Tiena: The Story of a Girl Who Became a Victim of Tradditional Fanaticism

By Regina Oli Igbo

A preacher once asked, What makes you believe that you are your mothers child?
What proof have you? The same preacher answered the question: The only proof
you have is because your mother told you so. And you believe her.

The Q&A set me thinking and I arrived at the idea that there could be a possibility where
even the mother could not prove that the baby she is holding in her arms is hers.

This is the case with Tienas mother who was ranting and raving, How can anybody
prove that I am not the mother of the baby I carried in my womb for nine months and
had her delivered in a recognized maternity hospital by a qualified midwife, and there
are records to show for that?

Read all about the story behind Tienas mothers ranting and raving in the book TIENA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462034598

Regina Oli Igbo

Regina Oli Igbo is a graduate of Tthe University of Nigeria, Nsukka; a former Senior Producer/Principal Librarian at The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). She is an acclaimed writer since 1979 and has written and published articles in Magazines and some prominent Nigerian 'dailies'. She is an accomplished novelist, a poet and a playwright. She has written and presented papers at both National and International conferences. Regina Oli Igbo is an incisive writer with an exceptional capability of keeping the reader in suspense to a point where the reader sees the unraveling of the 'mystery' with utmost delight and excitement. Her writings are generally imbued with 'moral adjuncts'. Regina Oli Igbo lives in The US. Recently, she was privileged with two invitations from Salem College, Winston Salem, NC, to make presentations on: 1. African Female Writers (2010) 2. Black Motherhood (2011)

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Contents

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

ONE

TIENA—BIRTH AND UP-BRINGING

TWO

CULTURAL MOULD

THREE

THE TWO HOMES KNEW NO PEACE

FOUR

SORROWFUL JOY

FIVE

HOME AMONG THEIR PEOPLE

SIX

CULTURAL ETHOS

SEVEN

DEMANDS OF SACRIFICE

EIGHT

GO IT WITH GOD

NINE

BUILT ON LOVE

EPILOGUE

Dedicated to

THE TRIO

FOREWORD

By Prof. D. I. Nwoga

The story of Tiena, told by Regina Oli Igbo in this novel, sounds indeed like a real life story and one that concerns a central issue in the transitional cultural phase of the lives of Nigerians, especially the Igbo.

The novel, Tiena, shares in various traditions of fictional writing, combining aspects of the detective story, the love story and the story of social realism.

Brought up as an only daughter by a widow, the growth of Tiena has to pass through the phase of dealing with the social and religious problems of teenage, of establishing her real parentage, of maturing to marriage and of loving and marrying a choice of partner. She has to solve the central problem of traditional minded parents-in-law and an initially subservient husband, when it turns out that only one daughter is the issue from that marriage.

How this problem is solved will remain a secret till you have finished reading the novel. I can only assure you that the events of the novel proceed with such suspense and periodic climaxes and pathos that the reader’s interest is held from the beginning to the end of the short novel.

Regina Oli Igbo raises crucial questions about various aspects of traditional life in this novel. Her own philosophical and religious convictions are definite and these have a great part to play in the development of the story. Faith in God and in the sacredness of the family shine out clearly from the story and one watches with attention as Tiena tries to surmount the conflicts placed in her way in this regard by the people and the events of her life.

Whether one shares or does not share Regina Oli Igbo’s attitude to traditional characters and their approaches to the key issues raised in the novel, one is satisfied that, through the successful depiction of the life of the heroine of this novel, Regina Oli Igbo has given us very strong stimulus to reflect on these issues.

INTRODUCTION

In Nigeria, some traditional norms were becoming too entrenched in the custom that they were being used as moulds for life. If one didn’t fit into them, then one had no right to live. While some of those norms were culturally positive, others were carried to such an extreme where they seemed to negate culture, for instance: ‘birthright and marriage right’. In the novel, the case of the girl, Tiena is a pointer to this.

Tiena was the average middle-class Nigerian girl who enjoyed all the rights as any other girl of her era and similar environment. She came under the same influences and experienced the same exposure. Yes she grew up without her father but that was only an accident of fate. Although it deprived her of a fairly comfortable parenthood, a ride in her own car, for instance to and from school, it did not make her one degree less, a citizen. She still enjoyed her fundamental rights. These rights only saw her through her university education.

