ABEFE woke up early in the morning for the great trek to Ekiti, for her usual trading activities. The journey would take three or four days by foot, but she didn’t mind. She was used to such rigours and pains in order to eke out a living. With tears cascading down her eyes, she would carry her goods on her head and also barefooted, she would begin her journey in the chilly cold of the morning.
In those early years, travelling via vehicles was rare and considered a great luxury meant
only for kings, queens or white missionaries and government functionaries. Although she was a princess, being a daughter to King Olurotimi of the Kiabbo dynasty in the South West, she was humble, hardworking and would risk health hazards to prove she was not a spoilt, over-pampered or over-indulged daughter of the king.
At a very young age, Abefe’s mum, a queen, took her to a distant town in Ibadan, to live with a relative. And the young Abefe obliged and heeded her mum’s advice and instructions. There was enmity, bickering and jealousy in King Olurotimi’s harem and immediate family. So, in order to struggle on her own, with God by her side, Abefe opted to face life’s challenges, not minding the dangers inherent in the storms of life.
Abefe was very beautiful, just like her mum. And she was not so educated, but she taught herself how to read the holy book and other newspapers and magazines written in the local dialect. The relative Abefe was living with in Ibadan treated her like a slave. She was the only one doing all the work at home and going on errands while the children of her benefactor did nothing but go to school in those early years. She bore her travails with endurance and stoicism while begging God to come to her rescue and put a smile on her face.
When Abefe was around 18 years, she felt she had had enough of suffering from her benefactor and decided to leave to face life’s battles herself. She made up her mind to move to Lagos. Some rickety lorries still plied the Lagos route then. Inside the Lagos-bound lorry, a young man, Korede Dolumi, fell in love with her and spoke to her shyly. Korede was a young apprentice from a humble background. He was the first man to speak of love to her and he won her heart though he was a poor man in his early 20s.
When Abefe got to Lagos, many young men sought her hand in marriage but she turned them down because marriage wasn’t uppermost on her mind. She was more interested in the challenges ahead.
A week after she arrived in Lagos, Abefe started working as a woodcutter. She would cut large quantity of wood, arrange them properly and tie them. Then she would carry them on her head and hawk them around the town for buyers. In those days, many households cooked with firewood. Woodcutting business was a very tedious and hard job for a young lady like Abefe but there was no other option for her because she must survive. Most times after working tirelessly, she would sleep on a huge pile of wood and in painful tears, she would dream away her sorrows. One day, as she was cutting her wood, she had an accident. The axe mistakenly dropped from her hand and landed on her right leg, thus wounding her. She cried in pains as she bled profusely. She couldn’t work for three weeks afterwards and she felt like dying.
She did the business of woodcutting for a whole year after recuperating from that accident. It was around this period that a female friend advised her to change her line of business. She became a fish hawker. Hawking fish wasn’t an easy business either, but Abefe bore it with courage and equanimity. Early in the morning, she would queue among hundreds of local women at a cold room to buy frozen fish. Thereafter, she would carry the frozen fish on her head and hawk it around Lagos city. The fishes were equally heavy and the ice would melt and drop on her gradually as she walked the streets of Lagos.
It was while hawking fish that Korede proposed marriage to her but she declined, saying she must seek the advice of her parents before agreeing to his proposal. After getting the positive nod of her parents, Abefe agreed to marry Korede. A not-so-lavish traditional marriage took place and Abefe became the wife of Korede Dolumi, despite the fact that he wasn’t rich. Her parents had given her their blessings and she obeyed and stood by it.
During the pregnancy of her first child, Abefe would carry heavy load of fish and hawk it in the heavy rain and the scorching sun. At a stage, she started bleeding and almost lost the pregnancy. One day during her usual trekking, she collapsed and fainted. She was rushed to a nearby clinic by a Good Samaritan where she recuperated. After delivering her first child, the gnawing poverty and lack was so much that she almost gave up the ghost. This was a woman who was still breastfeeding and also working. She would sleep on an empty stomach and wake up in the same condition. Despite the hardship, she didn’t give the idea of divorcing her husband a thought.
On a fateful evening she mused in tears: “My parents know what I’m going through because I’m following their orders and instruction. I know if Almighty God lives in His hallowed palace in heaven, I won’t die in this terrible situation.”
In the harmattan haze of that year, she fell ill and was rushed to the hospital by her struggling husband. She was diagnosed with malaria. The doctors battled to save her life and the life of her new born child. She was dangling between life and death. The bill was just a token but her husband was so poor he couldn’t afford anything. She managed to pay the bills herself from her meagre savings. Despite the fact that Korede was poor, Abefe respected him and didn’t debase her womanhood by engaging in extramarital affairs.
To take care of herself and her new born child, Abefe learnt tailoring. She became a sewing mistress and soon had many apprentices in her shop. She was still in this business when she had her second child who was also a boy like the first. She tried all she could to make sure her two children were enrolled in a school. Through thick and thin, she supported her husband. She bore her situation with hope and faith, looking forward to a better tomorrow. Most times, she would cry ceaselessly while feeling the misery and pangs of poverty. And her first child would console her saying God would soon put smile on her face.
One Thursday in the month of July, Abefe was drenched by rain on her way home, with her second child strapped to her back. She had gone to the house of a customer who owed her some money before the torrential downpour began. She took shelter in a shop situated in a one-storey house to avoid the heavy rain. The owner of the plumbing materials shop took pity on her, and during a casual chat, introduced her to supplies and contract business. He gave her a date she would come for a loan with which she could start the business.
The D-Day eventually came and Abefe went to the benevolent man as promised and she was given the said loan. She registered her business name and did all necessary documentation. That was how the Almighty God changed the fortune of Abefe, an ordinary woman from the village and she became a successful businesswoman cum contractor. After three years in the contract business, she had her third child who was a bouncing baby girl. Her joy knew no bounds! The young girl grew to be a beautiful lady.
Ten years in the business world, Abefe got herself a brand new car for her business. She did big business deals with many companies and many federal parastatals. Before one could say ‘Abefe’, money ceased to be her problem. She had become a great matriarch of her time. She contributed in no small measure to the educational, social and material well-being of her three children. They attended one of the best schools in town and even tertiary institutions and her husband loved her great strides.
Abefe became a woman flying all over the country for business deals and even overseas. She built a tastefully furnished block of flats through her personal efforts and also had assets worth multimillions of naira. She has now become a respected woman in the society and her children became achievers in their various endeavours.
Happiness and joy is now her lot. She had every reason to thank Almighty God for the gift of life and for answering her prayers.
STORY BY Segun Durowaiye (08055356855)
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