The Ancestral Curse

By Sampson Anobah

Amma Nyansa carried a pack of money yet at that moment, it was valueless for the mean time since there was nothing in the jungle to spend the money on, for our survival. We dined together and drank the cool running water of the jungle river. We decided to proceed, even though we did not have in mind where to go and so we went ahead, deeper and deeper into the jungle. The jungle comprised of diversity of trees, assorted twines, which entangled the boughs of giant trees and the entire ground was littered with fallen, motley leaves which cushioned the ground to make it comfortable to strike across. The air was filled with melodious singing of fluttering birds with assorted plumage. There were others who hoped from branch to branch pecking at worms and that greatly enchanted us that we forgot our plight and adversity. We felt hungry at midday and we had nothing to eat; there were wild yams growing in the jungle yet we had no tool to dig them up and again we did not have access to fire to cook a meal. Just at that moment, we luckily viewed a bunch of ripened wild banana which some birds were pecking at. The birds flew away as soon as we arrived at the scene. I started to climb the banana plant to reach the swinging bunch of banana fruits but the stem was weak that it succumbed and brought me down gently without sustaining an injury so Amma Nyansa and I laughed over it for a while. We picked the bananas, and sat down to eat as much as we could satisfy us. I made a hamper, using palm fronds and packed in it the remaining banana fruits. In the evening, we ate some wild fruits and reserved the bananas for our meal the next day. Before night fall we started looking for a safe place to spend the night. We prepared a place between a pair of buttress roots of a giant forest tree. Unlike the previous night when we enjoyed a sound sleep, we were kept awake by the frightful growl of a roaming leopard which came so close to our hide out that we thought we might be devoured. For the fear of the leopard, we concealed ourselves there even at day break until the sun had risen high in the skies. We were much relieved when we emerged from where we slept and did not hear of the leopard any longer. We did not waste time there and moved through the jungle without stopping at any place till noon when we sat down by a river to quench our thirst, having walked a long distance. We also ate the remnant banana fruits which we carried along and relaxed after taking our meal of banana fruits. We could not find our way back if we wished and so we realized that we were lost in the jungle. Thus we decided to move on in the search for a friendly community that might accept us. For that reason, we did not wander about in the jungle but took a straight course. We had gone far when in the evening we suddenly came across a hunter's trail to lead us to a human habitation. We could not determine which direction of the trial would lead on to the hunter's habitation. We followed to the right direction but we did not go far when we heard the leopard growling ahead and that was a threat to our lives. The fear of the leopard ultimately caused us to retreat and follow the opposite direction of the trail. Before sunset we arrived at a hunter's camp where we found the fire he had set still flaming. The camp was sited close to a river and we found cooking utensils, a matchstick and an earth digging tool kept under the thatched shed. To us it was a lucky find because with water close at hand and tools to dig up wild yams which abounded in the jungle, we could survive there for several months if no help came to us.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08D53GWFD
• ISBN13: 9798667055709
• Release Date: July 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"