One Prayer Away by Kendra Norman-Bellamy

Author:Kendra Norman-Bellamy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers

Seventeen

Efunsgun Fynn had never considered himself to be a jealous man, but today he wrestled with the green-eyed monster in a way that was foreign to him. He should have been putting the finishing touches on the dramatization that the youth department would be performing next Saturday. Instead, he stood at the window of his office, looking at the world outside and wondering what had become of the meeting that his chosen bride had had with her former husband.

In hindsight, Fynn hoped he hadn’t been too harsh in the delivery of his words to Virtue. He truly did love her, but in his attempt to draw her close to him, he felt that he may have pushed her away.

“It’s a shame what the white man’s beliefs have done to the mentality of our people,” Fynn said aloud. His father had taught him early in life that a weak mind made a man more susceptible to deadly disease than did a weak body.

“Sick bodies are far easier to heal than sick minds,” Obatala had said on many occasions while his sons sat at his feet. “You must never relinquish your place as a man. The Creator made you to be the strongest and the highest of any other. People may strip you of many things as you grow older, but never allow them to strip you of your manhood. Sometimes it’s all you’ve got.”

No one knew better than Fynn about how his people defined marriage. Realizing that she was born and raised in this foreign country called America, to parents who identified themselves as Americans, he even understood Virtue’s ignorance. The weak minds of Blacks in America had been instilled with worthless information that was intended to rob them of the principles of their motherland. Little girls here had been raised to believe that education was the key to get them to the places in life that they wanted to be, but Fynn had been taught differently.

Education belonged to the leaders of the family. Men were the ones who needed the wisdom that came in textbook form. This was especially true in the United States. Black men needed to be educated so that they could know when they were being lied to and manipulated by those who thought of themselves as superior.

“An ignorant man is a dead man,” his father had often said. “And a dead man is worth nothing.”

Although Obatala was only a toddler when his family migrated to the United States, he had always held strong to his roots and passed the importance of doing so on to his children, particularly his boys. Fynn’s grandfather, Bomani (meaning warrior), spoke only French, but managed to be successful at bringing his family to the States in search of a better life for them. Conditions in Niger had been very poor, even worse than today. Life expectancy was low, and there was little adequate work to be found. Although Bomani had left his native land, he too remained true to many of the traditions he’d grown up with.

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