AWOLOWO’S GHOST Touching the files that contained several documents he touched while he lived; observing the consistent beauty of his hand-writing; touching the words he wrote on different papers as to feel his spirit; looking around and observing the different books he read that honed his mind while he lived; feeling the parts of the office chair and imagining how he sat on it reading while he lived; I could feel the spirit of Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo – one of the greatest Yoruba men ever lived – hovering in that little room where he hid to study privately as not to be distracted by visitors who deluge him daily in his hometown Ikenne when he was alive. I had been led into the place by the curator and was left alone. The curator – as I could observe – knows very little of the magnanimity of that room left in his care. While he left me there, he had banged the door against me. I had felt like I was led into a dark cave by a chief priest to meet with mother goddess who requested my presence. The feeling was quite eerie. There were no more sounds apart from those of my breathing, jerks of my schoolbag and little steps I made. Could there be someone behind me? I remembered the Igbo folk song we sang as kids which warned against looking behind: “onye enena anya n’azụ, mmọnwụ anyị na-aga n’iro. Onye nee anya n’azụ, mmọnwụ anyị a pịagbuo ya (let no one look behind, our spirit trespasses. If anyone should look behind, our spirit will flog him to death)”. The goose pimples were very visible on my both hands as I wore a short sleeve top. But I was not to entertain any form fear since I chose to be there myself. “Ife dị ịbụọ, ofu ga-emelịlị taa (between two things, one must happen today)”, I had encouraged myself mentally. (Smiles…) Flipping through the pages of a little thick cover book, I chanced on different lines Awolowo himself had underlined/shaded. The book itself was written by a White man, but was presented as a gift to Obafemi by one of his learned admirers who also happened to be Igbo from Anambra or so. Of all those important lines ear-marked by Awo, I was stuck reading a particular one that got me thinking and has left me thinking till today. Having folded the page like I did of other books, I decided that I was going to put that particular line down on my ‘black book’ before I leave that sanctuary that day. But when my phone blared, my caller told me that the doctor was about leaving her office and that it will take me till next week to see her again. My health became more important to me than everything else. Thus I zoomed off Awo’s sanctuary for the clinic. I have not seen that book elsewhere and have not been able to remember the title. I deeply regretted the procrastination that cost me an important line of provoking thoughts. The line – as written by the White man and marked by Awo – had read something very close to this: “There are many strange and mysterious things happening in Africa which we Whites do not understand but chose to impose our standards upon”. Just that morning, I had read about two pages from Walter Rodney’s “HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA”. Meeting the above line again there, I was seriously got thinking. The White man’s destruction of the greatest Igbo deity in AroChukwu, Abia State came to mind. What about the destruction of other sacred places and things in Igbo land? What about other possible destructions in other parts of the present Nigeria, nay Africa? What are these “strange and mysterious things” the oyibo never understood? Are those “strange and mysterious things” the things that would have made us remain powerful like they (the Whites) are now? Doesn’t it invariably prove Rodney right that Europe underdeveloped Africa when it ‘imposed’ its own standards on Africans just because they never understood our standards? I think one day, Africa will return to those “strange and mysterious things” that defined it and would have made it the great it was and the greater it should have been. One day, perhaps many years to come, some people from Africa will get to know better and properly harness those “strange and mysterious things” which we Africans talk of about the Whites when the Whites themselves already talked so of us more than a century ago. One day, I believe, Africa will not remain under these ‘imposed’ shackles, nay standards. Just one day, I believe I’m going to chance in again on that book, or my offspring will do so. Just one day, Awo’s spirit will unite with other great spirits to make us see more of why he(Awo) shaded that very line.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 19:49:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015