I was born and raised in the kingdom of Agufia, in the Niger-Delta sub-region. As a boy, I played around my mum’s hut. Me and my older siblings always stayed near our home because rumours had spread that slave merchants were in our territory to capture young people for their dirty business called slave trading.
Women were afraid to go to farms, children were also afraid to go out. It was only the bravest hunters that dared go hunting, and they traveled in numbers of five to ten, especially during the night time. Soon, food shortage became a common phenomenon. Food crops were on people’s farms, but due to the fear of being captured, no one dared to venture out into their farmlands.
One day, the king summoned a meeting of all the communities in the kingdom to talk about how to solve the prevailing problems and disasters that the slave merchants brought.
“My people,” the king began, “the toad does not run in broad daylight except it's being chased by something. We are all aware of the problems that are threatening our existence and kingdom as a whole. We are known to be great farmers, hunters, fishermen, midwives and above all – great warriors. The kingdom of Agufia is known to be among the strongest, so why must we let a common problem terminate us?”
“Igwe, you have spoken well,” it was Chief Oni of the Agah clan who had spoken up. “It is procrastination that makes razor fish decompose in a basket. Why must we run away from a common problem? Igwe, may you live long, these slave merchants are like tsetse flies on a man’s scrotum: if left alone, they will suck until they kill a man slowly, and if approached with force, they might burst the scrotum. So in such a situation, a careful approach is needed.
“Why don’t we choose a notable number of warriors to protect this kingdom and the rest to carry out the daily activities? That will ensure enough production of food crops,” Chief Agwanfi, of the Agufia clan, pointed out.
Agufia was my clan, named after one of the sons of Onima, a founder of our kingdom. The son, Agufia, was a great warrior who led the Angala Kingdom, as it was known then, to many victories. After his death, the king honored his memory by renaming the kingdom after him. And since then the kingdom has been known as Agufia Kingdom.
The kingdom was made up of 5 clans: Agah clan, Agufia clan, Akan clan, Boroni clan and the Ukwa clan. Respectively, these clans also had their own sub-clans in them.
Only the bravest warriors in the Agufia clan were chosen to be the chief of the warriors. And about fifty percent of Agufia Kingdom’s warriors were from the Agufia clan. A male of the Agufia clan started training as a warrior at the age of eight. And at the age of fifteen he is initiated into the warrior’s society, a full warrior.
The Agufia clan was a “warrior barracks”, Because they utilized and stored the weapons of the kingdom in their clan arsenal's hall. Their territory was strongly secured, fenced around with red, strong bamboo rods and raffia palm frogs. It was hard for the outside clans to notice or see any of their activities.
The kingdom guards were dominated by the Akan clan and they produced the chief of the guards for the kingdom. As a matter of fact, the Akan clan occupied seventy percent of the guard’s population.
The chief priesthood fell to the Agah clan, the herbalist and midwives function fell to the Ukwa clan, while the kingship fell to the Boroni clan. Although Agufia clan members were warriors, they still occupied the highest population in the kingdom. They alone occupied fifty percent of the total population in the kingdom, followed by the Akan clan, who made up twenty-five percent. Agah, Ukwa and the Boroni clans made up the remaining twenty-five percent. The kingdom of Agufia was among the ten most populated kingdoms in their known world.
At the end of the meeting it was decided that each guard post should have a minimum of ten guards. Immediately, the chief of guards commenced with the posting of guards to all parts of the kingdom where they were lacking. Only a few posts were set up nearer to the Agufia clan because it was considered a warrior’s barracks. After the deployment of guards, security was restored in the kingdom. The people began to feel like they were safe again, and they resumed their daily routine.

A few weeks later, horrifying news rang into the kingdom that two checkpoints had been attacked. The ones that were stationed near the kingdom's waterline boundaries were destroyed, and the guards were either killed or captured.