What a Next of Kin!

Chapter Eighteen

91 Chapter Eighteen I f the birth of a daughter was disappointing to Ndi, his wife’s emerging beauty more than counterpoised it. Debora was emerging as a veritable majestic and stately woman, a stateliness that caught the eye of many a man. With the birth of her child, she seemed to have sloughed her blemished old skin. It seemed as if the pre-birth nutrition had laid a dormant layer of fat just beneath the skin which now was moistening greasing and glazing oils that made her skin flicker as if tiny grains of crystal were sprinkled on it. Debora now a master craftswoman in cosmetics embellished that natural splendour with the numerous body lotions she had. Her flesh responded favourably to the treatment as it filled up the minutest depressions on the body. With that dazzling and tantalizing beauty – beauty some people described as beyond human evaluation, Ndi learnt to cut his T’s and dot his I’s. In other words, he learnt to fit himself within the new context by at least feigning to appreciate his daughter and shower his wife with love. Many people thought Debora’s beauty made Elizabeth Makeba’s (former Miss Nigeria) beauty look paltry by comparison. If one shook hands with her or embraced her, he carried her fragrance for days. In the fifth month of delivery, her parents wanted her to come and ‘rest’ with them at Mundoni. Debo, as she was fondly called at that time, was very anxious to return to her birth place to nurse her child with her parents for a brief while. When she proposed it to Ndi, he opposed the idea. He said he feared her treated blemishes could reappear with a little carelessness 92 Charles Alobwed’Epie and that he did not like the child to be exposed to unfavourable natural or man-made forces at that early age. Debo was easily convinced. She thus invited her mother to move over to Tiko to give her a motherly helping hand which the house-helps lacked. Ndi was forced to accept the proposal though it did not appeal to him. Debo had a baby girl, yes. She was unearthly beautiful, yes. She was in the fifth month of nursing, yes. The child had an array of cow and cereal products for food, and so her survival did not depend on breastfeeding, yes. Ndi was anxiously looking for a next of kin, yes. If his mother inlaw were not living with them and sharing the same room with his wife, he could start manoeuvring her for weaning the child, yes. So, if his house were not conducive for a new start in love-making, Douala would, yes. And so, Ndi formed the habit of driving his wife to Douala in order to seduce her into weaning the child. He would give her unending treats in luxurious hotels, buy her expensive jewellery and on their return, he would tell her how it was necessary for them to have a boy who would be his next of kin. “If I don’t have a boy, a next of kin with you, you will see, my brothers will drive you out of my estates. But if you secure yourself with a son, you’ll have all. You know in Bamenda, women don’t inherit either their husbands’ or their fathers’ estates,” he said. “Yes, but my mother told me that a child is weaned at two years.” Debo responded. “When the child has already grown a beard? Aren’t those things of old?” Ndi asked with suppressed anger. “Yes, but that is what she said. She said in Bamenda, people avoided early weaning by marrying many wives.” “So, you want me to marry many wives?” “No; my mother says, I should tell you that we should marry in church.” 93 What a Next of Kin! “Marry in church? Church means monogamy, therefore early weaning of children. Furthermore, children of nowadays don’t breastfeed. They drink milk.” “So, what do you want me to do?” “We have to wean the child.” “OK, I shall tell my mother.” “Why? Are you not a mother yourself? How can one mother tell another mother what she wants to do?” The conversation ended abruptly as Debo pouted as if something disgusting had been suggested to her. Ndi did not want to offend her. He knew the odds were against him, so...