Mzough U Tiv meet the Tor Tiv on some aspects of the people’s culture that needed to be tinkered with
By Lechi Eke
Continued from last week…
Mzough U Tiv is the union of Tiv indigenes home and abroad. With the acronym MUTA, the union in America separated itself from the one in Europe which goes by the acronym, MUT. Two three years to the first decade of the 21st century, both MUTA and MUT began to attract illustrious sons and daughters of Tiv indigenes who had distinguished themselves in various fields of endeavours. Researcher and science advocate, Edward Hemen (PhD), and Princess Iveren Torkular’s young husband, masterminded this coming together.
Aided by Yahoo mail, the groups were able to hold effective meetings unhindered by time or space as they came online simultaneously to discuss issues vital to their land. All these spearheaded by Dr Ed Hemen, Iveren’s husband.
Excellence seemed to be Ed’s second name to the point that his alma mater and other universities jostled to have him come to teach in their school. At the end, he was loyal to the school that trained him, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. Not long after, Aerospace Inc practically bought him off the university, and just a year into that job, a high-Tech company that planned to do business in space stole him from his company with huge remuneration.
It was at this point in Ed Hemen’s life that he took a decision that set him in good standing to becoming a national hero when he made a detour from his inglorious stance not to marry Princess Iveren.
So, it was Ed Hemen who began to sow the idea of a stronger MUT/MUTA to his kinsmen and began to draw the young professionals who had made marks in different fields to come together. This group or union had benefited the kingdom of Tiv to the point that they had become the pride of Tivland, and of recent, became Jamin’s lifeline in dealing with the issue at hand.
When Ed who was the head of the union in America before relocating to Nigeria and the international president, had wind of the quandaries the Wan Tor was in in the issue of a life partner, he decided to wade in. One of the issues on the agenda of especially MUTA was to work for the betterment of all Tivs. The way to achieve this, MUTA had decided, was to dismantle obsolete and archaic customs and cultures, beliefs also of Tivs that had outlived their usefulness. So, when Iveren told her husband what was going on in her brother’s life, Ed asked the Wan Tor permission to step in and to take charge.
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The meeting with her father (1)
So, a meeting with the Tor Tiv was scheduled after several consultations and nocturnal meetings of MUT and MUTA online on Yahoo mail across the globe. (Note that it was 2001; there were no Facebook, Myspace, NETFLIX, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, IG, etc. or any of the social media interactive spaces you know now). After the group deliberated on the issue of a native wife for the Wan Tor Tiv whether he loves her or not, they voted against the ancient practice especially after deep inquiries were made as to the benefits of a Tiv wife, excluding love. The group voted on the Wan Tor being given the freedom to marry his love as everybody else. Problem now was how to convince the oldies.
A meeting was scheduled. MUTA and MUT planned to host a reception for their king, and then make certain requests. A skilled orator was chosen who would enumerate all the ancient traditions and their benefits, and he would thereafter, begin to plead against ancient customs with no proven benefits.
As Ulari and General Fiberesima boarded the Nigerian Army airplane to Port Harcourt where it would land and thereafter, begin the journey by road to Aba, Jamin took a chattered flight to Makurdi to proceed to Gboko by helicopter.
Ed Hemen was a national hero in Tivland. He had made a mark in his profession by inventing a few things that blew the minds of his generation. He was on high demand all over the world. To crown it all, he was son-in-law to the Tiv royal house. So, when he sent in a proposal for a meeting of MUT, MUTA and the Tor, it scaled through in the council of elders’ chamber’s sitting, the governing body of Tivland, and everyone turned out in their Sunday best for it was an auspicious occasion.
Everyone was seated before the pomp entry of the Tor and his family. But only such close family members as Big Benjamin, the Wan Tor Tiv, Benjamin Nguuma Torkular, the elder, Wan Tor Tiv, Benjamin Nguuma Torkular, the younger, her royal highness, the Tor kwase, the queen, her royal highness Wan Tor kwase, the wife of the Wan Tor Tiv, and the two eldest daughters of the Tor and his younger brother, the princesses royale, the sisters of the Tor who were in Nigeria and the Tiv Ruling Council (Elders Forum).
