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How Ogemdi’s life ended: a marriage of fortune to misfortune
Once upon a time, there was a man called Ogemdi (My time awaits) who lived around a farming community called umu ndidi (descendants of patients) and as expected took up farming as an occupation from his youth. Ogemdi was an orphan and had no relatives. He lived from hand to mouth and laboured in other people’s farms until he had money to farm on his parent’s plots. Ogemdi became so astute, skilled, knowledgeable and dedicated to his farming and so prospered. People came to him for advice on farming techniques though he was an illiterate and could hardly spell his name. But he was good with his hands and both his crops and animals prospered. He married at 25 years and each year his goats, sheep cow, chickens and crops prospered, he married another wife. By his mid 50’s, Ogemdi had married 11 wives as a reflection of his progress in crop yield and animal husbandry. He built houses for each woman and her own children and became a title-holder in the land because of his accomplishments, including having the highest number of animals, farms, wives and children. The story of Ogemdi was one that never happened in umu ndidi and as such people came from far and near to see the pot bellied, stout but rich man that was making the waves across his community and its neighbours. Ogemdi became a celebrity of unimaginable magnitude and commanded but respect and money. But one thing was true: Ogemdi was very tight-fisted and not generous to his people. He made sure people paid him in yams and cassava at the end of the harvest season for every farming advice he gave them during planting season and he saw the title bestowed on him as a right not a privilege. Many didn’t mind as they aspired to become like Ogemdi. But for Ogemdi, it didn’t take long for him to realise that his wealth was as big as his ensuing and imminent troubles. Because he had worked so hard all his young life without caring to spend on care for his health (as he refused to visit the medicine man) where he would have been expected to pay for his health care with some of his farm produce. He worked and worked and worked, so his health began to fail, and like Biblical JOB, but without the same faith, Ogemdi began to suffer one affliction after another. It was almost as if he became ill as quickly as he became wealthy. Things were falling apart and nothing in his life was at ease! Drought descended the community; the wives were leaving to remarry wealthier people in the same community and beyond. Ogemdi was engrossed with the shame and possibility of total failure and lack of a face to live on, and begged his kinsmen to help him consult the gods of the land (as it was believed the misfortunes are causes from the ancestors/gods), but all such requests fell on deaf ears. Ogemdi was known to be selfish and everybody, young and old, wanted to see his downfall as quickly as a cocoanut can reach the ground from atop. And their prayers were answered. Poverty descended on Ogemdi with merciless ferocity! All his wives left with his children; farms dried up and animals were nowhere to be found. Ogemdi contemplated suicide. “Life is not fair”, he often queried the blue skies of Amadiora (the god of thunder); “You have killed me”, he chips to Ikata (the god of the forest). But none of Ogemdi’s incantations and prayers would change the minds of the gods. One day Ogemdi, seeing the handwriting on the wall, concluded, “the gods are not to blame; I am the architect of my misfortune; I had but never gave, now I am giving all I ever had…by force!” “I must kill myself before the gods kill me”, he concluded. And one day when all his wives, animals and crops had all given way to a barren Ogemdi, as he had no clothes, and shoes to cover his now sagging barrelled stomach. On his way to Ugwu enu (high mountains) to bring an end to his life, he saw a man he used to know. This man Okafor had been mad as long as Ogemdi can remember and says all kinds of rubbish when he was drunk but that day he was sober. He diligently asked Ogemdi, without knowing that Ogemdi had fallen apart materially to “begin digging your crave, and to dig your grave so wide that all your earthly wealth will fit”. Ogemdi was crushed, haunted and taunted and more determined to end his life at Ugwu enu, few miles down the road. He wanted to hang himself to the eso tree, which he thought was so discrete that it would hide the miseries of his last moments for days without notice. In spite of all the wealth that Ogemdi made, his last days were worst than that of a church rat. He literally begged to eat, and as the glory of his past faded away, Ogemdi ultimately ended his life with a note written in his native tongue that read, “vanity upon vanity equals vanity. A man can only be as good as his god’s have made him; all have been lost after this hour. As I have eaten alone, here I am dead alone. I am Ogemdi and here my time awaits”. But as Ogemdi died and was buried as a puppet, a heavy rain fell and more and more and even more. The land flourished and because people had paid to learn Ogendi’s farming tricks, his land was taken over by the village heads (because he had no immediate relatives) who allocated them to people to farm on. Life began to change, animals, crops; everything began to move forward and flourish; no more droughts; no more death of animals to diseases. Wealth descended in the community unimaginably. As the village gather for the new yam festival after the season’s harvest, each man and woman gathered at the square, and unpreparedly greeted one another with the phrase “umu ndidi, Ogemdi” which means “descendants of patients, my time awaits me”.
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Writer Profile
Pedus
I was born in Nigeria and was educated in Nigeria, USA and Australia. I am the founder and president of Christina-Mae Recruitment Consortium Australia and the author of the book "When Things Go Wrong: Concepts of Change". I am also the co-founder of Child Aid Survival and Development International (CASDI). As a freelance journalist, I have contributed to a number of professional journals and newspapers, as well as worked in a number of e-journalism projects. I have traveled extensively and currently call Australia and the USA home with extensive involvement in African Human Rights issues.
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