The day my father's brother sold the land my mother planted her yams on

It was 2019, I was in Peckham, just come back from night shift. My phone rang, my cousin Tunde from Ibadan. He said, "Bose, they have sold Papa's land." I said which land? He said the one at Moniya, the one with the old cocoa trees. My father's younger brother, Uncle Femi, sold it. He said he had the papers. He said my father gave him the go ahead before he died. My father never told me that. Never.

I called my mother. She was quiet on the phone. Then she said, "Your uncle has been trying to sell that land since your father died." I asked her why she never told me. She said she didn't want to worry me. Worry me? That land fed us. My mother planted yams there when I was small. We carried the yams home in baskets.

I took leave from work. Two weeks. I flew to Ibadan. I met my uncle in his house. He was sitting down, eating pounded yam. He offered me a seat. I sat. I asked him about the land. He said, "Bose, you are in London. What do you want with land in Moniya?" I told him my father left it for all of us. He laughed. He said the land was sold for ₦4 million. Four million naira. That land is worth more than that. Much more.

My mother started crying. She said, "Your father's brother has scattered this family." I told her to stop crying. I told her we will fight. My husband, Kwame, he supported me. He said, "Bose, do what you have to do."

We went to court. Ibadan. The case lasted two years. Two years of flying back and forth. Two years of my uncle telling the whole family I was the wicked one. Some of my cousins stopped talking to me. My uncle's wife called me a witch on WhatsApp. I didn't reply. I just kept going.

The court said the sale was invalid. My uncle had no right to sell without the other beneficiaries. We won. But my uncle didn't talk to me again. He died last year. I didn't go to the funeral. My mother said I should go. I said no. I couldn't.

I have the land now. My mother still plants yams there. But the family is broken. Some things, when you fight for them, you lose something else. I don't know if I won. I just know I couldn't let my father's land go like that.