By Emma Chukwu
Rebel Cattle, E.T. Okere, Headline Press Ltd, 2021
In George Orwell’s, Animal Farm, published in 1945, inmates segregated among themselves through man’s machinations as depicted in one of the book’s most famous lines: “All Animals Are Equal But Some Are More Equal Than Others”. But the animals soon came together and began to plot the downfall of their human oppressors, as depicted in another famous line: … “The day is coming when the tyrant man will be overthrown”. Seventy-six years later, E.T. Okere in another allegory makes further insight into the primordial friction between animals and their human masters in Rebel Cattle, a novella like Animal Farm.
In this third work of fiction by E.T. Okere (an apparent rebranding of Ethelbert Okere), a herd of cattle, led by two young herdsmen, revolt against their masters. The setting is a forest in Benue state in the Middle Belt of Nigeria where the animals, after walking all the way from Kaduna in the far north, suddenly, refuse to make any further movement, even though they were not yet half of their journey to Port Harcourt, down south, their final destination.
At night, one of the animals appears before one of the herdsmen, Abdullahi, in a dream with a message from the “Cattle Kingdom”. In the encounter, the spokesanimal of the kingdom, which goes by the nickname, Musa, tells Abdullahi that the animals have resolved not to walk long distances, any longer, in search of food and water. A shocked Abdulahi rebukes Musa and reminds him that he is an animal and that he is not supposed to talk like a human being. But Musa refuses to be so addressed. “I am not animal”, Musa tells Abdullahi who gets even more upset by that effrontery. But Musa continues with his message:“Master, do not be troubled but listen to what I am about to tell you. I have been sent by the cattle kingdom to speak on their behalf”.
Still bewildered but not knowing exactly what to do, Abdullahi concedes. “Ok speak”; whereupon Musa, shaking his head and adjusting his position a little backwards, began: “We are tired of the way you are treating us … you subject us to so much hardship … you make us trek long distances, with little or no food and water … we starve for days before we get food. Look at how thin all of us are”. Abdullahi raises his stick ready to strike the talking animal. “Is this a joke… What gives you the courage to talk to me like this?”
Realising that his master has become quite agitated, Musa replies calmly: “Listen to me master, I do not mean to be rude to you. I was sent by the cattle kingdom to deliver this message. We have decided that henceforth, we will no longer follow humans to move from one place to another … we want to be treated like our brothers in other parts of the world… Our brethren in other parts of the world are kept in one place where food is brought to them. They are well looked after. When they fall sick, human doctors come to cure them but here, when we fall ill, we are left behind by our human masters to die a lonely death in the forest…”
At a point, Abdullahi raises his long apron to bring out his gun. But it is all over. He opens his eyes. It is a only dream.
The above encounter between Musa, the representative of the cattle kingdom, and Abdullahi, one of the herders, took place as earlier as in Chapter Two. The remaining twelve chapters would each hold the reader in suspense as every line anticipates a new drama throughout the book.
Before Abdullahi wakes up from his bad dream, Musa has told him that his brethren in the cattle kingdom request to see the king of the nearby village as a first condition for continuing movement. With no other option, the two young herdsmen headed for the village to seek help. There, the friendly natives, led by the village head, after taking the necessary precautionary measures, sent two elders, Ichie Tongo and Ichie Gemade, to go with the two young herdsmen on a fact-finding mission. Meanwhile, the story of the capture of two herdsmen and their cattle, believed to be the ones destroying their farms, spread rapidly in the village of Shema.
The next big drama, however, occur when the two elders arrive at that spot in the forest where the animals are lying defiantly, oblivious of the approaching humans.
The two elders stand close to one another, each taking a mental count of the animals, which numbered fifty in total. “But how are these two boys able to take this number of cows all the way from Kaduna to this place”, one of the elders wonders. But the response he gets from his colleague gives further insight into the myth surrounding cattle Fulani. “They go as far as Calabar, Port Harcourt and Aba… It’s a real wonder but I hear they use charms … It is even said that at night, the herdsmen turn into wild animals to be able to protect their herds and return to human beings in the morning”. To the surprise of the two young Fulani, the fifty cows all stand up on sighting the villagers and, with no prompting, Musa leads them towards Tongo and Gemade, and, soon, a walk commences to the village.
The next few chapters of the book deals with efforts by the elders of Shema to make contact with the owner of the cows back in Kaduna to report the incident. Alhaji Musa Bello, the owner of the cows, arrives Shema with three members of the Cattle Owners Association in Kaduna in very unfriendly countenance, having earlier been told that the two boys had been kidnapped by some Benue farmers and the cows nowhere to be found.
There is tension, but the men from Kaduna soon get their own shock when Bello instructs one of the herders to command the cows to get up, but with the animals refusing to move.
He again instructs the other boy to wield the stick on one of the animals but it refuses to get up. Then, he asks the three members of the association to take turn each to command the animals to get up, but the result is the same and, presently, Musa began to bellow: “Muuh! Muuh! Muuh!” The other animals follow and, just then, one of the men from Kaduna comes closer to Bello and whispers something: “Alhaji, this is very embarrassing, let’s go and get a lorry to take the cows back to Kaduna”.