Ajaiyi and the Witch Doctor

BY AMOS TUTUOLA

THERE was once living in a village a young man named Ajaiyi.

Ajaiyi’s father was a farmer and Ajaiyi was helping him in the farm until the father became so old that he was unable to go and work in the farm, but Ajaiyi was carrying on the work until he became old enough to marry, but he was so poor that he had no money with which to marry a lady.

Of course, there was nobody who could assist him with money. He pawned himself to a pawnbroker and then he married a lady with the money that the pawnbroker gave him.

A few months after he had married, his father became ill. The illness was so serious that he died within four days that the illness had started.

Just to get money for the funeral of his father, Ajaiyi went to another pawnbroker. He pawned himself and he spent the money that he got from the pawnbroker for the funeral.

Now Ajaiyi had pawned himself to two different pawnbrokers. He was working for the first pawnbroker from morning till twelve o’clock and for the second from two o’clock till the sun set. Thus he was working very hardly every day for both pawnbrokers.

Though, as he had no time at all to work for his and his wife’s living, his poverty was so gravy that all his neighbors shared in his grievance.

One day, one of his neighbors advised him to go to a witch doctor and find out the cause of the gravy poverty and to ask what he would do that would end the poverty.

Without hesitation, Ajaiyi went to the witch doctor. He explained all his difficulties and the’ witch doctor explained to him, “If you like to be free from your poverty, you will buy nine rams and nine sacks as well. You will put each of the rams alive inside each of the sacks. Then in the midnight you will carry them to your father’s grave. You will put all on top of it. In the morning, if you go back to the grave, I believe you will be very surprised to meet on the grave only the empty sacks, and that means your father has taken all the nine rams.

“When you meet there only the empty sacks, take them back to your house and put them in the room. Certainly in a few days’ time all the nine sacks will be filled with money by your father who has taken the rams. Because it was your father who had caused your poverty, for you have never sacrificed rams to him since when he died. But let me know the real midnight that you will take the rams to the grave.”

After the witch doctor had explained, Ajaiyi thanked him and then he left.

“How did the witch doctor explain to you about our poverty?” Ajaiyi’s wife asked from him immediately he entered the house. And Ajaiyi perplexedly explained to her what the witch doctor had told him to do. But when he said that he would not be able to buy the nine rams his wife said politely, “Are we going to die in this poverty? Though you have already pawned yourself to two pawnbrokers, I believe if you pawn yourself to a third pawnbroker you will not be able to satisfy all of them. Therefore, I will go to another pawnbroker, I will pawn myself to him as well. So by that, we shall get money to buy the nine rams and the nine empty sacks. For I want our poverty to finish as soon as possible.”

“If you pawn yourself to another pawnbroker, who will be working for our living then?" Ajaiyi asked his wife with great sorrow.

“Never mind about our living, we shall be living on whatever we get,” she replied.

THE following day she went to a pawnbroker who gave her ten pounds. Then she and her husband went to the market with the money. Unfortunately the ten pounds was not sufficient to buy nine rams, though it could buy six rams and six empty sacks. Ajaiyi was greatly perplexed having seen this. He told his wife to let them go back to the house with the money.

“Oh my husband, let us buy as many rams and empty sacks as this ten pounds can buy. You will take them to the grave of your father as the first installment. You will beg your father to take them and you will bring the rest three to him as soon as you have money to buy them. Because I believe if we take the money back to the house we shall spend it on another thing and by that we shall remain in our poverty.”

Ajaiyi agreed when his wife advised him like that. They bought six rams and six empty sacks and in the midnight Ajaiyi put each of the rams inside each of the sacks. He carried them one by one to his father’s grave which was at a short distance from the village. And he explained before the grave that he would bring the rest three rams as soon as he had money to purchase them.

Early in the morning, he and his wife hastily went to the grave. They were very happy when all the rams were no more found inside the sacks. They thought the dead father had taken them away before the morning. They came back to the house with the empty sacks and were expecting that their poverty would end very soon.

Having waited and waited and waited until the days became month and again waited and waited and waited until the months became year, and their poverty did not even reduce, but it became from bad to worse and they were even hardly eating twice in a week.

Then Ajaiyi blamed his wife. “I have told you on that day to let us return home with the ten pounds when it was not sufficient to buy the whole rams.”

When he told his wife very painfully like that she said, “Don’t let us give up yet. My advice now is to go back to the witch doctor and find out from him the reason why our poverty is growing from bad to worse instead of to finish.”

Then Ajaiyi went back to the witch doctor. He explained that he had sacrificed six rams to his father but his poverty does not finish. “Hah, your poverty cannot finish yet until after you have sacrificed the rest three rams to your father!" the witch doctor explained loudly.

Having heard like that from him, Ajaiyi came back to the house. He said to his wife, “As you know and quite sure that we have not even one penny in hand, how much more to get such a big money with which to buy three rams? But my intention now is that when it is in the midnight I will visit my father inside his grave. I will tell him, ‘You were quite sure before you died that I have no money and I am in poverty. But after you have died you are demanding nine rams from me. Of course. I tried all my best and I gave you six rams out of the nine, but I am told by the witch doctor that you insist to take the rest.’ If he says it is so, then I will behead him at the same time and then I will come out from the grave if possible.”

In the midnight, Ajaiyi took three empty sacks and one long, sharp cutlass to his father’s grave. He stuffed two of the three sacks with earth in such a sensible way that both seemed as if it were rams inside them. After that, he entered inside the third and then he was expecting his dead father to take away the three sacks.

But when it was about two o’clock the witch doctor came there with his two servants. The three sacks were carried to his house, Immediately the sacks were put down in the witch doctor’s room, he started to loose them with the intention to take the rams out and to slaughter them at the same time and then to give the empty sacks to his servants to return them to the grave. But he was greatly surprised to see inside the first and second sacks that both contained the hard earth instead of rams. And he hardly loosened the third when Ajaiyi jumped out unexpectedly with cutlass in his hand.

Ajaiyi grabbed the witch doctor with left hand and he held the cutlass above his head in such a fearful way that the witch doctor was puzzled. When he wanted to shout for help, Ajaiyi covered his mouth with the flat part of the cutlass. “Do you believe that I shall free from my poverty as you have taken the six rams for yourself?" Ajaiyi asked impatiently.

“You cannot free from it hence I am the right man who had taken the rams and not your father.”the witch doctor muttered.

“But I believe you are my dead father and as you have taken the rams from me you are banned to set me free from my poverty this midnight.”Ajaiyi told him loudly and then grinned.

“No, I am not your dead father in any way!”

“Certainly you are my dead father who has the power to set me free from my poverty and I am glad that I shall be free from it this midnight!” Ajaiyi roared horribly on him. And at the time, he forced the witch doctor to show him the place that he kept his money. Willing or not. the witch doctor showed the place when Ajaiyi wanted to behead him. Then Ajaiyi took all the money and went back to his house.

“Ah, you come back. Ajaiyi? What did your father tell you when you visited him in the grave? And what time did he tell you that we shall free from our poverty?” Ajaiyi’s wife asked impatiently immediately he entered the house with a huge bag of money on his left shoulder.

“We shall pay all our debts tomorrow morning. Because the witch doctor had turned to my dead father this midnight and he supposed to set us free from our poverty or he had taken our rams by false pretense,”Ajaiyi exclaimed.

“How did the witch doctor set us free?” she asked wonderfully.

“Because I have taken all his money by force and this is the money.”

Then both of them counted the money and it was more than six hundred pounds. T he following day, out of the money, they paid back the money that they had borrowed from the pawnbrokers. Having freed from their debts, Ajaiyi and his wife were living comfortably.