Rings of Power
(An original story by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima)
Kingdom of Nri
circa 4,000 BCE
The oldest monarchy on the continent of Africa is the Igbo monarchy of Nri Kingdom.
Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì
Kingdom of the Rising Sun
How can you traverse the universe,
When you have chosen not to see beyond your nose?
They called her the ageless woman of the Igbo Ukwu. The Mother of all the Dibias of Afa divination.
I came to the peak of hills of Udi where I found her sitting under an Ugiri tree.
She was sitting on green palm fronds encircled by gourds. I came before her naked and bowed.
"Gini but afa ghi?"
She asked in the language of our our kingdom meaning, "What is your name!"
"Onyemachi."
I replied.
She gazed at me. She gazed into my eyes. Her eyeballs were like golden almonds. She gazed at the windows of my soul. Then she nodded her hairless oval head.
"Hmm. Indeed Onyemachi. Of course, who knows God?"
She shook her head.
"Nobody knows God. They call, cry and shout His name every day and night and yet they don't know Him "
"Great Mother, I want to know Him. I have come to know Him," I said.
She gazed at me again.
With the index finger of her thin right hand she scribbled on the ground what I could not read and did not understand.
"You want to know Him whom they don't know?"
"Yes, Great Mother."
She brought out the bowl of the shell of a tortoise with a short stick of Ofo wood. Then she brought out the four strings of Afa one by one.
"Open your right palm," she said.
I opened my right palm.
She held it and gazed at it. She opened her right palm and gazed at it and gazed at mine again.
"The truth is only for the children of the covenant," she said.
"Not all the children of Yebu are called. Not all the ones who are called are chosen."
She picked up the first string of the Afa with her right hand and cast it on the ground.
Our forefathers and diviners said Yebu came with the Afa when he descended from the midst of the clouds in the sky with flashes of lightning and claps of thunder.
Yebu was one of the Sons of God who came down to the Earth
