By
Obododimma
Oha
I do not know
whether some societies or institutions that are backward have done some deep
reflection about how they have been doing things. How can backward societies
see progress when they are still doing the same very things that have held them
down? Are they condemned to damnation? Societies that are held down may hardly
know that they are, even though they hope and hope that they would progress.
They are Ayi Kwei Armah’s character, “Man-Child” hoping to grow up and become a
man. Every year, “Obi is a boy,” as streetpeople playfully say in our village.
It all requires thinking about how the entity has been operating or not
operating. It all requires self-assessment. As one man from our hometown
playfully put it in choosing his nickname, “Onye Lelee Onwe Ya,” and the
response, “A Passịa ya,”which could be roughly translated as “If one examines
oneself” or “If one conducts an examination for self,” then that person “would genuinely
pass or fail.” The expression “A passịa” humorously stands between Igbo and
English, entertaining the listener with the twoness of linguistic hybridity.
The point is
that the saying,“The future is greater than the past,” has to be taken
seriously. Is it not why the Igbo say that: “Echi dị ime” (Tomorrow is
pregnant) and “Echi ebuka” (Tomorrow is mighty)? This call to commonsense has
to extend to everything. It has to apply to societies wanting to advance and
make progress and to individuals who want to escape from the cesspool of
poverty. It has to apply to families and to the upbringing of children in the
home and the context of training. For instance, teachers have to train pupils
to be greater and whose progress they should be proud of. It should be a case
of handing over the flag to the next carrier and cheering that carrier to
greater moments.
Echi dị ime! Tomorrow is pregnant! And one does
not know yet what would be brought into this world after the “pregnancy.” Does
one not need to get prepared for it, even if there is scan to help one get a
reliable peep? Is it a human form or a prehistoric lizard that would be born,
only to scurry towards Bethlehem to be reborn? What is the “tomorrow” to be
born?
And what
really is the “greatness” of tomorrow? Is it the scaly monstrosity or the
perfumed cut? Is it machine-gun raping wayfarers from the bush or a civilized
handling of weapons? Is the greatness of the future the culture of fear or the
comfort of sanity? What and where are the “greatness” of tomorrow?
The “greatness”
of tomorrow should not only be a wish magically uttered and hopefully prayed
for (it is well when all is not well!),
even when we are working hard, very hard, to make sure that the past remains
greater than the future. The “greatness” of the future is not the burial of the
present that would become the future. The “greatness” of the future should be
seen in how we genuinely cater for the present, making sure it is protected and
shown the way to freedom. The “greatness” of the future is not the crippling
and shackling of the present. The “greatness” of the future begins in the “greatness”
of the present.
The “greatness”
of the future requires the correction of the errors of the past. Repeating the
mistakes of the past or happily inheriting the punishments attached to the
misdemeanors of the past, being a shareholder in the suffering they attract,
would not provide the way to “greatness”. Is not wise, then, to free oneself
from the evils of the past and to walk
before the Maker blameless? The “greatness” of the future will not come from
the depravity and insanity of the past.
The “greatness”
of the future will not come from people doing just whatever they like and
however they like it. That is a return to the condition of chaos and confusion.
It also means that ours is the right way and that we do not care about others.
When every way is the right way, there is no way to follow; there is trouble;
there is chaos!
The "greatness" of the future will not come
from chaos and confusion. The “greatness” of the future is an achieved vision,
founded on sound planning and strategizing. It is not what you can achieve by
chance.
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