Okonkwo

The Chinese had been in the area for close to six years building roads and railway lines. Suddenly news filtered into Ogidi that a laboratory was being moved from Nnewi to the town. An official from the Ministry  of Agriculture in Awka had come over to discuss this laboratory with important people in the town. The Chinese had been experimenting with yams for a while now and Ogidi’s soil was considered good for what they intended to do.

The laboratory was ready in two months and was officially opened with much fanfare. The Director of the laboratory did not look particularly strong. Mr Wang Li coughed through his speech and it seemed he might faint under the heat. He spoke of developing yams for export and implored the people of Ogidi that jobs would flow into the area and create prosperity when they started large scale farms. They however had to finish all the experiments.

Mr Wang Li surprised everyone when he called for rotten yams to be brought in for a price. The laboratory was flooded. Mama Nneka whose kitchen seemed to make yams rot very quickly made a lot of money when she bought a lot of yams and stored them in her kitchen. She then got different people to go in with her rotten yams to collect payment.

This was meant to be for research purposes. It put money in the hands of the people and smiles on their faces. It was announced that by the next month land with titles would be bought for farming. The Chinese were paying above the market prices. People queued with their title deeds at the make shift Land Acquisition porta cabin. A university Professor was worried with the way Hectares of land were being sold to foreigners. He asked for a leasing arrangement so that families could continue to have ownership of their ancestral land. He was told to shut up. His father had left him no land to inherit, so who was he to say how land owners should manage their property. He was told in no uncertain terms to go and hug his second wife tight and keep his nose out of the business his poverty would not allow him to understand. His books were his second wife. A particular large land owner refused to sell his land. It was in a prime location and in the area where the Chinese wanted to farm. There were many dignitaries sent to his country home to convince him to put pen to paper and die a Billionaire. His children all begged him but he refused because he had been talking to the Professor. He was found dead in bed and the deal went through as his first son was keen on the deal. He had a great befitting burial and the word around town was that he died of stubbornness.

Mr Wang Li announced they had grown yams in the laboratory that were resistant to pests and could grow quite large. The community was invited to witness the produce. People came as far as Obosi, Ihiala, Aguata and even Onitsha to this big meeting.

The display was impressive. One particular type of yam was huge. In front of it was a plate of cooked slices of yam. Dignitaries called up to taste it all nodded as they chewed. This was the best yam ever cooked since the history of the world. The edentulous Mazi Eze was helped onto the podium by his sons. He tasted the yams and clapped his hands in approval. People called the yam Udoji Award for its size. Mr Wang Li then went on to announce that this yam could not rot.

Everybody laughed. Mama Nneka known for her ‘back luck’ kitchen asked to host the yam for three days, ‘and una go see’.

When two weeks later the Udoji Award had not succumbed to the evil spirits in Mama Nneka’s kitchen, people began to take the yam seriously. The murmur in town was that this yam would take over Africa and get Ogidi youth jobs. Things were finally coming together.

A few months to the planting season, the youth of the town were all getting ready for the jobs to come.  That was when the shipments began to come in. Lorries delivering mechanical parts arrived to the main farm site which had been cordoned off. Everyone knew the Chinese were building something very great. The town was buzzing with excitement for prosperity had fallen on them uninvited. So many workers came in from China for the construction which went on all day and all night. Some youth leaders asked when the locals would start being employed and they were told that Phase Two of the project will bring the jobs. Soon people began to hear strange mechanical noises behind the great walls around the farm. No one was allowed in. There was a lot of money in circulation due to the sale of land so the local economy boomed as people spent lavishly.

An announcement was made that the Yam Farm was going to be officially opened and a technological miracle was going to be revealed. On the great day, the dignitaries sat in the covered sitting section while the masses stood a far off in the sun. After the speeches and traditional dances Mr Wang Li announced, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Okonkwo!’ There was a noise like thunder and out in the distance, what had looked like a heap of sand covered with leaves began to move towards them at great speed. As the leaves flew off to reveal a shiny metallic engine that had a head and eyes, people took to their heels. An announcement was made to calm the crowds and they slowly returned to watch the spectacle. What followed next was a demonstration of how this machine could prepare the ground, plant seed, spray both water and pesticides and fell trees. The tree cutting demonstration was phenomenal. The great machine drove across the large expanse of land and stuck out a giant saw which brought the tree down. This was a robot that would eat Amadioha’s lighting as a light snack. It brimmed with the artificial intelligence of an evil spirit.

A man in the crowd shook his head sadly. ‘Farming as an occupation is over in Ogidi’.

Okonkwo did the entire planting season single handed and worked for twenty hours each day. He only stopped to renew his charge from the solar power plant in the corner of the farm. The harvest the next year could have fed the whole of the State.

The produce was displayed for the cameras and they were promptly shipped off to China. The yam peelings were needed for the development of a Cancer drug that was hoped would fetch the Chinese Billions.

Mr Wang Li promised the good people of Ogidi that after the yam peelings have been removed, the rest of the yams would be made into yam powder which the approved importers in Ogidi could buy. He hoped that the government would be able to afford the cancer drugs for the people when it was ready.

People of Ogidi now travel to Nnewi to buy their yams as they have no farm land to work with. When some young people went to Mr Wang Li to ask for some Udoji Award yam seedlings they could plant in other towns, he found it very funny.

‘My friends, you don’t understand business’ he said.