By
Obododimma Oha
In Igboland in the past, adults enjoyed playing some tricks on children, especially taking advantage of their naivety and weak logic. This essay is on what adults told children to put some fear in them to make them to comply with instructions.
Some of these false narratives were:
(1) The *ụdara* seed you swallow will germinate in your stomach.
(2) Your navel will disappear if you don't return soon from that errand before my spittle shot on the ground dissolves.
(3) *Ọtaa* is coming and will eat you if you don't stop crying.
(4) Etc
The *ụdara* seed swallowed by the child because of its tempting sweetness will never germinate inside the stomach. But the child who believes adults should know better and takes them at their word believes it and is frightened. So, it is that dangerous to swallow *ụdara* seed. Very. Imagine the tree coming out of one's stomach! And birds flying, trying to perch. Horrible!
And one's navel disappearing! There could even be other consequences. Who knows? I better return fast from that errand, before the spittle dissolves!
This is enough warning. It is not advisable to be like that stubborn insect that preferred to go play deaf and is carried away by the noisy *okpoko*. A warning is a warning. That spittle shot must not dissolve before I return.
Ahaa, *Ọtaa* the biter is coming. The name is derived from "ịta" (to bite). Imagine that carnivorous creature eating somebody! It is just better to shut one's mouth now.
The idea is to trick the child into compliance. Isn't there a difference between doing something out of fear and doing it willingly? There is a big theoretical issue about child upbringing here. It takes us back to whether ignorance is better in following than awareness. It is when the eyes of people open to reality that we can trust their following or compliance, not when we blindfold them.
What this all reveals is the nature of childhood or more precisely reasoning in childhood. The adults saw this poor reasoning and happily exploited it.
This also raises a big issue about loss or deprivation of childhood which is common at this time. Do children still gather after supper to listen to folktales or those that clutch android phones to read messages? The narratives bring up some interesting sides of rural and past African childhood, which elite children now miss, badly.
If this poor reasoning is only for a while (childhood must pass), it means that reasoning changes or grows. There are even some engagements where reasoning is encouraged and high. To play child there is not helpful.
Furthermore, we can be innocent but have to be smart -- as wise as the serpent. It is important in life. It is a life skill. We must not remain children throughout life.
We expect sound reasoning from an adult, a mature human being. An adult should not reason like a child or be easily deceived. An adult should show it in reasoning.
Humans grow up. They don't grow "down." It all means that reasoning has to increase, not diminish.
Another thing is that some other person does not have to hold our brains for us and think for us. We have to think for ourselves and hold ourselves responsible.
These days that every logic is logical on contexts Facebook debate, it is a matter of smuggling in appeal to this or that emotion and our champion is alive in debate! Don't say that contamination of logic is not allowed. Is this a classroom?
The exploitation of shallow reasoning of the child is actually an indictment on adulthood. We should grow in thinking, not remain stagnant and embarrassingly naive in reasoning. In fact, we should reason.
It is even paradoxical that what is dshallow is considered valuable. Is the child gaining? Are the adults gaining. It could be argued that both parties are losing!
In addition, it is not safe to be shallow-minded and to trust every adult human in this world.
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