I nodded. They blindfolded me with a red handkerchief and tied my hands. At this point, so much was going through my head. I was thinking I’d made a terrible mistake. Sunny, I kept seeing you, Mummy, Daddy, Ugonna, everyone. I kept wishing I were with you all and not where I was. I started wondering if I’d ever see any of you again!

We must have walked about three miles. It felt like it. It was a long way. When they took the blindfold off me, we were in the bush. One that I didn’t recognize. They untied my hands. I looked around. Someone had a lamp, and I could see faces now. There were ten guys. Three of them were my professors, two of them were classmates, Adebayo was one of them, too.

They were all wearing red shirts, black trousers, black caps, and red armbands. One of them was singing some native song, and some were dancing and clapping to it. They were all older than me, except for Adebayo, but none was swollen like me and I was sure none of them knew how to box. If I had to fight, I would.

“What is your name?” a stocky guy of about nineteen asked me. He was light-skinned, probably Igbo, and had several keloids on his chin nestled in his slight beard.

“Chukwu,” I said.

The man turned to the others. “His name is Chukwu.”

They all stepped closer and grunted that they’d heard him. I tried to make eye contact with Adebayo, but he wouldn’t look at my face. Neither would my professors and friends. It was like they were pretending not to know me.

“I am the leader, the Capo,” the man with the keloids said.

“Okay,” I said.

“Lie down,” Capo said.

“Why?” I asked, surprised.

Before I knew it Adebayo, my best friend, stepped up to me and slapped me hard across the face. I didn’t even think; I hit him right back with a powerful uppercut blow. He fell to the ground. I know how to take a man out. Adebayo is my best friend, but I was terrified and angry as hell. No one slaps me!

They all jumped on me then. All ten of them, kicking, punching, stomping. I curled myself into a ball, trying to protect my body as much as I could. I remember being horrified but also very, very angry. I kept thinking, I’m going to get out of here. When I do, I’ll beat them down one after the other. Just need to get out from under them. But I couldn’t, Sunny! When ten people attack you . . . you have no chance. The strikes, the weight, the pain, you CAN’T BREATHE!

They beat you like that so that you will have no mercy in the future. What I later learned is that in the bush, if an initiate died from the beating, he was buried right then and there. That place was full of bones. It’s haunted. How many dead students were watching me, wondering if I would join them in the spirit world that night? When you hear about students disappearing, this is one of the places where many of them go.