It was a blustery Saturday morning, and the dry harmattan breeze swept through the Ujum compound, rustling the leaves and rattling the raffia roofs of the huts as if challenging the very fabric of their construction. Nkpobor was busy sweeping the compound, her movements deliberate and rhythmic, while the vibrant voices of Torita and Akpak—Nkpobor's spirited maternal nephew—drifted as they made their way to the stream to fetch water, their laughter echoing in unison.  Meanwhile, Otanya with her bare feet barely disturbing the dust, had just returned from her lush vegetable garden, which hugged the banks of the Igeli stream. The sun, although muted by the haze of the harmattan, bathed the garden in a soft golden light. She had diligently poured water onto the soil to keep it nourished and moist, ensuring her plants flourished. With a basket in hand, she gathered fresh leafy greens, envisioning the trifoliate yam and fragrant vegetable sauce she would prepare for her husband’s breakfast—a dish he had eagerly requested. As she began to arrange the firewood sticks into a sturdy pile, readying them for the cooking fire, an unexpected sound pierced the tranquil air: someone was calling her name from a distance. Alarm rippled through her, and she wondered, "Who could it be?" As the figure came closer, she recognized the voice—the eerie, gravelly tones of Alep, the uncanny village spiritualist. Fear immediately gripped her, " what must be wrong"  she wondered! 
The visit of Alep to anybody is very significant, something very important must be in the offing. And most of the time, it is something negative she had come to warn about, which made her visit very scary to her host. 
Alep was a strikingly peculiar figure in the community, with her deeply dark skin and frail frame accentuated by an often unsteady gait, and was always very drunk. Nobody knows Alep's father, even though it is widely rumored in Nkemtal that she was fathered by the late Amimi Iborr, who was a known village drunk. The story is told that Alep's mother was the only daughter of the late Itek Ikuta, a respected hunter and community leader in Nkemtal. Ada Itek was rumored to be a member of the dreaded Nkibeh society in Nkemtal. Because Alep's mother, Iyebi, was his only and most loved among all his 5 children, the society demanded that he should Sacrifice her. The demand was too hard for him, and instead of having her dead, she manipulated her spiritually to become mentally deranged. This made the society turn their attention to another of his child who would not be too painful to lose. 
The deranged Iyebi was now constantly tied up and kept in the house to prevent her from going to the market square, which would make her madness almost incurable. During her incarceration, her most frequent visitor was the late Amimi Iborr the then village drunk. Three years into her ailment, she was found to be pregnant without her or anybody being able to identify who was responsible. But when she gave birth, and the child grew up to become a drunk, people started alleging that it must have been Amimi Iborr who got her pregnant, and most people started calling her "Alep Amimi". 
While her father called her Mbag(forgiveness), Iyebi called her Alep(Water) which was the name that stuck. 
From birth, Alep was already a phenomenon; almost every villager visited her and brought gifts. They saw her as a blessing of the gods to her mother who nobody was willing to marry.

From age 3, people began to notice that there was something unusual about Alep. She will say something unconsciously, and it will happen. It was at age 10 that it became established and renowned in Nkemtal, and beyond that; the child Alep was not ordinary. She woke up a bit late one morning and went straight to where her mother was kept, shaved a portion of her head, mixed it with kernel oil and three pieces of Cat eye seeds, and buried it in the center of the compound. Three days later, her grandfather collapsed on his farm and died, and immediately, Alep's mother regained her sanity. She will go on to get married and give birth to two boys. While it was established that Alep was a priestess, nobody could attribute her to any deity; all they knew was that she used her powers to save people, and with that, they were happy.

#beforetheycame