NNEKA AND THE GOLDEN POT OF THE FOREST
EPISODE ONE
WRITTEN BY: Folktales By Erinma
Come closer.
This is not a story about gold.
It is a story about a forest that tests the heart…
and punishes greed without mercy.
Because the same road that blessed one girl…
destroyed another.
Long ago…
when trees still listened,
and rivers still remembered names…
there lived a girl who suffered quietly.
Her name was Nneka.
And the forest never forgot her tears.
Nneka lived at the very edge of the village,
in a small mud house that leaned like it was tired of standing.
Her mother had joined the ancestors when Nneka was still learning how to speak.
Her father later married another woman — Mama Chioma.
Mama Chioma did not come alone.
She came with her own daughter, Chioma.
Not long after, Nneka’s father passed,
and from that day on,
Nneka’s suffering began in silence.
Before the cock crowed, Nneka was awake.
“NNEKA! Wake up!”
“NNEKA! Sweep the compound!”
“NNEKA! Pound the yam until your arms cry!”
Her hands were always cracked.
Her feet were always dusty.
Her eyes were always tired.
If the floor shone, Mama Chioma said it was dirty.
If the soup tasted good, Mama Chioma said it was watery.
Meanwhile, Chioma slept until the sun was high.
Food waited for her.
Warm water waited for her.
Love waited for her.
And Nneka?
She swallowed her tears like bitter medicine
One morning, while darkness still covered the village,
Mama Chioma shook Nneka violently.
“Get up! Go and fetch water — NOW!”
Nneka’s heart jumped.
“Mama… please,” she whispered.
“Today is not market day. The elders say spirits walk near the stream at this hour.”
Mama Chioma laughed — sharp and cruel.
“If spirits catch you, let them keep you!”
“Go!”
She placed a heavy clay pot on Nneka’s head
and pushed her into the cold road.
The village was silent.
The trees were still.
The stream whispered.
As Nneka filled the pot and began to walk home—
“Hmmm… Nneka…”
Her blood froze.
“Hmmm…”
She ran.
KPAA!
The clay pot fell from her head and broke into pieces.
Water flowed into the sand.
Nneka fell to her knees.
“If I return home like this,” she cried, “Mama Chioma will finish me.”
She cried until the sun climbed higher.
She cried until her tears mixed with dust.
That was when the forest changed.
