Poetic-Verses
MAMA EUROPEAN HAS A BABY
JOY SUN
DEDICATION
For Mma Oyibo.
I knew a beautiful lady who lived in our yard when we lived at #30 Sand Harbor. We called her "Mama European'" or "Mma Oyibo". Mma Oyibo had a challenge in child birth although she was long married. She was actually called "Mama European" or "Mma Oyibo" because she had had a child, a fair child before who died and since then, could not conceive for over fifteen years. Although she was young, her husband was growing old. Added to this was an accusation labelled on her which I knew wasn't true. It held that she was a witch and had contributed her womb to witchcraft to make money. At one time, something omenous happened which seemed to confirm the lie. Her sister who lived at some other town had just given birth while she visited. The baby was still alive. When she was given the baby, the living baby died in her arms. It was heart breaking. She was threatened and called all kinds of names, but I knew she was innocent. Coincidentally, she was my friend and spent most of her time with me. She was the first person who encouraged me to work and earn money for myself at the age of seven. During the holidays, she would hire me to put Mellon into a weaved bag and beat it against a stone, then select the partially broken mellons, which was a faster way of peeling them. She paid me NGN 15 for the service. It was way back in the year 1993 and I was seven. But I was always vexed by her crying and sadness of not being able to bear children. She had been deceived into attending a cult owned by one guru maharaji who instructs its members to eat flowers and not crayfish. One day after praying my morning prayers, I asked God what to do. She usually went to get the flowers by 6am and would not greet anyone according to the instructions given to her. That morning, the Holy Spirit asked me to sit outside our room, that she would surely reply when I greeted her and that jinx would be broken and she would take in. Quite contrary to her rules, I greeted that morning as she passed by and she answered. She conceived sometime around that month for the first time in fifteen years and would deliver a baby boy. She was so angry that the guru maharaji cult had deceived her, destroyed their items, renounced them and joined the Assemblies of God Church. She would later have three more living children.
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MAMA EUROPEAN HAS A BABY
MAMA EUROPEAN HAS A BABY
