EDDIE QUANSA

This is one of those write ups which are inspired by good music. I guess we all know the popular Eddie Quansa song. It’s an old 70s song that was featured in the popular Masquarde’s show our Parents used to watch that had Grengory, Zebrudayyah et al in it. If you don’t remember the name, that’s okay because I assume many people won’t until they hear the tune… Here’s a link to the song:

http://music.naij.com/3982-peacocks-guiter-band-eddie-quansa 

Well, my love for high life linked me back to this song and I started to wonder if anyone had ever questioned who this Eddie Quansa is? Here’s my story. Enjoy!!

I peeled my blouse from my now sticky back and proceeded to fan myself harder as I nodded to the music blaring from the radio. It was a tiny radio I had taken from Uncle Gozie’s abandoned room and I had somehow managed to buy the first set of AA batteries but since then, whenever I noticed they were dying, I would switch them with Papa’s radio battery and act innocent whenever I heard him complain about how ‘useless’ Tiger battery producers were becoming.

“These Aba boys can’t be trusted again. Common Tiger batteries they must produce fake”

“Eziokwu Papa, Eziokwu” I would pitch in in a disgusted tone while picking his over grown hair.

I wasn’t proud of my behavior but I didn’t have enough money to buy batteries to enable me listen to the popular Peacocks International Band’s music. My favourites were Egwu Mgbashiriko which decries women who think education is all in all and that men are up to no good. I could relate with the song because it reminded me of my older sister Adaugo who is old enough to marry but keeps saying she is too busy studying Law. How can one study ‘Law’ Chineke? I used to wonder because Mbiawo, the chief Priestess is already the hand of the gods and as the hand of the gods, you are the law. If someone did something wrong, Mbiawo would visit you and declare your punishment. So please, what was Adaugo studying again? I would wonder, Mbiawo? Mbiawo that stopped deflowering long before Adaugo was ever conceived. Where will she begin? It was no wonder she got stuck in the walls of that univasiti. I used to pity her sometimes because I felt she would never finish studying ‘law’ until Mbiawo dies and Mbiawo was not dying anytime soon because the gods would always protect her and as such, Adaugo would never marry and I will not be an aunty. Often times, I blamed Papa for being too lenient and allowing us do as we like in the name of choosing our ‘path’. As Mazi Obinna would say whenever they had friendly arguments and I walked in to serve garden eggs, “Too much Oyinbo books are clouding your father’s brain”.

My second favourite song by the Peacock’s Band was Eddie Quansa. I used this song to create my handsome and talented Onyeagha whom I would someday Marry. Just like the song, his name will be Eddie Quansa. Strong, well built with big palms and a scar that runs across his face from his ears to the center of his cheeks and he will gist me of how he had gotten the scar while wrestling a Tiger.

Whenever Eddie Quansa came on, I would increase the volume to the last and let my imaginations run wild. From how even though I wasn’t the most beautiful girl in the village, Eddie Quansa wanted me and all the other girls were jealous. My imaginations would spin on to how Eddie Quansa will take me dancing in the city and he will play his guitar in front of a cheering crowd. He would call me to the stage and hold me by the waist while proclaiming his love. Eddie Quansa and I would get married and have brave sons and reasonable daughters and we will grow old together sharing our chewing sticks with each other.

I finally found my Eddie Quansa or so I thought. Though he didn’t have a scar, he had a missing tooth he had lost when masquerades attacked and beat him up.  We did get married but never shared our chewing sticks. We had ” brave sons and reasonable daughters but that didn’t stop my Eddie Quansa from having seven other children from different women. The longer I stayed with Eddie Quansa, the uglier he became to me but I loved him anyways and cooked from dusk to dawn for him and cleaned after him because that’s what a responsible wife does.

My Eddie continued to change and I began to reason that I must have been deceived because this man I called my husband was not the Eddie Quansa of my dreams but his Ugly Step Brother who liked to hit me instead of caressing my waist.

Adaugo finally finished studying Law probably because Mbiawo finally died. She must have provoked the gods. Adaugo did not get married but had plenty ‘lovers’ and kept advising me to leave my Eddie Quansa and follow her to the city. I had initially rejected her pleas and cursed her out for wanting to destroy what little was left of my marriage.

One day, Adaugo had come visiting and had met me packing my suitcase. She lifted up my face with her right hand in the most tender way and scanned my bloodshot eyes and cracked face that still had traces of clothed blood within them.

“We must leave now” She had said and I had nodded in agreement. That afternoon, I took my children and fled from Eddie Quansa’s Ugly step-Brother. That did not stop him from knocking on my father’s door in search of me but my father would not give him any reasonable response other than, “When the goat is trampled to death, it’s owners will come out”. He had stomped out and called my father a mad man as well as promising harm if I didn’t return with our children within five days. Surprisingly, not even the elders helped him when he had consulted them. I heard they had said he deserved what he got.

Thank goodness Adaugo had studied law because she used law to redeem me from Eddie’s Ugly Step-Brother by having him arrested for trespassing after he had broken down my father’s door.

I now live in the city with my children and Adaugo and I have given up on Eddie Quansa coming although his thoughts still linger but if you ever see him, please tell him my story. Maybe, just maybe,he will finally come for me.