The 100 Sons Of Samia - Part 1

Who remembers Agumen the first except that he was defeated by the sons of Samia?

All who belong to the nation of Tetrapia know that the first queen and true ruler of Tetrapia was Samia, the super – matriarch. Once it was that Tetrapia was not a single nation but four separate tribes: the Imekana of the North, The Desula of the South, The Orinka of the east and the Tetrapi of the west.

Agumen had been the chief of the western tribe and Samia had been his wife, however Samia loved another man whose name was Ekuan and Samia had a secret affair with Ekuan while married to the chief and it was a love too large to hide, especially in a small tribe, and gossip of Samias infidelity soon spread through the tribe but, god be praised, it reached the ears of Samia before it did her husband and knowing that her husbands wrath would be terrible she and Ekuan packed up their things and ran off together during the night.

The next morning it was noticed that Samia and Ekuan had dissappeared and it was then that Agumen learned of his wifes unfaithfulness.

“Hunters!”, he commanded,“Hunters gather around your chief. Today we will hunt a different type of beast, we will hunt my unfaithful wife and her unclean lover and we will bring back their skins
to make into leather shoes so that I may step upon them wherever I walk”.

And all the hunters of the Tetrapi tribe got out their spears and their clubs and they all set out behind their chief to hunt down and kill poor Samia and Ekuan but luckilly for Agumens human prey, Mother God had a greater purpose in store for Samia and so she filled the land of the Tetrapi with a thick white fog that went all the way from the Ankenaga river to the Otrupi hills and while Samia and Ekuan found safety in an abandoned cave, Agumen and his hunters got lost in the fog and two of them even stepped upon the cubs of the great spotted cat Jazira and were torn apart.

Later, when Agumen had returned to his village in defeat and the great fog had lifted, Samia and Ekuan climbed up and over the Otrupi to where the Imekana lived and, knowing that Hamaga, the chief of the Imekana hated Agumen, who was also his half brother, she knew that she and Ekuan could find sanctuary there and Hamaga even had a hut specially constructed for them.

Now Samia truly hated her husband and vowed that she would have revenge upon him some way. “If only I had an army then I could command them to kill my husband and then I and Ekuan would be rulers of the Tetrapi”.

It was then that Samia had a vision of a forest springing out of her womb and she saw the forest cover not only her village but also the lands of all the four tribes and it was then that she knew that God had spoken to her and told her of her future and her purpose. “Go to the old medicine woman of the Imekana people and ask her for the herbs that give great fertility to woman”, said the voice of the great mother.

And Samia did as she was told and the medicine woman gathered for her and mixed for her a special fertility medicine made from the wild herbs of the Memizay forest. “Make me alot of medicine, atleast a few gallons”, said Samia, “I will drink it all”.

And the medicine woman did as Samia asked and Samia drank down four gallons of the magical medicine before feeling sick and fainting upon the floor of her hut. “Are you alright?”, asked Ekuan, mystified by his lovers strange actions.

“This thing, I do for us”, she told Ekuan, “Now. Ekuan. You must make me pregnant”.

And over the next seven nights they did nothing but make love and over the next nine months Samias children grew inside of her but the birth of Samias children was like nothing the women of the Imekana people had ever seen for Samia gave birth to not just a few children but one hundred children, all sons, all handsome and all in perfect health.

The delivery of her children took all night and all the next morning and all the tribe were called to help and it was given to Ekuan the task of thinking of a name for each of the children.

“Abakwa”, said Ekuan, “ means beginning and so Abakwa will be the name
of the first child, then Janakwa which means journey, Amekwa which means Home, Quimekona which means Seeker or Seer, Numandwa which means dawn, Agajona which means warrior, Shimakwa which means spear, Kwashikwa which means shield….”.

“It is a miracle!”, said Hamaga to Ekuan, “Your woman has given birth to a small tribe of her own”.

“Yes. Perhaps we should call them the Samian tribe, after their mother”, joked Ekuan, still astonished by the whole thing.

When the last baby was born, Samia fell unconscious for eight hours but, when she awoke, she said to Hamaga, “Great chief! Make my children part of your tribe, help them and, when they become men, they will fight for the Imekana tribe and conquer the Tetrapi in the name of Hamaga and slay your great rival Agumen”.

And Hamaga stroked the grey which grew upon his chin and spoke to the tribal elders in private and when he had finished deliberating he told Samia, “Generations ago, Agumens father and his hunters raided our tribe and kidnapped my mother and married her by force and raped her but, while she was pregnant with me, she escaped from the Tetrapi and ran back to her own tribe. My mother was the daughter of the chief, and he accepted her child as his own grandchild, such was his wisdom and kindness. That is why I am Agumens half brother and why I am the Imekana chief,and why I hate Agumen and why I have decided to help you and your children. God bless the hundred sons of Samia, may they grow into strong and proud Imekana Men”.