Afar was the skilled orator who taught the art of storytelling in the University of Wisconsin in the Creative Writing Department. So, after the Torkwaor musical presentation and the traditional cat dance, when everyone was in a joyous mood and full of burukutu traditional drink for those who drank, the skilled orator began this way:
“Our Tor, the father of our land, your imperial majesty, we greet you, our king. We’ve come to show appreciation to God almighty for giving you to us. You are a gift from above, a father, a covering and our succour. Who has ever come to you with needs and you turned them away? They chorused, No one!
“The world God created is not standing in one place. (It is dynamic, they chorused). Yesterday, your father, the former Tor, a man benevolent in nature and full of understanding, was here with us. But today, he is no more, and you have taken his place. The former Tor, your late father, loved the anger (traditional cloth) and wore it every day, but today due to climate change, the weather which is no longer friendly, has not permitted you to imitate your father in that noble act, even if you want to. The sun which we used to rejoice to see is now threatening to kill us with heatwave; the rains come with flood we cannot handle. But today, God has blessed the earth with new arrivals like us, people full of wisdom and understanding who have found out better ways of administering the earth.
“Men of thought have come up with technological advancements that are sending people to the moon and other planets. They are coming up with new things that make life better like the digital telephone, the handset. Old ways are being discarded for more human-friendly ways. In the olden days, if you wanted to visit your friend, you dress up and went. Today, if you want to visit your friend, you call him on the phone and ask if he is at home. By so doing, you save yourself precious time and the trouble of visiting and not meeting him.
“Across the nations of the world, roads are becoming wider, aeroplanes bigger, houses taller, bridges longer, trains faster and luxurious. We, young Tivs, have looked into the things pertaining to us, we talked to ourselves, and said, are we not supposed to make our lives better and easier? We have seen those things that may hurt us and are not for our progress, and decided to do away with them.
“Daddy, we came with a need.”
Afar told the Tor and his royal brethren that MUT/MUTA agendum was the advancement of Tivland, people and culture. They presented many obsolete and unnecessary customs with no known benefits. Then, Afar hit the nail on the head.
When Big Benjamin, Jamin’s father, understood the issue, he began to feel hot. When his brother said nothing and some of the council members began to nod, even if not in agreement, but at least in understanding, his bowels loosened and nature hollered on him. He got up quickly followed by his aides to the small house. When tens of minutes passed and he did not return, his wife, Princess Dooshima, went to check on him. Later, the palace spokesperson consulted with the Tor, and took the microphone to explain that the Wan Tor Tiv had taken ill. Later it was rumoured that he was in a bad shape, and his doctors had been flown in.
Jamin’s father was of the ancient opinion that pure Tiv blood must be preserved on the royal stool. Since the royal family was the custodians of the ancient cultures of the Tivoid ethnic group, they should make sure that no Tiv custom was bastardised.
Ed Hemen, a much beloved in-law of the Torkulars spoke after Afar. Ed was much respected having distinguished himself in quantum physics globally. This fortune wiped his plate clean of the evil he committed against Tiv royal family when he put their 16-year-old Iveren in the family way. The young princess met him when she visited her father’s sister, Auntie Engy, in the United States after her secondary school education.
Engy was Ed Hemen’s maternal uncle’s wife. He had gone to holiday in his uncle’s house and met this gorgeous ebony gazelle of a girl. Although he was instantly interested in her, the girl took possession of him at first sight! First, she declared that she wanted to study physics on learning that was what Ed was studying. Thereafter, she pressured for a tutorial that ended in early pregnancy. Ed looked like a light chocolate angel complete with pink lips, and no girl could resist him; neither had he ever resisted advances. He was 21 at the time and in his final undergrad year, but had no education of control. Life was fun and pleasure presented itself to him on different platters of girls. Iveren was 16 and idle having no admission to any school.
