Growing up was fun for me because I loved listening to stories and often
learnt vital lessons from them. I remember the interesting fables of ijapa (the
tortoise), that illustrated how cunning, tricky and dishonest the shelled
animal is. His wife too, Yanibo, added a measure of diversity to the stories.
Many times, she would support her husband, Mr Ijapa, in the dubious endeavours,
and at other times, expose his secret schemes to the victimised parties. In one
of the funny stories I remember, Ijapa stole some money from friends and was
planning to buy a horse from his loot. So, he informed his wife, Yanibo, about
his intention. Yanibo did not care to know how her husband had gotten the money
to buy a horse but she was overjoyed.
While rejoicing, she frolicked around the
bedroom to demonstrate how she would tirelessly ride an imaginary horse. She
began by saying, “I will ride it like this and like this and like this and like
this and like this…” Angered, Ijapa shouted, “Do you want to kill the horse?
Don’t you know it will die if you ride it like that?” But Yanibo deafened her
ears to her husband’s queries and continued gambolling. After a while, Ijapa’s
fury heightened and he grabbed a stool and hit it on his wife’s head. Yanibo cried
out sharply and died suddenly. Eventually, the village guards captured Ijapa.
He was brought before the King and judged in the presence of his previous theft
victims (the dog and elephant). A few morals from the story would be that: one
should not steal; when angry, one should not make a decision or take an action
but instead leave the environment; one should not be as talkative as Yanibo and
one should not take what belongs to others without their consent.
Most of the fables I loved
were those aired on the local television (children’s shows and story time
programmes) and tales told by grandma at the appearance of moonlight. Others
were read to me from the many storybooks my father bought for me and my
siblings. Grandma’s stories were usually family-inclined, complicated and
almost unending. She told us stories about the incidents and people that
existed before even our mother was born. She would ask us for the meanings of
some Yoruba proverbs and smiled at our ridiculous interpretations before
providing the right meanings. That was what happened in my childhood and early
teenage years. Today, technological advancement and the invasion of our homes
by foreign media have sent story-telling behind closed curtains.
These days,
children observe foreign culture on TV and adopt it as their own. An instance
is seen in the new taste of fashion in urban Nigeria. Fashionable mini-skirts
did not walk into Nigeria in one day; they were first seen on TV, liked on
foreign fashion shows before Nigerians began importing and selling them in
boutiques. Guys who wear ear rings learnt it from the hip hop stars and ghetto
shows aired on American television. Unless you were a member of the ancient sango
family in Nigeria, the wearing of earrings was generally perceived as a poor
behaviour and wearers were treated as outcasts. Well, human rights cover all
that today and the path-paving factor is that you can wear what you like. These
days, almost nobody defines the dressing ethics in many exposed societies. It’s
legal. It’s your right. You can wear what you like. A hybrid of foreign
cultures have been embraced in Nigeria and are somewhat diminishing the
sustainability of Nigerian cultures.
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