And they did grow and all the women of the Imekana tribe helped with their rearing
and, since they were to become warriors for the tribe, Hamaga made sure that they learned the ways of the hunter and the warrior but from their mother they also learned to have respect for those who did not fight, the women,the children and the very old, and she taught them about the great mother who is all and about their connection with all things including the stars which are the million children of the divine mother.

And Abakwa, who was the oldest of the children, became their natural leader because he was most chief like among them but Janakwa was the one with the happiest heart, always smiling and cheerful and wise no matter what darkness fell upon him, Amekwa was the one most devoted to his mother and the most loyal and faithful to his family and tribe, Numandwa was by far the cleverest with a mind as sharp and swift as the edge of a lightening bolt, while Quimekona was the most humble and spiritual and pestered the priests and medicine women all day to learn their craft. Agajona was by far the most daring and skillfull of all at wrestling and being a warrior while Shimakwa was the fastest runner of all, so fast that they said it would make the wind breathless if it tried to chase him while Kwashikwa, though not a skillful warrior or as clever as his brothers, was much taller than the rest and stronger than all of them combined. It was these eight brothers who all the others looked up to and who made them the great warrior force that would someday unite the four tribes.

The years drifted by like clouds across the great blue plain of the sky and the brothers eventually reached the age at which they would have to face the test of their maturity and so they were all gathered in the centre of the village and told that they would now go together into the Nameless jungle and search for the great Chirimoya.

“Who or what is the great Chirimoya?”, asked Abakwa.

“You will only know it when you have found it”, said Hamaga, “But do not fear. Be brave and true and wise and there is no doubt then that you will find it, just as many generations of Imekana men have found it before you”.

The nameless jungle stretched out for 70 miles into the north east of Imekana land and rarely did any Imekana man travel beyond it. It was so sacred that it could not be named although it was often referred to, reverentially, as the great green mystery.

And so, with their hundred spears pointing at the sky, they trekked north into the heart of the great green mystery, aware of the dangers that slinked and crawled, flapped and prowled in the leafy darkness, and as they did they chanted the song of their tribe,

“Imekani Mahutaka! Imekani Mahutaka!”, they chanted, “Young Men of the Imekana
Tribe! Rolling thunder!”, they chanted but though they proclaimed their power loudly their young hearts were filled with a more deafening uncertainty.

“What a pointless quest! What can it be, this great Chirimoya?”, asked Abakwa, “Except a headache and a worry for us all”.

“Chirimoya sounds like a bird”, said Janakwa, smiling, “A brightly coloured beautiful bird with a happy song”.

“Chirimoya sounds like some far off place, some wonderful place that is far away from home or some woman who lives in that far off place who is beautiful but however wonderful the place or however beautiful the woman I would rather be at home with mother. The farther we go into the nameless jungle,the more likely we are to get lost or eaten or poisoned or something much worse and never see home again”, said Amekwa, shivering, “Oh. If only the road out were the road home. The scent of the Imoko trees, the songs of the women, the taste of mekali nuts, my mothers hut and me. The ghost of my umbilical chord tightens and tugs me home”.

“Silly Amekwa! Chirimoya is obviously a riddle or a puzzle of some sort. ‘You will only know it when you have found it’, Hamaga told us and what is only known when it is found?”, said Numandwa and then secretly thought “An answer! That must be it: An answer! Ha! My foolish brothers want to search high and low for a thing called a Chirimoya when no such thing exists and I have already worked it out”, and Numandwa smiled because he assumed that he was right although, in truth, he was totally wrong.

“Chirimoya sounds like the name of some great wise man”, said Quimekona, “Who knows all the secrets of the invisible world. I’m sure that if we follow our intuition, it will guide us to him”.

“Not a wise man but a great warrior”, said Agajona, “Who will bow down with respect to anyone strong enough to beat him in a match of wrestling and spears. Chirimoya! Chirimoya! I can hear how people might chant his heroic name! The mighty Chirimoya! The mighty Agajona!”.

“Chirimoya is something fast, something that darts about, like the western wind,like
a dear that is as fast as the western wind, perhaps the thing that all men chase, the perfect,most wonderful thing, a dream in the form of a magical dear that only the swiftest may catch”, said Shimakwa.

“Chirimoya? Chirimoya?”, said Kwashikwa, “I cannot think what it could be. My brain is not as imaginative as all my brothers but, whatever it is, I am strong enough to lift it or fight it or dig for it, whatever it is, I am ready”.

Then the first born son made a decision, “Whatever it is, be it a bird or a place or a puzzle or a wise man or a warrior or a dear as swift as the wind, our chances of finding it will be increased if we split into smaller sections and so I think that we should divide our hundred into four groups of twenty five. I and Janakwa will lead a group of twenty-three brothers in one direction. Amekwa and Quimekona will lead another group in another direction.Numandwa and Agajona will lead another twenty three and Shimakwa and Kwashikwa will lead the fourth quarter”.

And so, the hundred sons of Samia divided into four separate quests; seeking, with hope in their hearts, the mysterious thing known as the Chirimoya.