IBO - Brian R. Lundin (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

they both were young men. Mr. Motovo’s father was well to do; his father was a doctor and his mother taught in one of the village schools and they had both been educated in France, where they met. Mr. Motovo’s father Doctor Motovo wanted to bring some of the western technology he had seen in France back to his tribe to help his people. He was a very wise man; he saw the problems in the country, the wars between the tribes and the unstable economy so he invested most of his money in foreign banks and markets. Unfortunately, the Hausa killed him and his wife during those bad times. Mr. Motovo and his sister inherited all of his father’s holdings, which were substantial.
After the “Bad Times” ended Mr.Montovo and my father moved back to, their village and he invested his money in the land. They both married and Diki and I grew up together, he was always like my big brother. Eventually Mr. Motovo started to cultivate “God’s Plant,” which was everywhere and my father became his overseer, but it was my father really who came up with the idea of trying to use “God’s Plant” to help the people. Mr. Motovo got the people to work the land and he was good to them, he made sure they always had food and a place to live and attended to whatever medical needs they had. After my father died, Mr. Motovo gave me a percentage of the company, in respect to his friendship with my father and all of his help and I became his adopted daughter.”
“What happened to his sister?”
“She caught the disease and died, she was such a nice lady, and she was like a mother to me, but Mr. Motovo was protected by the Iwa.”
“When Mr. Motovo was giving us a history lesson he spoke of a spirit, is that the Iwa?” Eli asked.
“To many people when one speaks of spirits they immediate write it off as an old wives tale, an overabundant imagination, fantasy, myth or ignorant superstition, but then, imagine how one would view the beliefs and practices of Christianity to people who knew nothing about it. Tell them about a man walking on water or raising the dead, or the resurrection of Christ and see what their reactions would be and these are stories that very intelligent Christians believe.
Long ago before there was Christianity, Islam or any of the other recognized religions people believed and worshipped their god or gods. In Benin, a country not far from here is where the ancient religion Voodoo was born. The people worshipped many Gods; there was a Water God, Jungle God, And Animal God and so on. The people believed that these Gods would protect them and help them find food and shelter, and they worshipped these Gods by sacrificing animals. During the slave trade, the first stop on their journey was Haiti, which was controlled by French farmers. The slaves endured brutal treatment at the hands of these farmers and for security reasons the farmers bought slaves from different tribes so they could not communicate, but most of the slaves practiced voodoo and that became their common language. After years of oppression, the slaves revolted and kicked the French out. It was the only successful slave revolt in history. In Haiti for example, voodoo is considered a religion and taken very serious not only by the uneducated peasants but also by very educated members of Haitian society and to these believers, voodoo is as real as any of the other religions. Part of the justification for slavery was the obligation of the Europeans to convert the “infidels to Christianity and the slave owners were expected to provide Christian religious to their slaves. Many slave owners did believing that the tenets of Christianity, which proclaimed a better life after death to the slave who was obedient to his master, would keep his slaves in line. However, some of the slave owners feared portions of Christianity, which dealt with human dignity and individual worth. They feared that teaching Christianity to the slaves might instill a concept of human rights, which was inconsistent with slavery. The slave owners feared they may be teaching rebellion by teaching Christianity to their slaves and they feared the gathering of slaves together could lead to uprisings. To combat this fear the slave owners chose slaves from different parts of Africa, hoping that their different languages, customs, tribal loyalties, religious practices and rivalries would work against the slaves being able to unify against their masters. Eventually the slaves created their own religion, voodoo, a syncretism, or mix of Christianity and African religion.
There is an old African myth that says that a thousand years before the birth of Christ, there was an Ethiopian Princess who was a member of Ramses court and had magical powers with the ability to heal people who were ill, they called it “mounting,” or when the Iwa took over the ill person’s body. It was said that she could control fire and warned Ramses never to look into the flames for if he did he would see himself and that would be the end of his reign. She was said to be very beautiful and could change from human form to a demon or a wild animal at will, but a big and powerful black panther was her preferred form. Unlike so many other cursed black magic entities, the Iwa was considered and worshipped as an angel when in human form, which protected the weak and oppressed and healed the sick and would kill to protect them.
