Overview

It was just at the beginning of the post-colonial era when a forbidden love started to blossom. It wasn’t as acceptable as it is today to date outside your tribe. There weren’t any guidelines on how to navigate such murky waters and therefore tying this knot was as troublesome as it seemed impossible but love knew better.

For purposes of confidentiality, I will use alternative names. The two, Jude and June came from privileged backgrounds and they were among the first people to enjoy the spoils of independence. They met at a school in Europe where they were both sent to study. It was a new environment for both of them and the only piece of home they still had at the time was each other. They didn’t share a common tongue so the little conversations they had were in broken English.

Eventually, with all the time they were spending together they started to speak to each other fluently, in a mix of English and both their tongue that they were slowly picking up from each other. June was a brilliant girl, she had dreams of venturing into the world of politics while Jude had aspirations of being a lawyer. He was a charmingly nonchalant guy with the stoicism to argue without having an urge to cry. He would have made a great lawyer.

On the other hand, June was a sweet girl with a short fuse. She kept Jude on his toes most times but they fit like the Yin Yang. When they would be separated in campus they would leave each other written messages. Even though they had already developed a fluency in English they insisted on writing to each other in their mash up of a language. Their feelings towards each other, overtime, grew stronger than the feelings they ever had for home. They had been exposed to an entirely different perspective of cultural diversity and the last thing they were going to let get in the way of their romance was tradition, which at the time seemed like a whole lot of peer pressure from dead people.

Like most love stories, theirs was a rollercoaster too. Their fear of being alone in a land dominated by whites was a contributing factor to their dedication to each other. In the times they wrote back home they never mentioned each other, they didn’t believe their folks would share the same enthusiasm for their relationship. Just about when they were about to major in their respective courses, Jude received a letter from home, his sister and only sibling had succumbed to disease a few weeks back.

The news broke him. He couldn’t help but worry about the state of his parents who were now alone in the home. He broke the news to June and asked her to wait for him as he goes to sort out things back at home. She was equally devastated but there wasn’t much she could do. June would reread the letters they wrote to each other on the nights she felt lonely. She longed for his return.

He would write to her, not as often as she did. In his letters he would tell her how hard it was for him to send letters secretly. In the coming weeks the frequency of the letters reduced and she could go weeks without hearing from him and eventually months. Her love for him slowly faded into despair. She started to hate how she cared. In between lectures she would look for ways to distract herself, picking up a smoking habit in the process. A year and a half passed since she spoke to Jude.

She finished her education and went back home, she thought about finding out what happened to Jude but she had forgotten that back at home her life was barely hers. An arranged marriage was already in the works. She was introduced to her husband to be. He loved her like he vowed but not nearly as passionately as Jude did.

She settled into her new life, she got a child and another. She was a good mother but at times her family felt like roommates in the same house so she started spending more time at work than at home, rising through the ranks. Now she was whispering into the ears of prominent leaders while raising teenagers who critiqued the same leaders she worked for. His husband knew better, so he stayed away from the little political squabbles they had over dinner. Sometimes he guided the conversations elsewhere but that never lasted long enough.

On her way back home she would stop by a fancy bar to sneak in a puff before she had to explain to her kids policies she didn’t think they would ever embrace. On this one evening as she lit her cigarette she had a familiar voice call out her name. She turned her back and saw Jude standing there, a flurry of emotions took her. She could tell that the years hadn’t been kind to him but she was also pressed for closure.

“Why now? Why didn’t you reply my letters?” she said, trying to hold back her tears unsuccessfully.

“I can explain everything,” Jude said. “I have an hour,” she snapped coldly as she continued to light her cigarette.

He grabbed a chair, he wanted to tell her how much he had missed her. He narrated his story, of how depressed his family became of the demise of his sister. How it would have been a betrayal to come back for her, a girl from a different tribe.

“So you married a girl from your tribe to appease your parents?” she interjected. All these years she still had that characteristic temper. In shame, Jude nodded, then there was a silence. “Why didn’t you write to me?” she asked between sniffles. “I had a wife, I couldn’t dishonour her like that.” He said, almost unapologetically. It stung her and in a fit of rage she picked up her bag, “I have a husband too, I can’t be here.” She said as she got up to exit.

Jude grabbed her by her wrist instinctively, “She died a year ago,” he said in a morbid finality. His grip on her loosened, the rage in her eyes faded and her head dropped but she exited the bar anyway. He let her go, he understood that she needed time to process the information…

WRITER: TONY