NYU Black Renaissance Noire Spring/Summer 2013 | Page 11

‘Wetin the crazewoman do?’ he asked.

Someone said: ‘If crazewoman bite you,
you go craze.’ Nods and murmurs of
agreement travelled the circle.
‘If dog wey get rabies bite you, you go
craze too,’ said Baripo.
‘Yes o,’ Baridom agreed.
‘Me, but before I craze, I go burst
that dog head,’ said the boy who had
spoken first.
‘You no go fit,’ Baripo said. ‘Dog wey
get rabies dey craze.’

Baripo, the second boy, threw Dimié
Abrakasa an angry glance. ‘She craze,’
he said.

‘I go fit.’

At that moment, the madwoman
dropped her hands to the ground and
pushed herself up. The boys it seemed
were expecting this move: those
holding sticks leaped forward and
delivered blows to her head, her back,
her buttocks, her legs. Shrieks of pain
burst from her throat as she danced
around to avoid her attackers, her
movements as wild as a leaping flame.
Then she sank back to her haunches.

‘I say I go fit!’
‘I say you no fit!’
The boy said: ‘I go fit burst this
crazewoman head. Try me!’
Silence. Then the boys’ voices rose in
a chorus of cheers and jeers. ‘You no
fit, Ériga—do am, Ériga—burst the
crazewoman head!’

By the time the fear that combusted
in his belly had been exhausted,
Dimié Abrakasa was far from the
alley, the boys, and the marketplace.
He leaned against the rusting frame
of an electrical pole and struggled to
regain his breath. His chest heaved and
fell. His hands clutched at his throat,
and clawed at the neck of his t-shirt,
smudging the yellow. His eyes darted,
searching for the pursuer who had
laid grip of his imagination. Passersby
slowed as they approached, shot him
curious glances, and then hurried past.
‘You no go fit.’
‘I say I go fit!’

9

The boys resumed their stargazing. This
game was no longer play. They were
drunk on high spirits. They fidgeted,
impatient with the madwoman’s
cowardice. Some of the boys, whoops
bursting from their throats, broke the
ring to make short, darting runs at the
hunched form.

‘You no go fit.’

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