Her Unfortunate Blessing

Photo credit: nigerian bulletin

Lokpanta has a lot of flaws like every other community and at a particular time, the menace was unwanted pregnancy known in Igbo as ‘Ime Mkpuke’. December period in Lokpanta is filled with so much activities for the locals; football tournaments, bazaars, weddings, freedoms and all. 

If you grew up in the east, you would understand what I mean by freedom – it simply means end of apprenticeship and it is usually a big deal.

Every Lokpanta youth would leave the most comfortable place in December and all roads will definitely lead to Lokpanta. 

You can take a youth away from the Lokpa village life where there is no electricity and the only source of clean water is the stream yet the young boy or girl will long for home regardless of any kind of comfort that you are able to provide. 

They simply long for home; they long for the moonlight in the ‘mbara’ (village square) where they gather to tell tales, they love the walk to the streams, to and fro the church and the frequent trips to the Nkwo or Better life Markets.

They miss the parade of masquerades at ‘Iri ji’ (new yam) festival and the pork delicacy at ‘Mgbasu Nkwo’ festival. They also miss going to each other's hut to fetch fire in palm kernel roughage, going to the farm and eating cassava akara with coconuts.  

They most definitely miss the fun of roaming about freely at the Yuletide without supervision and there lies the problem.

At my last Christmas holiday in Lokpanta, I drove through the Nkwo market at night and I could quickly tell why a lot of sexual immoralities take place in Lokpanta, first the whole place is scantily lit by the few shops who have ‘I better pass my neighbor’ kind of generator. 

As expected, there are a lot of dark corners which provide a conducive atmosphere for a quickie or even marathon sex.

I am talking about sex among the very young people, little wonder the rate of HIV is on the rise and the authorities do not have the slightest idea that such is happening in my little village of Lokpanta. 

In December, all the young boys who had been gone all year in search of greener pastures come home to show off a bit of their acquired civilization. 

They show off their cheap jeans and coloured hair sometimes and fake timberland shoes. The young Lokpanta maidens are usually easy targets for these young lads whose testosterone levels can almost burst their testicles. A lot of unprotected sex usually happens in the beautiful month of December.

Six months after December, a good number of the young ladies get disfigured in the stomach area. With noses as wide as the ‘ite ona’ (clay pot) some of them carry their pregnancies with pride while a few hide-away in shame.

One thing that is not common and this is not to say that it does not happen is abortion. No, an average Lokpanta girl carries her unfortunate blessing with dignity.

With the pregnancy, they still go to the farm, stream and the market and they cook their own food; life literally goes on because pregnancy is not a sickness. 

If you are able to enjoy the pleasures that lead to it then you should be able to deal with the discomfort that comes with it. 

The repetitive occurrences led to the action that would be taken by the Town Union in conjunction with the youth themselves.