Yaremi found out that she was leaning more and more towards masculinity – the way she walked; the way she talked, each time she had to call someone within a crowd, she shouted with the hefty voice of a man.
Her hands were tuff and dry like the “tanned Kano leather in the sun”. How do I know? One day, she greeted a woman from the village at the stream path by shaking her hand, that woman yelped in pain and described Yaremi’s palm as the palm of a palm wine tapper.
Not only that, she was becoming more and more impatient and quick to anger. She also exuded the confidence of a man, even Woye noticed.
Yaremi was not bothered about her mysterious gender swap. She would smile, because why wouldn’t she start to act like a man? Everything she tolerated and suffered was enough to harden her. What did they expect?
Yaremi did very arduous tasks every day, which included; carrying firewood on her head while taking huge steps in hopes of getting to the village before the appearance of the moon in the sky, and fixing the firewood in complete impatience amongst others.
Yaremi’s masculinity came in handy as she used her male voice to always yell at her relentless toasters. Ayanwale collected! She told him that if he didn’t stop chasing her, his Kongo would break. She cursed him heavily and wished him misfortune if he didn’t back off.
Thankfully, it wasn’t just Ayanwale, Olona received his share of the anger. She called his carvings lifeless and described him as a very boastful man. She described his creations as very stagnant, useless, and powerless. In her words; “The other day, thieves entered Kufi village, your images welcomed them unable to raise an alarm. If it cannot chase out thieves in broad daylight, can they ever attempt to drive evil spirits away in the dead of the night?”
Lanwa, the farmer, was accused of wanting to use Yaremi as a slave on his farm. Did she look hungry? Yaremi wondered. She wanted no man who wanted to use her to plant more crops or listen to his old stories and people’s customs and traditions. She deserved to choose the type of life she wanted to live, a lonely life is exactly what she had chosen and it was all for Ajumobi.
She made a promise to her late husband, that the day he shot his first antelope, she would love no one as cheaply as she loved Ajumobi. She arrived at his house a full-blooded virgin, dodging, and evading men who wanted her for themselves. She was determined to keep her promise. No Ajumobi, no nothing.
Numerous times, Ajumobi showed up in her dream telling her that he was not asleep in heaven and that he was watching her all the time. The ever-present nature of the dead was well emphasised as Ajumobi spoke to Yaremi in a dream. He told her that one night, he blew out the candle from the hurricane lantern while she was fast asleep. He also once helped her lift her heavy water-filled jar. He also always pulled down her neatly tied head tie after she had spent hours tying it just to tease her. He was always with her.
Yaremi always felt Ajumobi’s presence. It was like somebody behind a closed door eavesdropping on the conversation inside the room. She always thought about how they’d laugh as she accompanied him to the farm and how he used to pray for success. She was still with her husband. But how would she explain that to her extended family who were looking to choose a new cap for her?
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Lonely Days chapter 8: click here
Lonely Days chapter 7: click here
