Mother’s Legacy
An Igbo Tale From Nigeria
Copyright © 2021 Anike Foundation
Atule lived in the village of Ukpoke with her mother, having lost her father at the tender age of six. She was the only child of her mother, who was a peasant farmer. Atule was a very beautiful girl.
Men, women and children appreciated her beauty. Atule’s beauty was even more evident in the evenings when the golden beams of the late evening sun shone on her dark skin on her way from the river. She was respectful and obedient.
Atule had come to the age when she would assist her mother who had labored to bring her up. As a result of keeping bad friends, Atul’s beauty suddenly went to her head. Instead of assisting her mother, Atule became disobedient, rude and hostile. She did not assist her mother in any domestic work; rather, she would consciously dress to enhance her beauty and began to showcase herself. All efforts by her mother and neighbors to convince her that she was on the wrong track did not yield good results.
Atule would go out in the morning and return late in the evening to eat and sleep. The next morning before cockcrow, Atule would take her bath and get ready for the unrewarding day.
At some point, her mother could no longer bear it; she decided to punish her. Each time Atule came in when the soup was on the hearth, her mother would go back to the pot of soup. Even though she had already added all the ingredients that the soup required, she would dust her palms into the pot of soup, and seemingly invite all the ingredients to come into the pot of soup. Meanwhile, her daughter would sit down to watch her and from there she thought she had learned how to cook soup, not knowing her mother was deceiving her.
One day, as fate would have it, Atule’s mother died. She had no option than to go and stay with her mother’s relatives. While she was there, she continued with her lifestyle. Her mother’s relatives could not tolerate her, just like her mother. For that reason, Atule left for Jagba Jogbo with her new suitor. In the tradition of Jagba Jogbo, when a man married a new wife, the woman must cook soup for the family of her husband. The soup must be cooked with vegetable leaves. It was regarded as the simplest and cheapest to cook. Unfortunately, Atule could not cook the soup because she had not learned how to cook any soup.
She did not know how to use any of the ingredients her husband’s family gave her. Instead, she ate the smoked fish meant for the soup while the pot with water meant for the soup was on the hearth.
Each time, she would open the pot of boiling water and dust her palms into the pot and invite all the ingredients to come into it. She did it several times, but each time she opened the pot there would be nothing inside. She tried and tried again but nothing happened. But to her, that was how her mother did it in her time. She never knew her mother only deceived her as she was not ready to cook but eat.
Her husband’s kinsmen, who had arrived for the new wife’s meal, started murmuring. Her sister-in-law decided to get closer and see what her brother’s wife had been doing. Unfortunately, she had done nothing. The sister-in-law wanted to assist but she could not because she was not happy with her. She quickly ran to her brother and told him what was happening. The mother rejected Atule because it was taboo to marry a wife who could not cook soup in their community. The family of her husband simply gathered and told her to go and that, until she had learned to cook, she could not come back and be Atule’s wife. Atule cried and wept because she was ashamed of her refusal to learn from her mother and now she had nowhere to go and learn what she was supposed to have learned.
However, she went back to her sister’s house to learn what she was supposed to have known earlier.