First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com Twitter: @Babawilly
Today marks 20 years since my dad passed away and I will remember him in this article. He loved to talk. Where you ever reprimanded as a child for a transgression by an elder for hours while you sat and looked deep into the cane that sat on the table? You wonder why they don’t just cane you so you can go to sleep. Well in Africa there is the preamble. You don’t just get on and do things. You ease you way into them.
A difficult topic is approached like a painful boil. Dance around the periphery for hours as you slowly advance to its epicentre. Proverbs and long talk are the palm oil with which the difficult yams of life are eaten. The downside is a people steeped in African proverbs might grow into a hesitant bunch lacking in decisiveness as they perambulate when quick action is needed. We all know that acute trauma needs a quick acting surgeon with a sharp knife to stop the blood loss before things progress to life loss; however chronic disease such as depression needs a different kind of therapist. While the orthopaedic surgeon faced with a femoral fracture whose sharp edge has punctured the femoral artery has no interest in the patient’s childhood or relationships with their grandfather, the psychiatrist or babalawo for that matter goes through the whole family tree and list of neighbours (You never know where the envy could be coming from abi?)
Ironic that I am rumbling on isn’t it?
Take Nigeria which is in dire need of a doctor with a sharp knife. She has been blessed with a million psychiatrists and psychologists tracing her origins, relationships, missed opportunities and ‘colo-mentalities’. You see them all on social media doing what mental health workers do best. Talking. Even electro-convulsive therapy is not deployed as ‘Nepa’ don take light and no fuel for gen.
How does one talk and psycho-analyse a fracture? You end up with mal-union and non-union of fractures leading to a limping giant who from time to time is loaned a wheelchair by the West at an expensive hourly rate.
Now to the point at hand. In its place, gentle talking is good. Very good for chronic problems. And since we all have chronic problems we all need to hear soft and gentle words.
My late father was a master of words. He was as good an Urhobo speaker as any other Urhobo man and he was quite good in English. Having studies in England I could not understand what he meant sometimes as I was engaged in primary school studies in Surulere where we used English a bit differently.
I recall his post-match lamentations after a particularly poor display by the then Green Eagles of Nigeria. “What a daft name for a National Football team. Who in their right minds call themselves ‘Green’? True to the name they played like novices,” he said.
At this stage I thought in my mind that “Daddy don truly craze. He is now fighting with colours”.
In his book Yoruba Proverbs, Prof Oyekan Owomoyela in the introduction wrote the following by Aristotle as quoted by Synesius: “A proverb is a remnant of ancient philosophy preserved amid many destructions on account of its brevity and fitness for use.”
From Agricola comes the description of the form as “short sentences into which, as in rules, the ancients have compressed life”.
So when you house is on fire, I suggest you do not need a proverb but when buying land, making architectural plans, laying a foundation and fitting the house, proverbs are most welcome.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. A stitch in time saves nine. In other words fire alarms saves lives and a town should have a robust fire fighting service.
Proverbs are really compressed bits of wisdom accumulated painfully through the ages.
Nigeria is so full of this wisdom that resides in the brains of the elders but mosquitoes bite us all night bringing malaria and the roads are the same quality as the electric power supply and the health care delivery systems.
There are proverbs for describing the ones who die of thirst in the abundance of water
A sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth Proverb 26:15.
Nigeria has too many valuable elements underground which just lie there. The crude oil is not processed. Sugar cane is chewed and spat out. The nation then imports petrol, petroleum jelly and sugar cubes.
Millions of Nigerians own Bibles and can read the Book of Proverbs daily if they so choose. That combined with our indigenous sayings should make us the wisest people on Earth.
Enu ki i riri ki elenu ma le fi jeun (The mouth is never so filthy that its owner cannot eat with it).
This means that one can get comfortable with one’s own short comings. It also means that a country might be filthy but when it is the only country you have, you would use that same ‘filthy country’ to attain greatness and in the long run sanitize it.
As I remember my late father and his words, I look forward with hope for a better tomorrow.
A day when the elders will sit and the oldest will hold the Kola nut held out to him on a saucer. I dream that he will say, “He who brings Kola, brings life” holding a made in Nigeria microphone under the cool air current from a made in Nigeria (as opposed to assembled in Nigeria) air conditioning unit
The saucer will be made in Nigeria as are the currency notes that are placed on the saucer in the process of wedging; to avoid the Kola rolling and falling off. All surrounding drinks would be made in Nigeria. The watches worn by the elders will also be made in Nigeria. Time will tell.
