The Caged Bird

                       The Caged Bird

    

                  ... . ............................

                        (a short story)

                    By Lene Ododomu

Modupe always campare her both past and the present with that of COVID-19 period. It was a period whereby people always stayed indoor. She vividly recalls that a state of emergency was declared so so that people will not be infected with the virus. So she always campare herself to that situation because of the restriction her father imposed on her. She always asked herself this question: "Am I a domestic bird that must be put inside the cage all the time?".

Tunde will always go out without any restriction by their father and Modupe will be looking at him while doing her domestic works with her mother in the kitchen. The worse for Modupe is that Tunde is her younger brother with two years of age, but he has more freedom than her. So she will be wondering if the father is intensionally doing it because she is a female child.  The  she will say at this same time that God did not make a mistake by creating her as a woman.

One thing Modupe love about her father is that he does not restrict her from going to school. His adherence to the tradition of their land is what made him a beast before her by limiting her from going out to meet friends apart from going to school or stream to fetch water. She had that opportunity of his love for education to finish her secondary school.

Akan, Modupe father's friend visited him and saw her when she came to serve them food. Akan now advised that Modupe has grown breast, therefore reached the stage of puberty, so she should be arranged for marriage in adherence to their tradition. Modupe's father agreed and related the plan to her mother, Fay, who also agreed.

Modupe was informed by her mother traditionally which she disagreed, but later corrected by the mother that that is the way it is done traditionally. So she conceded  when she realized that there is no option left for her.

Just three days after, Modupe was given to a man from neighbouring village who is a farmer as a wife. She was not happy about the unwanted marriage but  still left with no option than to be sold like a slave.

The father could not believe what he saw when Modupe returns back home two years after their marriage with many scars all over her body. She narrated the sad story to her father of how the husband maltreated her like a rejected sacrifice. She has been passing through this pain ever since got married to him but she endures the pain inorder to save her marriage because of the child she had with him. She only returned home with this very incident because it almost took her life.

Modupe was not like a man that will make decisions by herself. So she was still advised by her father, Ebiwei to return to her husband's house because she has already had a child with him.

Men can never understand the pain of a woman in their hands because they have this untrue  belief that she came to this world to serve them. But women does and that is why they believed in this saying that says 'women supporting women'. Modupe revealed her plan to the mother which she agreed. She came up with a plan to further her education and that will take her out of the village by going to the city.

As it is said that women supporting women, Fay supported her daughter with the sum of N3,000.00 which is her life savings without telling the father. For her, not telling him is the best choice because he will prevent the plan.

Modupe got admission in the University of Lagos to study Medicine. She carries her child, Youbaifa, who is just five years old and took her along. The neighbors in the city are very friendly, especially Iya Ibeji. So she leaves Youbaifa with It's Ibeji anytime she go to class.

Modupe changed her phone number so that she will not be disturbed from the village, though her husband has already gotten a new wife in replacement of her  whom he believes that can provide him a male child. But Modupe is no longer interested in any man because she will not be valued if she stays under the roof of a man without giving herself a value.

Modupe bagged  her first degree in Medicine in the University of Lagos and immediately got a scholarship to do her Masters and Phd in University of Abuja by the Lagos state government after coming with first class. 

She also bagged her both Masters and Phd and got employed by Alliance hospital at No. 5 Malumfashi Close, Off Emeka Anyaoku street, Area 11, Garki, FCT, Abuja.

To uncage herself from the tradition, she returns to the village and divorced her husband, Tunmiyen, who is already suffering from partial stroke disease and abandoned by his second wife. She divorced him with a bottle of dry gin or Ogogoro in local meaning by Ijaw as it is done traditionally.

Modupe sent Youbaifa abroad to further her education immediately she round off her secondary school in Nigeria. For her, getting married to another man and a called wife is like putting herself back to the traditional cage. Since she has made value for herself, there is no need for her to get married again because she has produced a child who is also becoming a value in the society.