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Sabina and the Mystery of the Ogre is a fast-paced thriller that winds through tales of encounters of mysteries and near-misses, underlining Sabina’s unusual courage in the face of overwhelming sentiment of deeply-rooted traditional practices.
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Ogre! Ogre! Ogre! women shouted.
Here comes the ogre! voices rose.
A vibrating snarl rent the air, sending Sabina into a tremble. Heavy footsteps came down on the ground outside with a force that shook the hut, like the initial tremors of an earthquake. Sabina wanted to scream, but her mouth became dry. She trembled violently. Her lips quavered and bit the earthen floor.
Will she survive? Will she endure the bite of that ogre? No, she won’t. Will she run away? But where will she run to? What will her mother say? What will people say about what would be considered abominable in the community? She would become a laughing stock and shunned by her community. She would be referred to as a cowardly girl. Her parents would be derogatively referred to as parents of egesagane, a stinking lass. No, she won’t run away. She won’t embarrass her parents. She won’t let her community down. She will brave herself. She will stay at that initiation stone and endure the bite of the dreaded ogre if only for the sake of her parents, friends and the village.
Tie her! Tie the ogre!
a babel of voices rose again.
She will kick us! Tie her please! one woman shouted.
Oh, God! Sabina whispered to herself, terror-crazed, pressing tightly onto the earthen floor underneath.
*****
Sabina and the Mystery of the Ogre was the winner of the Burt Award for Literature 2015 (Kenya) .
