wish for oo. 😉 Okay, I’m getting serious now, is it true what you say though, “In Fante traditional custom, a woman must not wail while bringing forth a child.” o_O
yes @ ; ) it’s true for a lot of Fantes. At least for those who come from the Ajumako traditional area the tradition is that you’re not supposed to wail when giving birth & to do so is shameful. Women who wailed while delivering babies would later on be mocked by their peers.
As I told you, I’m like a quarter Ashanti & so I was surprised to hear from my Ashanti relatives that among Ashantis, women were permitted to wail during childbirth & I found this difference interesting indeed. All Akans (Ashantis, Fantes, Akyems, Kwahus, Akuapems etc.) migrated together to southern Ghana before splitting & several centuries after, their descendants now have vastly different cultures & I think this diversity is beautiful.
That said, Fante culture itself is not monolithic. Unlike other ethnic groups (eg: Ashantis, Akyems etc), the Fanti system of government isn’t centralized. There is no ‘Fantehene’. Different groups of Fantes have their own head kings & customs & even dialects. So a Fante from Cape Coast, may have a distinctly different custom & speak a totally different Fante dialect from his Fante brother from Ajumako or Gomoa or Ekumfi. PS: Everything I write is direct word of mouth from what my grandma told me. She’s an Obaapanyin (ie: head of a clan) & so I trust that her information about Fante culture is accurate.
@ Naa Adjeley, i can’t wait to write the next instalment later & yes, it seems like either option would be fun!
more more MORE MORE MORE MORE PLEEEEEAAASEE EKUBA I WANT MORE #THROWING A TANTRUM
lol @ Rakgadi. Please contact Kiki above immediately so that both of you can plan how to kidnap me &force me to write the continuation. Meanwhile, i’ll give you details of where i live… hahaha
ha! I see. you d3r you have filla papa. wo y3 me encyclopedia ekubannica. 😛
lol Madam semi colon plus bracket you have raps paa o! meet me ‘at the corner’ and continue the raps wai hahaha
I see I missed the thread mpo. yes please, y3nko eeh, Sundays are made for love and love only. 😉
Ekuba — tsk, tsk,tsk. These cliff hangers – I will take a leaf out of the NSA handbook on espionage, find you and make you tell me the entire story in one sitting – geez! 🙂
Great story (as always) and I’m in eager anticipation mode for the next part.
Thanks @ Saffron. very scary, i’m going to hide somewhere very very far away lol
Directions to the salon would be prefered, want to kidnap you when u looking all alluring like a teenage girl ready for puberty. Mwauh
hahaha, roger that captain! @ Kiki
Eish. Like everyone else I cannot wait to read what happens next. This ‘rival’ sounds like a force to be reckoned with…
lol, @ Nana Darkoa, yes indeed she is o! She & my gran are still alive although the man they were both in love with passed away years ago. Can you imagine the shocking thing?
the rival’s descendant (grandaughter) met my grandma’s descendant (grandnephew) at a random place & they started dating & almost got married but i heard they broke up! ns3m pii…
I have heard that happens from time to time. That we are often drawn to those people with whom we share genes… A genetic attraction if you like…
Ns3m pi indeed! We bind and cast o.
Anyway, what a delightful story as always. I will not call for a continuation because I kow how harrowing it is to always have something for consumption. I will say though that I will like to do a ‘What Granny has taught us’ for each episode.
What I have learnt from this one is how to be strong. What we modern women could do with learning is self-worth. That is what made Yaw chase her in the first place and when she decided she was going to leave it made that decision for her. No need to die because you gave your heart to someone and he stomped on it. Acknowledge the hurt. Wallow in it if you will. But MOVE ON.
Thank you granny.
yes sweetheart! @ Nnenna: you see how well you’re speaking twi now? Thank you thank you. And as for you, you have qualified 100% to be adopted by my granny. We’ll start processing the adoption papers soon ok? lol
yes, please! My spoken Twi is rubbish sha. My written one is getting better.
yes sweetheart! @ Nnenna: you see how well you’re speaking twi now? Thank you thank you. And as for you, you have qualified 100% to be adopted by my granny. We’ll start processing the adoption papers soon ok? Get ready to relocate to Ghana! lol
Your writing is amazing. I feel like I’m right there with them!! And please! Next installment!!
Thank you so much @ Miss K. The next installation will be up soon ok? As for the vivid nature of the story, you have my grandma to thank for that! This is practically ditto ditto how she narrated the story to me (translated into English).
this is so good. easy flow and relatable to all women.
I cannot believe that you chose to tease us with that abrupt end . ah!
Yay Purple tussle is baaaack! where have you been hiding sweetheart? 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed the story please pardon the teasing ok? lol
Ekuba darling! I am a busy mess. I am searching all over forthe continuation. where is itttt!!!???