SEC-S30W2: Legends of My Country: (The Child Who Returned)

In my country, there are many legend some which are supernatural and one of the most popular of the legend is the OGBANJE

In the Igbo folklore. The legend of the ogbanje talks about mysterious children who always die at a young age when they are given birth to only to return to the same family through another birth.

These ogbanje children are said to belong to a secret spirit group that traffic the human and the spirit Worlds. Their constant death and return bring so much grieve to their families and sometimes the family try to engage in some rituals to break the circle of death and make them stay.

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The umudike village was a peaceful village surrounded by thick oak trees and beautiful flowing rivers. AdaEze and her husband Obi lived in a small compound in the village. This couple were loved by the villagers because they were kind hearted and would do anything to help those in need. But behind their beautiful smiles was pain which the entire villagers knew and whispered about.

AdaEze had given birth to three children and they had all died at an early stage. She was pregnant with the fourth child and there was tension as to whether this one would stay or not. The villagers prayed for her and wished her well and a better chance at this pregnancy.

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Few months later, the child arrived on a rainy night with his cry piercing into the night. They named him Obinna (the father’s heart).

Obinna was loved by all and as the years passed by, everything seemed alright but AdaEze noticed something strange about him as he clocked five years.

He would sometime sit on his own with a far look in his eyes and will keep muttering to himself as if he’s talking to an invisible being.

One afternoon his mother overhead him whispering to someone who she couldn’t see. I am not ready to come back yet he said. Fear gripped her as her heart sank.

I am not ready to bury another child she cried to her husband that night. The next morning they quickly went to the village native doctor who told them that he’s an ogbanje and they are trying to take him like the others.

He told them that there’s a way to break the bond with the spirit world. The ogbanjes always have a secret object buried in the earth that always tied them to the spirit world he explained. Find it and we will destroy it and he will stay.

For days they searched the compound to no avail. One day Obinna took them to the back of the house and told them to dig beside the orange tree. The dad dug until his shovel hit a stone.

They dug out a stone with a red thread tied to it. they took it to the village native doctor who brunt the thread and crushed the stone through a ritual.

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From that day Obinna changed. The whispering seized and the far look he always had disappeared. He became like a normal child. Years later, AdaEze watched her child run around the same compound where she had buried three children earlier. She believed that the spirits had released him and this one has come to stay.

This story is a fictional story inspired by the traditional Igbo legend of the Ogbanje.