Chopchair
Publication Year: 2010
Published by: African Books Collective
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
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pp. v-
Part One
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pp. 1-28
Chapter One
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pp. 3-6
“I need a Chopchair, Nkem,” Fuo Akendong II said resolutely but desperately. Although he was looking only into Eshuo- Fuo’s eyes, he saw addressing Michael Nkem Fou and Nicodemus Eshou- Fuo, his two...
Chapter Two
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pp. 7-8
The whole world was alive. It was only three o’clock in the afternoon, but frogs could be heard croaking in the fish pond down behind the palace garden. A sheep bleated, a cock had been crowing...
Chapter Three
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pp. 9-11
Fuo Akendong II did not stop there. There were a few more tricks in the bag! He held his palm, shook his jaws the way rabbits do, spat a good quantity of spittle in it and asked the two men to look at...
Chapter Four
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pp. 13-15
The suspense did not last long! While he was displaying his magic, and unknown to them, a stranger, a woman had made her way secretly through the palace gate and was waiting for a moment of silence to show her face...
Chapter Five
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pp. 17-19
This was one of those typical mid-October days when the weather was most unpredictable. One whole week of fine weather had given way to another wee of rain. Grey clouds blanketed the sky day after day. Storms...
Chapter Six
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pp. 21-26
The two elders had several fears, genuine ones! The first was that based on what they had heard so far, Ngwika has instantly earned the Chief ’s hatred. The second fear was that the Chief had instantly developed a...
Chapter Seven
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pp. 27-28
The trip to Lemvoah was not a waste of time. Fuo- Akendong saw with his own eyes a pair of twins suckling from the breasts of Ngwika, his personal wife. There was one boy and one girl, just as he had been...
Part Two
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pp. 29-64
Chapter Eight
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pp. 31-33
Peter Nwolefeck developed very fast, do fast that by the fifteenth month he could walk. This made life a lot easier for Rosa who could them take him along with her to her more distant farms. She would allow him...
Chapter Nine
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pp. 35-38
The way the young boy reacted to petty injustices made Rosa very uncomfortable. The more so because nobody knew the truth about his life better than herself. She refrained from discussing anything about his...
Chapter Ten
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pp. 39-42
Not many families or villages in the Lebialem Division at the time were lucky to have schools located on their neighbourhood. The lucky few sent their children there at ages as young as six. Quite often school...
Chapter Eleven
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pp. 43-45
Bambe Peters welcomed the ideas and was happy with their determination to give him back his due, or at least recover what he had lost. But he cautioned them: “Although we want that throne very badly, I want us
Chapter Twelve
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pp. 47-49
The following day, on the pretext that he was going back to Small Monje to think over what to do, Bambe Isaiahs returned to Nzenawung and reported his findings. There was not only a male counterpart but an...
Chapter Thirteen
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pp. 51-53
Are you sure saying that we should have allowed you to be killed?” Rosa queried. “I did not say I wanted to be killed. The question...
Chapter Fourteen
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pp. 55-57
To avoid drawing suspicion on themselves, they decided to enact the act of kidnapping Chopchair and taking him home several times before the day. First on Monday, and then on Wednesday, at the Alou market...
Chapter Fifteen
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pp. 59-61
When he was led into the centre of the clearing the prisoner’s hands were untied but he remained surrounded by the bands of shabbily dressed...
Chapter Sixteen
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pp. 63-64
Already thinking of himself in the position of a Chief, Bambe Peters whispered something to Bambe Cos. With his scattered teeth and shoeless feet and, trembling like a man in the grip of a fever be immediately...
Part Three
Chapter Seventeen
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pp. 67-69
The kidnapping and imprisonment of Chopchair which had been feared as the most trying part of the venture turned out to be the least arduous and the least disturbing. Because of the very close similarity between...
Chapter Eighteen
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pp. 71-73
These were secret conventions of the palace which neither Peter Nwolefeck nor his Bambes were conversant with. When they tied Chopchair’s hands and ordered Bambe Peters to go into the palace and take...
Chapter Nineteen
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pp. 75-76
As God would have it, Peter Nwolefeck’s absurd behaviour accidentally hastened a solution to the crisis. It began with the fact that the Chief completely misjudged his queer mannerisms. As was...
Chapter Twenty
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pp. 77-79
That same night Ngwika drew Nkem-Fuo and Eshuo Fuo aside and told them: “We are betrayed. We are dead. Do you know that boy sleeping in there calling himself...
Chapter Twenty One
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pp. 81-83
Bambe Peters on his part was not sleeping. He told Bambe Isaiahs that as soon as his mother returned he would bring everybody together and reveal the truth in such a manner that nobody would suffer. Thus when Ngwika...
Chaper Twenty Two
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pp. 85-87
I want you to confirm that what I am hearing is not a nightmare but the living truth,” he said to Ngwika. There was nothing else to do. In between sobs she confessed the...
Chapter Twenty Three
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pp. 89-92
Fuo Akendong farted in his seat. “Let it end here,” the Chief told Nkem. “A fowl will not grow teeth in my palace. Let he hear no more.” He held Nkem’s hand and like sleep-walkers, the two men...
Epilogue
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pp. 93-
As a matter of fact, Fuo Akendong was no party to the division of his kingdom. He was not there although he authorised his elders to execute the order. He died that same night of heart failure! But the death was...
Back Cover
E-ISBN-13: 9789956715268
Print-ISBN-13: 9789956616138
Page Count: 100
Publication Year: 2010
