#718 Wahala- Chinelo Okparanta
The difference between pleasure and pain is sometimes in the eye of the beholder, or the perspective of who is watching. Chibuzo and his wife Ezinne have had trouble with having a child. It has been continually stressful as the failure to get pregnant becomes more a public embarrassment. It is known in the village that negative energy coming from the community can effect having a child or not.
“Surely, the rumors said, apathy had a way of creating negative energy, and this negative energy had the ability to reinforce itself in the barrenness of one’s womb.”
They visit a medicine woman and she confirms that Ezinne is “Cursed by the enchanted” and needs to be cleansed before she can conceive a child. After the procedure, they have a dinner for neighbors to give her a positive surrounding before trying again. Of course, there is something actually medically wrong with Ezinne and despite the wishes and hopes of everyone around them, her pain and inability to get pregnant will not be changed by mere ritual.
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