This is a saga of an African tribe who lived a long time ago; a very long time before the coming of the first Europeans to their part of the world. It is a narrative verse which finely blends the elements of prose and poetry to tell a story that takes the reader over distant lands, to bear witness to the exploits of a people whom the reader would never otherwise get to see.
A very long time ago,
At a time where but few memories can still go
A maiden was a slave in a distant land
She lived to daily labor with her hands
I know not of the state of her mind,
Or whether her master was cruel or kind
This was a moment in time,
When men journeyed all the time,
To distant lands across tempestuous seas,
With a gospel of faith and hope and peace,
For the heathen souls and ‘uncivil’ tribes,
That they may learn of a Saviour...
Ikenna Okeh’s writing has an airy, picturesque touch to it. It is very easy to read.
"A Tale To Twist" is a multi-layered story, one of the people in times of change and how they deal with that change. Pleasant, funny, endearing, it becomes a metaphor of what happened on a much larger scale to Africa and Africans.