Ihuoma

 

Ihuoma

 

Ihuoma, you should have walked away

when Elechi Amadi started creating you from the mystery

of African words, long before books mattered,

because the songs were enough.

 

Elechi Amadi, beguiling and masculine,

gave you the blessing and the curse of the gap in your teeth

and named you beautiful.

 

He created you even before you knew

the meaning behind a full moon and harvest,       

when your parents were feasting with the villagers at your birth.

 

You should have walked away.

Instead, you looked in the mirror

and swayed your hips

until your beads rattled against your glistening skin.

 

Instead of walking away

like the darkness when it meets the sun,

like hunger when it meets a yam feast,

you let Elechi crown you with chapter

upon chapter of his novel.

 

And now, mother of patriarchy,

it is not your natural charm

nor discerning eyes that matter

not even your strong hands

that can carry a saucepan of boiling porridge,

nor your ears that can hear a man whispering into your daughter’s ears.

 

It is the gap in your teeth,

the African woman’s jewel and Judas.

 

 

Note: Ihuoma is the protagonist in the novel, The Concubine, written by Elechi Amadi. In the novel, Ihuoma is profound for her charm, her ravishing looks and the fact that no mortal man is able to marry her.

Poem by Beverle N Nsengiunva