The Day the River Benue Spoke

In the old days, when the river was treated as a living presence, the people along the Benue believed that unseen guardians watched over both land and water. Entering the river demanded respect and purity.

The Story

One hot afternoon, a young woman went alone to the Benue to fetch water. The bank was empty and silent. As she lowered her container, something that looked like a fish brushed past. Instantly her right leg went numb, and she fell. Her bucket drifted away as she cried for help—

“Yay! Yay! Come and help me!”
No one heard her.

Dragging herself with a stick, she limped toward the village until she met the chief priest of the river shrine. He listened and said quietly, “Woman, you have broken the law of the water spirits. Go home; I cannot speak for you yet.”

Moments later, the priest received a trance message from the goddess of the Benue:

“She entered my water during her moon time and has defiled it.”

When the woman heard this, she remembered her condition and fell to her knees begging forgiveness. The priest told her the goddess would decide after she served a cleansing duty. She was to return—after her period ended—to clear and clean the sacred compound by the river where the elders gathered during festivals.

After eight market days she went back, swept, cut the grass, and washed the ground with river sand. That night she dreamed of a bright messenger who said,

“Because you did not know, you are forgiven.”

The next morning a village herbal doctor arrived saying he had been sent by the river spirits. He treated her paralyzed leg with herbs until she could walk again.

From that day, the community renewed the rule: no woman should approach the Benue while on her period. The story became a warning passed from mother to daughter—a reminder that the river is alive and must be approached with respect.

Note to Readers

This account is preserved in oral tradition from communities along the Benue River. It reflects how people once understood purity, law, and consequence in their spiritual relationship with nature.