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Gulu: Tale of undying love and ceaseless crystal clear water

 

By Abdulwaheed Abdulgafar

This isn’t a fairy tale or tales by moonlight it is an occurrence that happened in a small village called Gulu in Uganda.

Victoria is the third child of a family of five. She had three brothers and a younger sister. Victoria was a very pretty lady; in the whole village, she had no contender when it comes to beauty. Despite her beauty, she has the best personality any man can wish for in a wife. But all the young men in the village were either not bold enough to woo her or were scared of wooing her because of what her brother had done to other suitors in the past.

One day, her mother sent her to the river to fetch water and in the village, they rarely get clean water supply. On getting to the river, she bent to fill her pot and something unbelievable happened, all of a sudden, the water became crystal clear. Victoria was amazed at the occurrence and she behold Lazah, the mermaid.

Victoria was shocked and scared, but he said to her “Don’t be afraid, pretty miss” and that was how it all began. Lazah was very handsome and chose his words wisely. They got talking and they fell in love with each other in no time.

As time went by, Victoria’s siblings got curious about her source of clean water because she did not reveal the secret of how she gets crystal clean water. On a fateful day, her parents and sibling planned to know the secret behind her joy and clean water, so her mother asked her to go and get water for her to prepare lunch. Few minutes after she left, her brothers stealthily  followed her. She got to the river and as usual Lazah did what he does and the river became clean and she dashed into the river to embrace her beloved.

Her brother saw everything and they rushed out from where they were hiding with their axes and cutlasses to attack Lazah, but he was too strong for a common human. So they dragged their sister home forcefully and told the entire village all that they saw.

Her brothers requested that all the abled -bodied young men in the village should come with their carefully selected weapons and they all went to the river to fight Lazah, taking Victoria with them since they know she is his only weak spot. When they got to the river, Lazah rushed out in anger because he already felt the pain Victoria was being put through. Unknown to him, the river was already surrounded by all the young men in the village.

When he came to the surface, he discovered his beloved tied down and in a pool of tears. Not minding the number of people ready to attack him, he rushed to the riverbank to save Victoria, who kept pleading that he shouldn’t hurt her brothers.

In the course of the fight, Lazah almost lost his life, but he managed to get back into the river to take cover and recover. Knowing the bond that is between Lazah and Victoria and the depth of the love that they share, the river felt it had to do something about the situation, so it washed Victoria into itself and directly into Lazah’s hand.

Victoria knew that the cause of all that had happened was due to lack of clean water in the village. So, she ensured that the village experience excessive rainfall so as to provide clean water for the community.

Till date, Gulu village experiences ten months of rainfall every year.

And as for Lazah and his beloved …… they lived happily ever after in the river.

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