By
Obododimma
Oha
I call it "a drama" because it is filled with many interesting theatrical elements. While it
is far from my intention to point out and describe these elements, it would
nevertheless benefit many to pay attention to the imagination of children and
the possible dangers that could flow from the experiences of adults that they
imitate. From time to time, I will insert myself into the narrative, to explain
experiences closer to me, having once been
a child.
Generally,
children are good imitators. Many of them could be tape-recorders in human
form, which listen to and put down faithfully what they have heard adults
utter. Memory is at work there. Such “tape recorders” harvest and utilize fully
the human ability to recall and to narrate. When such “tape recorders” attend
classes, be sure that every word or behaviour exhibited by the class teacher
would later be acted out. The “tape recorder” may be wrong in thinking that
schooling is about reproducing events that happen at school; in that case,
losing oneself or moving around as school. Or you might say: taking the entire
school experience home! But schooling is more than being taken around or taking learning home. Home
should also feature at school. In fact, the pupil that comes to school
exemplifies a local context approaching the formal school context for a warm
embrace! Does the school also record the
recorder from the local area? How?
But recorders
could become something else at home. Something important to the culture. Let
adults go out for meetings, to the market, to weddings, or funerals and leave
children with instructions at home. I like the patterns of those instructions.
They look like the ones used in giving directions to someone on a journey. Or
are like directives or narratives about how to carry out experiments. But the
most important thing is that the words of one’s parents must be obeyed.
Disobeying them, as shown in many narratives in the folktales, have serious
(sometimes “life-threatening”) consequences. One of them is seen in the Igbo
Omalịngwọ in which the chanter becoming Omalịngwọ would in regret sing as
follows:
Nne m ọ bụ Omalịngwọ....Omalịngwọ (in chorus)
Nne m nyere ji na ejula....Omaịngọ
Sị m buru ụzọ hụọ nwa ji m....Omalịngwọ
E buru m ụzọ hụọ nwa ejula m....Omalịngọ
Ejula ahụ agbọnyụọla m ọkụ...Omalịngwọ
Nne m ọ bụ Omalịngwọ...Omalịngwọ!
(Roughly translated as: My mother, this
is Omalịngwọ...Omalịngwọ!
My mother
gave me a yam tuber and a snail....Omalịngwọ!
And told me
to roast the tuber first...Omalịịngwọ!
But I chose
to roast the snail first....Omalịngwọ!
That snail
with fluid has extinguished my fire...Omalịngwọ!
My mother,
this is Omalịngwọ...Omalịngwọ!)
Omalịngwọ is
singing a song of regret, returning a prodigal. If she had known, she would have
listened to her mother. Of course, "Omalịngwọ", could be replaced by a stubborn
son who thinks that the parent has not got it right in evaluating existence.
But the parent is not taking away the child’s rights; but teaching indirectly
that when certain proper patterns are
not followed, there could be regrettable consequences. It is a lesson
about consequences. There is always an effect created by a cause and
understanding cause-effect relationship makes for successful existence. We may
not like it if our own personal understanding of cause-effect relationship, our
personal judgment, is greatly flawed. By then, it must be too late. The fluid
from the snail must have already put out our fire! That also is an important
effect!
Generally, I
like significations deployed in giving instructions. They may look like infringements,
but try to guide us on another person’s line of thinking to an end. We are,
therefore, not surprised when Omalịngwọ and her kind are subjected to the guide
discourse and fall short in undermining it! Maybe, it is not just a matter of
thinking that the effect could be pleasantly different. But it is important to
remember that there is an effect coming and to get ready for it.
When we were
children, perhaps nothing pleased us like being allowed to be “little adults”,
becoming proxy mother and father whenever they were away. It was an opportunity
to step into adult roles, act such and see how they could really be in the
future. Many children liked it to be imagined as adults, acting those roles and
knowing that responsibility is what it requires to be an adult, not just that
one now has a deep voice or who could drink an alcoholic beverage! We were
symbolically taking over the batons to continue the relay race of life. Yes; as
little adults, we would cook, sweep, wash, clean, etc to make sure our parents were pleased with us whenever they
came back. It was always a great pleasure to hear them hail us with praise
names! Oke nwa! (Great child); Nwa ka ibe ya! (A child that is greater
than his or her peers), etc. Our heads swelled and we were detemined to do
more. E too dike na nke o mere, o mechie ọzọ
(When a stalwart is praised for doing well, be sure that that stalwart would do
more).
I have said
that from observing and acting, we moved on to real becoming. OK, look at how
automobiles thrilled us. We had or made our own automobiles, which could be
with the stems of cocoyam or the foliage of bamboo. Whenever anyone was sent on
an errand, that was an occasion to test- drive this customized vehicle. But
where is the engine? Stop us and check or stand on the road and ask for the vehicle
particulars. Nonsense! You are a jobless trouble-maker. Anyway, let’s leave
your lazy person’s trouble-making and locate the engine. The engine is inside
the driver’s mouth! Voooom, and the
vehicle engine kicks and revs and off the errand runner flies off, ignoring stupid checkpoints. Just as the engines
were inside the mouth, the guns used by adults to kill others exploded inside
the holder’s mouths. Kpoi! Kpoo! Tua!
went the guns and innocent victims fell dead. The gun is power and with it
adults terrorized non-holders. Blockheads who have not much to offer try to
make up with the guns of the mouth and innocent people fell dead.
Am I
returning to childhood to imitate and pretend to be an adult and kick my engine
in the mouth and kill innocent people with explosions in my mouth? Childhood is gone-time. But some are still trapped in it. Even societies! But that is
another issue to be discussed later.
Comments