Nothing could be done. Ed was reading a course that takes four years of undergraduate studies, two years of a master’s degree and five years of a doctorate which the Americans call a doctoral degree. That was how long it takes to be a quantum physicist. Hemen who went by his surname in California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA and by Ed at home, was just in the sunrise of that journey and was not ready for either being a husband or a father. To worsen the issue, he wasn’t sure that he saw Iveren in his future. He was just confused that something so enjoyable as sex could come with so much burden like a baby and a permanent partner!
Despite the Torkulars sending a high-powered delegation to the Hemen clan on how to salvage the situation, Ed remained adamant that he would neither marry Iveren at the time nor in the near future. His feelings for the young princess wasn’t anything more intense than what he felt for other young women who threw themselves at him for he was in that place in life where it was hard to say no to any form of pleasure; in that place where there was no conscience.
The Torkulars experienced a total eclipse at this misfortune and Princess Dooshima wept like a baby. But thanks be to God who changes things! After his studies, his fortune changed and he was in a more tranquil disposition; Hemen changed his mind and came on bended knees with wine in his hands to the Torkulas accompanied by his kinsmen.
So, when Ed took the microphone to announce that that was their plea, all expected a favourable answer. Nonetheless, kings never take decisions without due consultations. The Tor Tiv spoke by himself and thanked the unions doing them proud at home and abroad and promised them that they would hear from them as soon as possible.
Few days later, the Ilyu light wooden instrument sounded around different Tiv communities summoning MUT/MUTA to a meeting with the king. The royal message travelled round via phones and emails. The group had assembled on the meeting day all dressed in the traditional black and white stripes of anger cloth. It was a solemn assembly for no one knew how it would go. The king’s spokesperson welcomed the union and thanked them profusely for their good work. He then requested that they reiterate their request as prerequisite for the meeting to commence. The union having heard of the dramatic turn in the health of Jamin’s father decided that Ed Hemen should speak. He was loved; he was respected.
“Our Wan Tor, the one who would rule our generation,” Hemen began after profuse reverential greetings, “has found the bone of his bone and the flesh of his flesh. He has fallen in love with someone. We do not want to have an unhappy king in our time, or a philandering king, abased, and by our own making because we denied him his heart’s desire. We desire an exemplary king, a good man whose family shall be stable enough to enable him focus on his God-assigned duties administering our land.
“We will do him a disservice if we insist that he marries a Tiv girl whether she pleases him or not, while we all go home to straddle our love.
“Our king, the father of our land, we plead with you (all knelt) do not permit this gross disservice against our future king, the one who will continue with us after your days have expired. We as new arrivals on earth plead that with you who have seen yesterday and today, help us do away with customs that would harm us and our kings in future.
“Nothing remains the same. Every generation seeks advancement. So, someone invented the electric bulb in the place of the lantern; someone else invented the electric fan in place of the hand fan and someone the air-conditioner; someone else invented the refrigerator for us to preserve our foods instead of heating and reheating them thereby destroying the nutrients.
“Years ago, our forefathers offered their wives to their guests for comfort, but today, that tradition has been done away with because we put the feelings of our women first before our tradition. I’m sure our women never liked it, and no woman will accept it today. So, we removed that to avoid conflicts in the home front. If our guests are cold, we offer them a blanket or duvet, not our wives.”
After Ed Hemen ended his speech, the king thanked him and the union, then he asked his council to take a decision. There was the passing back and forth of papers between the royal council and the Tor’s family. The women were no longer in the meeting, only the Tor, his aides and the Wan Tor, Benjamin Nguuma Torkula the younger, and his aides were present.
The council returned with the verdict: “Pure Tiv blood must be preserved on the royal stool.”
Culled from The Girls are not to Blame by Lechi Eke.
To be continued…