"Njoku" drabbles by Marcus Lewis

Njoku #2

Njoku #2

My name is Njoku Nwosu. I'm 14 years old. I live with my mother and my brother in our village. Well, it's sort of a village. We call it The Tents. We call it this because that's what it literally is. We live in tent city.

When anansi struck, most of us fled into the jungles beyond. We are refugees in our own land. And now we survive as if we're in the stone age. It kind of sucks. It was worse before I found I could summon wilaya. Before it was just play. Now it's nothing but study, study.

Njoku

Njoku #1

Anansi tells us we cannot live alone among ourselves. The elders of my village tell me we are too weak to resist Anansi's mighty words.

Anansi's mighty violence.

Anansi's mighty force.

We call them anansi, because of their mighty tricks. They take everything, these machines, but they do not give. But what is there for them to take that they can savor as we do?

We have wilaya. Commune. A way in which we connect with all. I am the youngest of us who can lead this. But first, I must learn how. That is, if Anansi cannot stop me.