ANOWA: Mother, you have been at me for a long time to get married. And now that I have found someone I like very much...
BADUA: Anowa, shut up. Shut up! Push your tongue into your mouth and close it. Shut up because I never counted Kofi Ako among my sons-in-law. Anowa, why Kofi Ako? Of all the mothers that are here in Yebi, should I be the one whose daughter would want to marry this fool, this good-for-nothing cassava-man, this watery male of all watery males? This-I-am-the-handsome-one-with-a-stick-between-my-teeth-in-the-market-place...This...this...
ANOWA: O Mother...
BADUA: [Quietly] I say Anowa, why did you not wait for a day when I was cooking banku and your father was drinking palm-wine in the market place with his friends? When you could have snatched the ladle from my hands and hit me with it and taken your father's wine from his hands and thrown it into his face? Anowa, why did you not wait for a day like that, since you want to behave like the girl in the folk tale?
ANOWA: But what are you talking about, Mother?
BADUA: And you, Kobina Sam, will you not say anything.
OSAM: Abena Badua, leave me out of this. You know that if I so much as whisper anything to do with Anowa, you and your brothers and your uncles will tell me to go and straighten out the lives of my nieces. This is your family drum; beat it, my wife.
BADUA: I did not ask you for riddles.
OSAM: Mm...just remember I was smoking my pipe.
BADUA: If you had been any other father, you would have known what to do and what not to do.
OSAM: Perhaps; but that does not mean I would have done anything. The way you used to talk, I thought if Anowa came to tell you she was going to get married to Kweku Ananse, or indeed the devil himself, you would spread rich cloth before her to walk on. And probably sacrifice an elephant.
BADUA: And do you not know what this Kofi Ako is like?
ANOWA: What is he like?
BADUA: My lady, I have not asked you a question. [ANOWA retires into sullenness. She scrapes her teeth noisily.]
OSAM: How would I know what he is like? Does he not come from Nsona House? And is not that one of the best Houses that are here in Yebi? Has he an ancestor who unclothed himself to nakedness, had the Unmentionable, killed himself or another man?
BADUA: And if all that there is to a young man is that his family has an unspoiled name, then what kind of man is he? Are he and his wife going to feed on stones when he will not put a blow into a thicket or at least learn a trade?
OSAM: Anyway, I said long ago that I was removing my mouth from my daughter Anowa's marriage. Did I not say that? She would not allow herself to be married to any man who came to ask for her hand from us and of whom we approved. Did you not know then that when she chose a man, it might be one of whom we would disapprove?
BADUA: But why should she want to do a thing like that?
OSAM: My wife, do remember I am a man, the son of a woman who also has five sisters. It is a long time since I gave up trying to understand the human female. Besides, if you think well of it, I am not the one to decide finally whom Anowa can marry. Her uncle, your brother is there, is he not? You'd better consult him. Because I know your family: they will say I deliberately married Anowa to a fool to spite them.
ANOWA: Father, Kofi Ako is not a fool.
OSAM: My daughter, please forgive me, I am sure you know him very well. And it was only by way of speaking. Kwame? Kwame? I thought the boy was around somewhere. [Moves towards lower stage and looks around]
BADUA: What are you calling him here for?
OSAM: To go and call us her uncle and your brother.
BADUA: Could we not have waited until this evening or dawn tomorrow?
OSAM: For what shall we wait for the dawn?
BADUA: To settle the case.
OSAM: What case? Who says I want to settle cases? If there is any case to settle, that is between you and your people. It is not everything one chooses to forget, Badua. Certainly, I remember what happened in connection with Anowa's dancing. That is, if you don't. Did they not say in the end that it was I who had prevented her from going into apprenticeship with a priestess?
[Light dies on them and comes on a little later. ANOWA is seen dressed in a two-piece cloth. She darts in and out of upper right, with very quick movements. She is packing her belongings into a little basket. Every now and then, she pauses, looks at her mother and sucks her teeth. BADUA complains as before, but this time tearfully. OSAM is lying in his chair smoking.]
BADUA: I am in disgrace so suck your teeth at me. [Silence] Other women certainly have happier tales to tell about motherhood. [Silence] I think I am just an unlucky woman.
ANOWA: Mother, I do not know what is wrong with you.
BADUA: And how would you know what is wrong with me? Look here Anowa, marriage is like a piece of cloth...
ANOWA: I like mine and it is none of your business.
BADUA: And like cloth, its beauty passes with wear and tear.
ANOWA: I do not care, Mother. Have I not told you that this is to be my marriage and not yours?
BADUA: My marriage! Why should it be my daughter who would want to marry that good-for-nothing cassava-man?
ANOWA: He is mine and I like him.
BADUA: If you like him, do like him. The men of his house do not make good husbands; ask older women who are married to Nsona man.
OSAM: You know what you are saying is not true. Indeed from the beginning of time nsona men have been known to make the best of husbands. [BADUA glares at him.]
ANOWA: That does not even worry me and it should not worry you, Mother.
BADUA: It's up to you, my mistress who knows everything. But remember, my lady - when I am too old to move, I shall still be sitting by these walls waiting for you to come back with your rags and nakedness.
ANOWA: You do not have to wait because we shall not be coming back here to Yebi. Not for a long long time, Mother, not for a long long time.
BADUA: Of course, if I were you I wouldn't want to come back with my shame either.
ANOWA: You will be surprised to know that I am going to help him do something with his life.
BADUA: A-a-h, I wish I could turn into a bird and come and stand on your roof-top watching you make something of that husband of yours. What was he able to make of the plantation of palm-trees his grandfather gave him? And the virgin land his uncles gave him, what did he do with that?
ANOWA: Please, Mother, remove your witch's mouth from our marriage.
