18/09/2026
*THE GOOD WITSH*
In the town of Buguma, everybody knew there was a witsh in the small house by the river.
Her name was Mama Nimi. She was old, her wrapper was always faded, and children ran away when they saw her because their parents said, "Don't go near that witsh."
But Mama Nimi was not the kind of witsh they thought.
She did not fly at night to spoil people's lives. She flew at night to fix them.
When little Soso had fever and was crying all night, Mama Nimi flew quietly to his window. She dropped three bitter leaves and whispered, "Boil this for him."
Soso's mother boiled the leaves. By morning, Soso's fever broke.
When farmer Oke's crops were dying because the rain wouldn't fall on his side, Mama Nimi stood in her yard and raised her old stick. She sang a small song, and the clouds shifted and rained only on Oke's farm.
She never told anyone.
One day, the town's well got poisoned. Everyone was sick. The elders gathered and shouted, "It is the witsh! She did it! Let's burn her house!"
They marched to her house with fire.
Mama Nimi came out. She was not afraid. She carried a big calabash of clean water.
She said, "I have been fetching water from the other river for three days, because I saw someone throw something bad in our well. Drink this."
The people were confused. The man who actually poisoned the well — because he wanted to sell his own water — started shaking.
Mama Nimi looked at him and said, "You. Go and bring the medicine from your bag and clean our well, or I will tell them what I saw you do with my own eyes at midnight."
The man confessed and cleaned the well.
That was when the people of Buguma realized — not all witshes are bad. Some are just old women who know too much, see too much, and choose to be good anyway.
From that day, they stopped calling her "witsh."
They called her "Mama Nimi, the woman who watches over us."
And every evening, children now ran _towards_ her house, because she always had sweet fried akara for them.
