The Flying Ostrich

Nia watches in admiration as Chika blesses the wa- ters. She yearns to visit Chika’s shrine, but Ndidi says women are not allowed to visit the shrine. As each moon goes by, her hunger to visit Chika gets stronger. It is impossible to cross the ancestral stream that sep- arates the shrine from the village. Many women have died in their attempt to defy the stream. If she were a bird, she would just spread her wings and fly over the stream to deliver her treasured message to Chika. Her grandmother says she is a bird, but her wings are not made for flight because she is an ostrich.