There was a man, Okonkwo who lived in a village called Obudu, an outskirt of a popular city. This village had rivers at its boundaries where many palm trees were grown. This environment enabled Okonkwo as a palm wine tapper to carry out his job successfully. From history, Okonkwo’s father was also a palm wine tapper during his lifetime. Okonkwo had a wife and two children; male and female. The elderly one was male of seven years of age while the female was just four years. Rebecca had a delay of childbirth. She gave birth to Peter, the first child after ten years of their traditional marriage in the village.
Her husband patiently stood by her with the hope that they would be eventually given a child by God. Exactly ten years after their marriage, Rebecca was pregnant and delivered a baby boy named Peter while after three years, she also conceived and gave birth to a female child, Sarah. What Okonkwo faced while looking for a child before he finally got Peter made him cherish children and show affection to them. Okonkwo was very down to the ground likewise his wife. He was also generous to humanity in his vicinity. Whenever he went to farm, he would bring season fruits, roasted corn and roasted yam for the children in his neighborhood.
This made the children to know his arrival time from the farm. Okonkwo went to the farm three times in a week; Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. When he was about to arrive on any of these days, they would gather together waiting for him with the hope that something would surely come from him. As they sighted him coming with his bicycle, they would be shouting ’’Okonkwo!’’ ’’Okonkwo!!’’ And he would give them whatever he brought from the farm. Weeks after weeks, months after months, years after years, this had become a norm. His humility made the people of the village to like him while his generosity earned him a widespread popularity among the children of the village including their parents.
His name was found at the lips of the children and even the toddlers. The good news of Okonkwo as a good man had gotten to the ears of the village head that had planned to invite and give him a Chieftaincy title during their incoming festival. The festival was fast approaching and the people concerned in the village had started preparing for it to make it a success. The small villages under this village had sent their representatives to the village head to know their contributions as usual. Messages had been sent to the indigenes of the village living far and near to remind them of the incoming festival that used to be a memorable one every year.
Okonkwo in his mind planned to tap enough palm wine for the festival when it was one day to it because of its freshness. Everybody was preparing. When it was a week to the festival, the village head sent a message to him. He went to see him thinking in his heart that the village head wanted to ask him to tap palm wine for the festival but when he got there, the story changed and he was highly astonished when the news of becoming one of the chiefs was disclosed to him which would be formally announced and celebrated during the festival. He showed his appreciation and left for home.
A day to the festival, what a fateful day! Okonkwo carried his sack bag and mounted his bicycle while heading towards the farm as planned to tap enough palm wine for the talk of the village festival coming up the following day. When he got to the farm, he fetched all the palm wine settled in the gourds tied to the neck of the palm trees for four days purposely because of the festival. He was hurriedly fetching the palm wine because of the time and wanted to leave the farm early. In the process, one of his legs missed the rope and he fell from the tree.
He became unconscious immediately he landed. There was nobody around on the farm to come for his rescue. After some minutes, his condition became worse and went into coma. Children had gathered as usual expecting the arrival of Okonkwo but when it was two hours they had been expecting him without his return, it sent a signal to their parents because that was very unusual of him, immediately they raised an alarm. The able men in the village assembled and started tracing him into the farm because it was late already around 7:00pm in the evening.
As they were going farther into the bush towards the rivers, they kept signaling at him making a sound ’’ooooh’’ ’’ooooh’’ to know his exact location on farm but to no avail because he could not respond until one of them saw him at a distance under the tree lying flat and incapacitated and quickly called the attention of the other men to what he saw. They noticed he was still breathing but could not respond to any action. He was quickly rushed to the village and laid him on a mat in front of his house. The news of his tragedy was widespread like a burning bush in the dry season.
Children were crying while adults were unhappy for something like this to have happened at that time when the festival was few hours to take off with all the preparations on ground. He was breathing but his eyes were closed. They were talking to him but he was not responding. All efforts to make him talk to them proved futile. That was the night that the Okonkwo’s wife knew truly that the people of the village loved her family. Okonkwo did not open his eyes throughout the night.
The sad news got to the village head and he instantly sent four of his messengers and two of his chiefs for their supports and sympathy. Some people left in the middle of the night to their various abode and started gathering when the first cock crowed at dawn. When it was some minutes to 8:00am in the morning, Okonkwo opened his eyes and began responding little by little. He was given water to drink while sitting and asked to rest his back on the wall. He gradually regained his strength but he couldn’t stand on his own.
People were relieved because there was hope then unlike before he couldn’t respond. One of the messengers went to relay the new development to the village head which made them to commence the festival proper. After few hours, he was fit to talk and thanked everyone for their candid supports at that trying time. When he was asked to explain how it happened, he said; he couldn’t remember anything but the only thing he could remember was that he saw death on his journey of coma. What a coincidental tragedy!
