The Chair Beside The Alter

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It's been forty one days since Mazi Ude died. The chair had not been touched for that forty-one days.

Every morning, the first rays of sunlight slipped through the narrow windows of the ancestral hall and rested on its worn wooden arms, as though they still expected Mazi Ude to arrive. The room had changed since his burial. The voices were quieter, the laughter no longer lingered.

Even the scent of burning incense seemed to disappear too quickly.

But the chair had remained where it had always been.

For over fifty years, that chair had belonged to Mazi.

From it, he welcomed newborns into the family, blessed newly married couples, settled bitter disputes and reminded his children that a family without unity was like a roof without pillars.

His funeral drew different people far and near, not because he's the richest man in umudike but because he was a man whose door was never closed to anyone.

A widow struggling with how to feed her children, would always find herself in Mazi's compound.

Two brothers in bitter quarrel, would always find themselves in lighter mood after leaving Mazi's compound.

He had a gift money could not buy.

He listened to people.

He's not loud, when he spoke, he never raised his voice, yet everyone listened to him.

In every family gathering, he would walk slowly into the hall, greet everyone with a familiar smile and settle back into his seat, then would the meeting begin.

Forty one days after his burial, the whole family gathered once again.

This time around the atmosphere felt different .

Everyone knew why they had come.

Tradition demands that the eldest son Obinna inherit his father's seat.

Obinna was a young man who was doing well for himself and to everyone presently, he seemed the obvious choice.

"My children", Mazi Emeka began.

"A family cannot work without a leader" he continued.

"Today we have come to ask Obinna to take his father's place".

Every eye turned towards Obinna.

He stood up slowly and walked towards his father's seat . His heart echoed loudly in his ears as he walked towards the chair.

For years, he had imagined this moment but wasn't sure he was yet ready for it.

As he looked at the chair, memories rushed through his mind.

He remembered watching his father leaving his food untouched because a neighbor had arrived in tears after loosing her husband. He remembered seeing his sell two bags of harvested yam to pay the school fees of an orphan who wasn't even related to them.

He remembered how his father fought had to settle dispute that had nothing to do with him, just because he couldn't see a family tearing apart.

As a child, Obinna thought that leadership meant respect.

Now he realized it meant sacrifice.

Slowly, he stepped back.

"I can't" he whispered.

Everyone was surprised. "You can't?" A relative asked almost immediately.

Obinna lowered his face, "I'm not ready yet" he said.

Everyone kept silent.

Even those who had expected him to take the position immediately, found themselves staring at the empty chair.

For the first time, they saw that, it is not just a seat , but a responsibility.

Then a voice rose from the back, it was Mazi Ude's first daughter Oluchi.

"Papa told me something" she said through smiling tears

"He said the day people fight over this chair is the day they have forgotten what it stands for ".

A faint smile appeared on the faces of some of the elders.

"He told me that this chair doesn't belong to the oldest man in the family, but it belongs to the person willing to serve the family before serving himself".

Her words settled gently into everyone's heart.

The oldest uncle stood up and cleared his throat.

"Then let it remain empty", he said. " Not because we had no eldest among us, but because the family must first grow another Mazi Ude".

No one argued.

No one objected.

The chair stayed exactly where it had always been, beside the altar, untouched.

The family members stopped asking who deserved to sit on it, instead they began asking themselves whether they were becoming the kind of people who one day, could inherit it.