Many times animals were sacrificed to the Loa, the acted as intermediaries between human and gods, but unlike Christian angels or devils the Loa had significant powers and were relatively independent from the gods and they embodied both positive and negative forces. The sacrificed animal transferred their life power to the Loa. The Iwa, so the myth says, was beautiful beyond description, but deadly, cunning and extremely dangerous.
As the story is told from village to village, a long time ago bandits and ruthless killers from the North Country, known as the Hassassins, kidnapped Mr. Motovo and wanted him to give up the land. The Hassassins were feared throughout the country because of their brutality. They raided villages, raped the women, and killed the men while in a hashish-induced stupor.
Mr. Motovo said they held him bound in an old diamond mine and they tortured him while other Hassassins invaded our village and were holding the people captive until Mr. Motovo gave into their demands. The leader of these men and his men started raping the women and young girls and beating up the men. The old Bacor tried to stop them but one of the men struck him hard across his face with a spear, causing a deep wound that bleed profusely. The old Bocor fell to the ground and started to chant in a language that even his own people could not understand. Out of the shadow of the trees, a beautiful naked young woman appeared followed by an equally beautiful naked young man. The leader, a man they called Sibo, were entranced by this woman and wanted her. As he approached her, with lust in his eyes, the woman walked slowly and seductively towards him. She gave the man a beautiful smile. As Sibo got within maybe three feet, the woman and her companion changed into big black leopards and pounced on the man their long fangs and claws ripping him apart. The other men were so busy raping and beating the people they did not see what had happened. In a few moments it was over, all of them were dead, throats were slashed and limbs were scattered over the grounds. Just as suddenly, the woman and the young man returned to human form. The woman placed her hand on the old Bocor wounds and it was healed. She and the young man returned to the shadows and were gone.”
“What happened to Mr. Montovo?”
“Well, according to Mr. Montovo himself, he said that while he was being held in the mine, he was being guarded by four men, one was a short, chubby, barrel-chested man who was wearing a black ski mask and appeared to be the leader and he had a head full of braided black hair. Another man was big with big arms and a big fist, another man was tall, dark skinned and wiry with a long neck and a head too small for his body, the last man had a squat built and was very dark-skinned with a gleaming bald head. Mr. Montovo said he was forced to sit with his hands tied behind his back in a steel hardback chair that was a few feet from a steel worktable that contained glasses, a dirty looking towel and a bottle of wine, which the men were drinking. Before leaving, the leader told Mr.Montovo that if he refused to give him the land, he would kill him and all of his people, after the leader left the big man walked over to Mr. Montovo,
“You think you hot shit, don’t you Nigga? The physically imposing big man with brutal features and broad shoulders said threateningly as he got up from the table and walked over to Mr.Montovo.
“Fuck you up the ass,” Mr. Montovo said he told the man. The other two men laughed who were sitting at the table.
“Fuck me up the ass huh” the big man repeated, Mr. Motovo said as he looked at his two friends with a mean smile.
“The boss said not to kill this uppity Nigga yet, but he didn’t say anything about not teaching him to respect better Niggas.”
The brute looking man who stood over six feet five and looked like he weighted over 240 pounds sneered as he looked at Mr. Montovo and than at his two companions.
“Fuck me in the ass, huh.”
Mr. Motovo said the man said sucking his teeth and bending over so that his face and his foul breathe was inches away from his face. Mr. Montovo said he could see the man’s jaw muscles rippling in hate and anger. The big man had a flat face and a sinister looking goatee. His teeth clicked when he talked as if he had false teeth. He had a loud guttural voice and his anger caused his face to look as if it had been chipped out of granite. He had curly mingling black and gray hair that was unkempt. His bushy black eyebrows extended in heavy lines from temple to temple. The tall, wiry man got up from the table, walked over to Mr. Montovo and punched him two times in the face, blood splattered from Mr. Montovo nose and mouth and he knew that his nose was broken as he spit blood and a tooth in the man’s face. “Motherfucka,” the man said as he smacked Mr. Montovo in the face.
Mr. Montovo said his arms ached as he tried to reposition them from their tied cramped position behind the back of the chair and avoid the blows from the man. Mr. Montovo said he watched as the tall man wiped his face with the dirty towel. The squat man poured him a glass of wine from the bottle that was on the table. The short squat man put his glass of wine on the table, walked over to Mr. Motovo, and