The Story of Attajira

As far back as 1975, a beautifully bouncing baby girl descended from the womb of her mother in the village of Hazo. A tumultuous crowd could be seen in the house of Mato celebrating the arrival of his baby that afternoon. The birth of the baby miraculously opened the floodgate of wealth to her two parent. Mato and his wife had sorrowfully spent about three years without any child but finally got one; their tears were wiped out by the arrival of their daughter. Because of the fortune of wealth the baby brought to the family, the parent decided to name her 'Attajira'.

Few years after the birth of Attajira, her caring and loving mother fell sick which lasted for about five years. All sort of medications in Hazo and the neighboring villages had been tried but the situation deteriorated and never improved. She finally passed away and left rivers of tears on the faces of Mato and his only daughter. Her demise had, undoubtedly, left an incurable wound in their hearts.

Life could be described as a basket of sorrow punctuated by moments of happiness, especially to Mato and his daughter. Attajira came while her mother went away–the substitution of happiness with sorrow, the replacement of a wife with a daughter. Death is a powerful wind that uproots the gigantic tree from the ground, it brings about the forceful separation of a mother and her child and bitterly ends the relationship of lovers. Mato and his daughter continued living in the village of Hazo without filling the vacuum of the deceased.

The earth continued its rotation on the axis and revolution on the orbit, adding years on years, turning boys into men, girls into women and living to dead. Now, Attajira had grown up to a beautiful young respectful and obedient lady who became the object of discussion and cynosure of attraction in the village. She dressed fashionably but decently; strangers thought that she grew up in the urban area. Many agile, handsome and wealthy young men proposed  to marry her but she cryingly declined their proposal. It was mysterious to see Attajira crying before any man that sought her hands in marriage. Surprisingly, Attajira was ready for marriage religiously, psychologically, biologically and physically but her father unkindly sent away every man that proposed to marry his daughter.

People of Hazo were extremely shocked for what they were seeing. All the friends of Attajira in that village got married and some of them had children. They always saw her face buried in anguish. Some of the concerned individuals in the village decided to meet the father on why his daugher was not given out in marriage like her friends, but the father angrily responded and told them never to return to his house again.

One year later, a man by name Mati, built a house very close to Mato's house. He inherited the land from his late father. To the greatest consternation of Mati, since his return to his new house, he always heard some noise from his next-door neighbour in the night. This made him paid more attention to the noise and he discovered that a lady was the one crying every night.
"Who is that lady?" He curiously asked himself. "I have to find out what is happening" He added.

Mati went round the house in the morning and made his plans for the night. His mind was preoccupied by what he always heard. This made him sat quietly as if mourning the death of a loved one.

Later in the night, at around 12:00am, Mati heard the crying voice in Mato's house. He quickly but silently went out and climbed over the fence of Mato's house. He tiptoed towards the room where the crying voice was coming from. He peeped through the window and saw Mato with a knife standing almost naked before the kneeling crying Attajira. He heard Mato unashamedly saying, "Any attempt to resist will send you to the grave. If you talk again or tell someone something about this, I willl slaughter you like the hen I slaughtered yesterday."
Mato pulled down his short and jumped unto his own biological daughter. Mati could not withstand seeing the worse abomination on earth and left the house silently. He raped his own innocent daughter. Was that the reason why he sent any suitor away? Was that the reason Attajira was always heavily crying? But why did she not tell the king about such a dastardly act? Probably, she was not only afraid of the intimidation from her father, but also scared of the possible stigmatisation that would accompany the release of the invidious information.

Early in the morning, Mati reported to the king. But because of the mysterious and unbelievable nature of the incidence, the circumstances surrounding it, the king asked him to take an oath that what he said was true and also asked him to present witnesses and evidence. Mati said that the only evidence he had was for the subjects of the king to spend the night in his house. His royal Highness, the king, without hesitation, ordered four subjects to follow him for the night and report back to him. They found the same thing Mati saw last night. This time around, Attajira resisted and shouted saying that she would report to the king. Her immoral, inhumane and promiscuous father was about starving her at the stomach when the king's subjects shouted, "Don't kill her! Don't kill her!". This terrifyingly confused him to the extent that he was, for the moment, unable to detect the direction of the men; this made him let the knife fell on the floor. They quickly arrested him and took him to the palace along with the innocent miserable Attajira.

The invidious news went round Hazo and neighbouring villages; it became even the topic of some programmes on radio, especially in the city. Attajira could not raise up her head, couldn't not walk out. She regretted coming to the sinful world; this had registered her name indelibly in the sand of grief. The following day, her lifeless body was found; she committed suicide as she could not stand langushing in the life where arrows of anguish were piercing her ears. Before the king took Mato to the court of law, the angry villagers knowing the British-imposed type of criminal justice system existing in the country, they took the law into their hands and mutilated him. They gave him a merciless jungle punishment, then killed him and threw his body on the mountain because they feared that burying him in the grave might cause famine, drought, earthquake and many other disasters to their land.

Written by
Abdul Mutallib Muktar
2nd January, 2019.
Fiction.