Another Star
“Another Star”
10 x 15.5 inches ✶ Medium: Chalk Pastel on brown paper
In the end we kept them in pits.
Every other vessel proved to be weak. When mother Wafaa spotted the beast carefully maneuvering through our eba field she had her suspicions, later that morning when she found one dead in the pits she nearly wept from joy.
When she returned to our village from collecting salt from the hills nearby she recounted what she had witnessed.
“CHILDREN! Please come closer to me! I believe i’ve found a path to freedom, and a source of safety for our precious people.”
As we all drew closer to the square I could feel the anticipation starting to buzz amongst us for the first time in as long as I could remember some of it mixed with hope. We knew what could be coming. We had spent years battling these beats, and they were the one horror that plagued our village.
“Today as I collected our harvest” mama began “I witnessed with my own eyes the beast dragging its faded belly along our reddened soil. As it curved along the edge of the pit the sand beneath its foul belly shifted, sending the beast plummeting into its depths.”
Gasps erupted from our midsts
She continued “the thud still echoing in my ears I ran to examine the pit for myself, what I found my sweet children nearly bought tears to my weary eyes.” Only the leaves could be heard rustling as we held our breaths, in the moments before she delivered the rest of her findings even our dogs held their barking.
She continued
“Peering over the edge of the pit into its reddish bowels I saw the creature splattered and SPLIT in two ! not just this beast alone but 4 others had fallen to meet the same fate.”
We erupted in yelps and cheers!
The children began to dance Kameela and Abronoma embraced they had lost their own to the best years ago. The eldest amongst our tribe sat in the chair our oracle had woven for her eyes wet with the potential of tears, the one that fell just as the beast had rolled down her cheeks and pooled at the curve that formed at the corner of her lips, this smile was one of the brightest she had since Mele’s initiation.
The eba pits were just that, deep pits we dug breaking through layer after layer of the earth, you see the eba could not form unless it roots touched Nyameké.
In the beginning the earth was sweet and tender. Our bodies touched it and from there we could teach ourselves and our children what it meant to be held. The soil gave us our color; reddish as its own, our strength, our genius. It made the spirits that danced in the veil between our realms draw closer to us, it allowed us to spot them in the rush of ritual. When the sounds of the drums pierced our ears they opened up! and their whispers, we could hear a little bit closer. Most importantly it repelled all evil.
As the centuries began to pass layers grew as we did. In time we had become so distant from the source of our energy, It was cloaked by to many things. We still made sure our food touched this original soil even if it meant we had to dig.
Grooves turned to holes, holes turned to pits.
Their roots however always reached and we nourished ourselves through this connection. When mother Wafaa told us of the beast’s severing at the foundation of our pits we knew we had found our answer, in the moments after her discovery we felt like something had been poured into us and we were once again made full.
For an instant I felt a bit foolish Nyameké! How had we not known to think of it. A distant memory started to seep into the edges of my mind. When I was smaller I had seen one of these creatures riddled with sores, when my eyes settled on it I felt my blood begin to pass through my body at a snails pace it was the first time I had seen one so close. This was before the Nyameké stones that once littered our earth turned to pebbles. That was back when everything was plentiful, At first I though the foul thing was sickly or even diseased but when I drew closer to sever it with my machete I saw how clearly the stones very touch could sear the creatures flesh, leaving wounds that never healed. How couldn’t we have noticed that what gave us such life depleted theirs. I guess we were just blinded by all the loss, I felt a pang of guilt but allowed it to pass, maybe this memory was one to heavy for a child to cary.
My thoughts faded out of focus as my friend Lumina’s laughter rang in my ear. She wrapped her arms around me sweetly, inches apart she whispered to me “ Lakia isn’t the the joy nearly unbearable ?” I felt the wetness of her tears on my cheek as she pressed her face closer to mine. I almost began to weep with her when mother Wafaa began again.
“ Precious Black Stars no time should be wasted! Ago and Amen we need your blessed hands most of all by sunset today we should have 10 times the shovels for digging the eba pits, make sure every elder person in our tribe has learned the method by which to create one. As for you my bright children gather up all the Nyameké pebbles, scoop up the sand on the banks of the Drogbo river as it contains our precious soil. Collect all the Nyameké rocks your vigilant eyes come across and your sharp minds allow you to find.”
As she delegated our tasks ambition and focus covered us like the pelts we made for the rainy season, determination and serenity settled into us that afternoon. “Those of you” she continued as we began to rise and scatter “not yet past initiation age gather up more dried vines. In the days to come you will weave these stones into everything we posses!”
Lumina and I jumped up quickly ripping ourselves apart from each other, tears long since dried.
As the sun made its way slowly across the sky that evening
we made ourselves useful.
Names and Meanings:
Wafaa- Faithfulness Kameela- Most perfect
Abronoma- Dove Lumina- The glowing light of the afternoon
Lakia- Treasure Mele- Song
