It was the final day of the football competition. One of the two villages participating had hired Kaluana – a dibia – and the opposing team Eleanya, Kaluana’s father to make charms for them to win the match.
It had caused quite a sensation that father and son – who were great dibias – who had always been cordial could come to blows.
Eleanya dared his son not to challenge him. “If you do,” he had added to the amusement of both villages and his son, “ikuku will take you.”
The threat that wind would carry him off sounded a lot threatening. And as he knew his father well enough, Kaluana didn’t want to go against him, but the money he was offered cancelled all odds and he overlooked the threat.
On the day of the match, Eleanya came, walked round the pitch, chanted incantations and went away.
Kaluana came after and set kitchen beside the pitch. He boiled his medicine in a clay pot on a tripod without fire under it while he burnt dried leaves on a fire burning beside the tripod. His supported village won and he rejoiced but his victory was short-lived as that night Eleanya’s promise came to fulfillment.
That night, Kaluana went as usual to hunt but didn’t come back in the morning. He disappeared never to be seen again and to this day, nobody knew what happened to him.
Read –Â Checkmate – A Flash Fiction by Ben Sipo Mulilanduba, Zambia
I know what happened to him. Ikuku took him. And he is probably boiling his medicine in a clay pot, somewhere in the evil forest.
Short, nice, and throat cutting piece. Thanks for sharing.