Christine

by Nina Newington

"She was my grandmother's aunt." "Who was Arthur Scott Clarke?" "He was the first missionary in the village where she lived which was Idumuje Uboko. In that village lived also Adagu her sister, the mother of Akueke my grandmother." "Akueke who never told the secret?" I wait. Christine is sitting on the floor. I can't see her eyes.
"Adagu now was the wife of Chiaku and this had been so for many years. Adagu had brought Chiaku sons and daughters and they worked the land of Chiaku's husband." "Chiaku's husband?" "Yes. Chiaku was nwunye di, a woman husband. "Chiaku was a woman and Adagu was a woman and they were married?" "Yes. Custom allowed. And in this time it is said Chiaku and Adagu were as friends of an age together. They laughed and hit their thighs from morning to night and there were always yams in the barn. Ruth too then, her name was Uduoga.
"She was many years younger than Adagu and often she was in their obi for in the house of her father there was little to eat. Many men in the village thought of her. She was strong and beautiful and soon she would be of marrying age. Then the white man came and he made a building. He paid many cowrie shells for it and he hired Uduoga to sweep it clean and make his food.

hat is my sin?' said Adagu. Ruth stood up straight and she said out loud, 'It is a sin for a woman to marry a woman...'

"Many in the village said she was not yet ready to be a wife but her father was a poor man and the white man was old and he was rich though he did not have wives or any children. The people then did not understand the Christian way but they worshipped the old gods except Uduoga who was called Ruth. And Ruth then went to her sister's house and she begged her to come into the church with her and be washed clean of her sin."
"What is my sin?" said Adagu. Ruth stood up straight and she said out loud, "It is a sin for a woman to marry a woman. There is only one true marriage which is between one man and one woman." "It is a sin then for a man to have many wives?" said Chiaku's husband, rolling his eyes toward his first wife. "Yes," said Ruth and they all laughed at her then and said one to another, "She is mad." But Ruth said, "No, you must listen to me. As I love you, save yourselves." Chiaku's husband, who was feared by any wrongdoers in the village for his clever questioning, said, "And now Uduoga, tell me, does the white man say it is good for the husband to divorce his wife?" "No," said Ruth and he clapped his hands together for palm wine and everybody laughed again. "Uduoga," he said, "You must ask the white man, what shall we do then, we who are blessed already with many wives?"
And so Ruth went away and she did not again visit the obi of her sister, instead she stayed in the church. When the people of her village asked her where were her children she told them she was not married to the white man, she was a servant of God. She was called the one who will not marry and her father, though he tried in many ways to find her a husband, could not and he was sorry he had taken cowrie shells from the priest."

"And what happened to Adagu and Chiaku?" "They laughed until they died. The old ways are gone now." "Why do you have a photograph of Ruth?" "It was the only photograph in my village. Child, it is time for you to go."
She stands up from the floor and I stand up too. "Thank you for telling me the story." "Go now," she says and her voice is angry. In the entrance to the servant's quarters I stop. The light shining off the gravel hurts my eyes. I forgot it was daytime. It has stopped raining. I can feel her eyes pushing me out. I left my catapult on her bed. I walk across the gravel. It feels like a long way. I don't look at the lizards.