Tiena fell in love with Nzidi. They decided to marry. In some traditional African societies, marriage is not just a union of two people in love, it is also a union of families.That was why when Tiena and Nzidi broke the news of their intent to their families, both of them were sorely scandalized when Nzidi’s mother told her son, That girl has no roots. It is easier, safer and better for you to stop this relationship with Tiena now and never think of her again.

Nzidi became adamant in his decision to marry Tiena and became suspicious of his own customs and traditions. He saw in them, a discriminating element which appeared more destructive than constructive. Culture makes the man but culture should not use man to man’s own detriment. On impulse, Nzidi was ready to adopt or borrow from any other culture so long as it serves his purpose. He left his country in utter disgust.

It upset Tiena to think that Nzidi was ready to give her up because of what she thought was an irrelevant statement from Nzidi’s mother. Her feelings were thus expressed in:

TIENA’S LAMENT

What is it that boils within me

So enclosed like an egg yolk

But in flesh and blood and bone

Tell me dumb egg—Do you feel what I feel

Nay! or there’ll be no need for cooking

Little head and heart of mine

To turn to an egg, of all there is

Instead of to mother Earth

Who knows what it is to boil within

And finds relief in tremor and rupture

Letting out the yolk within

To burn and scorch mother Earth’s children

Mother Earth I envy you

At least you have relief.

For while I burn and scorch within

And long and sigh to have relief

I fear the death of what I feel

Might start with me within.

Nevertheless, Tiena saw this damaging allegation as the greatest challenge of her life. Unlike Nzidi she decided that if there was any cleaning up to be done, she had to be on the spot to do it.

The first thing that Tiena did was to ask her mother in such a subtle manner that the mother at first was unsuspecting.

Suppose Mother that someone was deciding to prove that you are not my mother, what would you do?

How can anybody prove that I am not the mother of the baby I carried in my womb for nine months and had her delivered in a recognised maternity clinic by a qualified midwife, and there are records to show for that.

The irony of it was that the very midwife who delivered Mrs. Lunduku of her baby was the one who said that Mrs. Lunduku was not Tiena’s mother. That midwife was Nzidi’s mother.

Then Tiena began by believing that she has roots in spite of what Nzidi’s mother might think or say about her.

It is certain she said, that every creature born into this world must have been born of a father and a mother, so for Nzidi’s mother to say that I have no father and no mother is absurd. If Mrs. Lunduku is not my mother, somebody else must be.

Mrs. Lunduku, Tiena’s mother had been ranting and raving since she heard the story,

That witch must be brought to book! She must be charged for slander and we must sue her for damages! She can’t malign my family like that and get away with it. It was bad enough she didn’t want her son to marry my daughter. Whoever told her I wanted her son to be my son-in-law anyway? If she could not keep her dirty mouth shut, somebody would shut it up for her for good.

Nzidi’s mother had told her husband that the woman died after giving birth to her baby. That was all she remembered about the incident. As the duty nurse that night, Nzidi’s mother had failed to collect all the particulars of the woman before she died. She did not even remember the woman’s name. But that was enough tool for Tiena to work with.

Tiena was very optimistic. So she set about trying to trace her origin.

The search for Tiena’s roots proved to be most problematic. She was to dig up facts about an event that lay under more than twenty years layers of soil and as in the words of Nzidi’s father, It had taken too long between the event and the investigation and too much water had gone under the bridge. The fact that there was no written account of any part of that incident made the search appear impossible and more compounded. Tiena was determined to leave no stone unturned.

And so began the ‘drama’ for identity.

ONE

TIENA—BIRTH AND UP-BRINGING

The clock in the room had stopped working.

The room was not even properly lit. She got up, staggered to the tap, turned it on and there®®® was no water. In exasperation, she said, It doesn’t really matter, so long as I have my baby safely.

And as Mrs. Lunduku sat in high expectancy, rather depressed, another young expectant mother also in labour sauntered into the maternity home. This second mother did not tell the nurse her true story. From the much she managed to say, it was suspected that she was trying to escape from her people; why? They had threatened to kill her and