My mother once told us a story of the Woman who despised her Chi.
It happened that this woman was born into a good family with good name and moderate income.
She was raised well. She was beautiful, she had a good character, she had everything good.
She was an example of what every woman would want to be.
She got married to the most eligible bachelor. She and her husband were industrious. Everything they touched was full of success.
However, years passed by and they never had a child. This woman began to curse her chi. She used every opportunity to abuse her Chi for making life very miserable for her.
This woman with her husband visited every place visitable but no child came forth. So she continued to curse her chi.
This woman cursed her chi endlessly until her Chi could no longer take it. So her Chi paid her a visit.
On that faithful day. She was coming back from Ahọ Opi market with her friends, when someone touched her from the back. As soon as she turned, she disappeared with the person.
When they reappeared, she saw that the person looked exactly like her. The person introduced herself as her Chi.
Her Chi took her on a tour of her home. In the home of her Chi, there was excessive wealth. There was lush vegetations, excessive livestock.
There was also a handsome man, beautiful houses. Everything was in excess.
Then curiously, the woman asked her Chi, where are the children that enjoy all these with you?
Her Chi then told her to go around the place and bring as many children as she could. But the woman searched and searched but there was no child.
She reported back to her Chi, stating that she didn’t see any child.
Her Chi then told her, “very good. Look around, all that I have, I have given you and will still give you more, but I can’t give what I don’t have. It’s not like I have any child and refused to give you. I can only give you what I have”.
Immediately, the woman reappeared in her own home in the real world and accepted the fact that one cannot grow above his Chi, ya mere eji asi na agbaka m mbọ bụ ego nri, inwe ego si na Chi.
When my mom was telling us this story, it was a mere mother-children bonding folk tale, but as I began to face life, I have realized that it’s deeper than folk tale.
It’s an insight into the argument of predestination and free will, Destiny and Choice, Time Travel etc.
It paints the picture that world has since been determined, and that nothing you do will change what will happen.
So when someone is born in Igbo Land, the person has chi na aka, and onye ọzọ ụwa, all of which his or her life must be modeled after whether he likes it or not. Just like a written script that one’s journey of life must follow.
Denoting that no matter what you do, what is destined for you is what you will end up becoming.
The Christian holy book supports this when God told Jeremiah that before he was born, God already knows him, and before he was conceived, God already knows what he will become.
Scientifically, people are talking about time travel. Meaning that if time travel exists, then everything that will happen in 2030 has already happened, we are just being moved like those under hypnosis to follow the script to arrive at that thing that will happen in 2030.
And from my personal observation as denoted in my 2020 article titled; DEATH GOT ME THINKING, I noted that we humans have next to no control of what we do.
For instance, nobody reading this article right now knows the exact time he or she will sleep tonight, and as a matter of fact, nobody consciously planned to read this article today.
Are we simply teleguided?
This mystery of life is fast becoming a Science.
My name is Ugwuagbo Emmanuel Chizoba (Zoba De Great) a Journalist based in Enugu and the title of this article is THE WOMAN WHO DESPISED HER CHI.