Stranger in his Homeland

Chapter Thirty-Three

261 Chapter Thirty-Three Antony had suddenly become very forgetful. It was only when he was on his way to Likume that he recalled he had left the letter Eru had sent to him behind in Sigili-Mundu. He had not taken particular note of where Eru was said to have been hospitalized. When he arrived in Likume he went first to Eru’s house. It looked deserted. The veranda was littered with the droppings of fowls and goats. As he walked round a neighbour came up to him and informed him that Eru had been taken to the home of a medicine man, a certain Malam Abubakar in Omenikang. Antony also learned that he was so sick that they were not sure he would survive. Asked what was wrong with him the neighbour said he had been bewitched. Antony took a taxi to the bus station to Omenikang. The place was just about thirty five kilometres from Likume town and when he saw the bus it required four more passengers to fill it up. Antony was so anxious to see Eru that he paid the fare of four passengers and then they left. As they drove along he wondered what could really be wrong with Eru. He knew that Eru was not married, so the story of poisoning by his wife did not make much sense, even though the illness was beginning to sound serious in his ears. Malam Abubakar’s healing home was in the outskirts of Omenikang. You walked some fifty metres from the road and you were received by a servant who showed you where to sit – on stools made from tree trunks. When they entered the shrine a servant went behind the house and a few minutes later a man emerged. He was just slightly shorter than Antony, and was probably in his late fifties or early sixties. He wore a raffia cap dyed black – a sign of traditional nobility – with a yellow, blue, green, white and red feather stuck to the left side very near his ear. He had an effeminate face save for a long beard that looked as though it was cut off the chin of a he-goat and glued to his chin. His neck was thin with a pronounced Adam’s Apple which moved 262 Linus T. Asong forth and back as he spoke. His voice was hoarse as though he had drunk fried palm oil or was suffering from a dry cough. He wore three sets of beads round his neck – one of cowries, one of ivory and one of an indeterminate type of dry grass and tiny snails shells. There were two tattoos on his arms – that of a spider on the right arm and a spear on the left. His dress was a hand woven smock jumpa and a pair of trousers to match. In his oversized rubber sandals he walked with such uncertain steps that it was obvious he had splayed feet. “I am Anthony Nkoaleck,” Antony began. “I have been directed to see my friend Eru who is sick here.” He motioned to Antony to follow him. Antony noticed that his right had had only three fingers, the thumb, the forefinger and the small finger. It looked as if he had been born that way because as Antony noticed later, the same configuration existed on his left hand. They were led into an outer chamber which was virtually a shrine. To the left as you entered was a bamboo table overlaid with large goatskins on which an old piece of plywood had been placed. Above the table stood a bamboo shelf of oddities: two skulls, presumably human skulls, the shell of a giant red crab, a small board on which was pinned eleven feathers – yellow, red, blue, brown, green, black, white, orange, violet and the like. Over the table was a python skin that spanned the whole four metres length of the wall. Above the python skin, just about the middle hung the head of a buffalo, horns and all. To the right of the table stood an assortment of medicines in small bottles, some corked, others open. They passed through the grimy dirty shrine area into the back yard. It looked like a flower garden: there were herbs of different types to the left, to the centre and to the right. Malam led him into the last room of a row of five rooms. As Antony stepped in Commy rose and came and fell...