Home – Page 8 – The Storytela

Mar 10, 2016Jun 13, 2020

There Are 7 Rivers in Africa???

As a child, I remember very well singing that song while clasping my hands rhythmically with that of a playmate. Up, down, Up down…

“There are seven Rivers in Africa,

Seven Rivers in Africa

Nile, Niger, Senegal, Congo, Orange, Limpopo, Zambezi…

Then we also added and I don’t know why

Azikiwe, Wolowo, Tafawa Balewa,

Onye ocha wepu aka n’okpu eze (white man remove your hand from the King’s crown)

I was humming this song recently when it hit me; Seven rivers in Africa? How? Only 7 in the entire continent?

I mean even in the akuko ifo that we were told growing up, the hero usually crossed 7 rivers and 7 forests to kill the villain and rescue the captives. Do you mean, he had to go round the whole of Africa just to cross seven rivers? I think not.

It’s either the author of this song was a school teacher back in the days who was trying to help his students memorize the names of the largest rivers in the entire African continent or the beginning of this song was written by an Oyibo man who just ‘dashed‘ Africa seven rivers.

It really does seem like we’ve been innately programmed through this song to believe that Africa has only 7 rivers, because if you ask around, the default response to how many rivers do you have in Africa might just be ‘7’! At least I know about River Benue, Aba River, Anambra River and several other rivers in Naija.

Having looked up the definition of rivers, it refers to a large body of water flowing into another body of water. And the difference between a River and a Stream is that a River is wider, deeper and longer. So it’s a thing of size.

Talking about body of water, there’s this particular one in my village known as Mmili Obiaja. I’ve never been to Mmili Obiaja before but there are some very interesting stories surrounding that body of water. Like the one about a tree falling and blocking the road to the river when a deity is passing. The stories are so plenty shaa, I wish I can remember more but let me consult with my elders first and I’ll come back with authentic gist. I might even visit and take a few pictures myself.

I hope you get the gist though, there are MORE than 7 rivers in Africa, actually there are over 67 major rivers in the African continent…

So do we re-write the song? Or allow it fade it into oblivion???

Feb 15, 2016Feb 16, 2016

Life With My Boy: The Voice Of God

My son dreads cutting his nails, he calls the nail cutter ‘Cutting Wound’ and declares that it’s a dangerous object.

Or maybe I should say that he acts like he dreads cutting his nails when he is at home. This is because when I have to get an Assistant teacher in his school to help (after loosing several fights at home) he would sit properly, stretch out his hands without any tantrums, allow the teacher cut his nails and then say ‘Thank you Miss Alice‘ or ‘Thank you Miss Taiwo‘ depending on who is helping out.

One day, I insisted that he would cut his nails at home while he was awake and we struggled to no avail, so I decided to turn to the jungle for help one last time.

I told him he would go to the Jungle and live with animals, since he wants to grow claws in the place of nails. He kept laughing and didn’t budge. I took him out of the house to the staircase and locked the connecting gate. He kept laughing thinking it was a game. I then told him to walk down the staircase and out into the compound/jungle. As he began his descent, I made everyone go inside and then I made a very loud noise ‘moooooooooo’ (I sincerely didn’t expect this to work).

Next thing I heard was Ikem screaming and running up the staircase, ‘Mummy open the door, the Gorrilla is coming’, please open the door’.

I tried so hard to stifle the laughter, the gate had openings so we could see ourselves. I said I would let him in if he was ready to cut his nails. Anyways, it worked and we had a peaceful nail cutting session. Afterwards, I stuck to cutting his nails when he was asleep.

Fast forward to this weekend, we are his room working on his school project, and I noticed his nails were due for a cut.

‘Ikem, you need to cut your nails.’ I said

‘No Mummy, God said I should not cut my nails’. He replied.

‘Eh’?! I wasn’t sure I heard him well. ‘God cannot tell you not to cut your nails’. I replied.

‘I heard the voice of God, he told me not to cut my nails. Jesus said I should not cut my nails’. He replied smiling back at me.

‘Heyyyyy!’ I was short of words. ‘God can’t say that, it’s not in the Bible.’ I insisted.

‘The Bible of God says so, Pastor Chris said I should not cut my nails.’

Sincerely, I just left the matter at this point. To be revisited when he falls asleep.

THE END.

Jan 14, 2016Jan 14, 2016

And Soon She’ll be Eleven

“Shine Shine Bobo!” The TV Presenter shouted.

“Star!” Ifeabiago answered back with joy.

She was sitting on her mother’s lap, having just had her night bath. Her Mum, my sister wiped her body dry with her little towel and began applying some baby oil to her low cropped hair.

“Shine Shine Bobo o!” The Presenter shouted again

“Star o!” She replied. Then she added for emphasis, “Mimmaa, see shine shine Bobo!”

We all burst into laughter, her Mum, my sister Uju and myself. Ifeabia loved the Star Quest Programme.

Just like her name- Ifeabiago (Light has come). The birth of my niece brought so much joy to all of us. She is an Ada like her Mum. The first born grand daughter to both grand parents and their extended families.

I remember the day she was born, I was on my way back from lectures heading towards my room in Manuwa Hall, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus when my phone rang. I checked it and it was my sister. She called to let me know that she put to bed a few hours earlier.

Ifeabia grew pretty fast. I remember her favourite song as toddler ‘P-Square’. She would say “Mummy, I want P-Square” and she would sing and dance “busy body eeeh!” LOL.

Then one day, shortly after she turned two, she looked at me and said “Ommaka, I yike your hair”, ye! I nearly freaked out! How did a two year old manage to even make that kind of statement. Well, that was just the beginning, like the ‘Shine- Shine Bobo’ in the TV Show, Ife would shine even brighter.

Just like yesterday, I remember her running around in diapers, chasing a fowl in my Dad’s country home, defying the igbo adage that says ‘Ochu nwa okuko nwe ada‘ literally translated as ‘he that chases the fowl has the fall’.

Soon Ife will be 11! I really do thank God for her life. She’s gone on to win many star awards, she’s worked so hard at being the Goal Keeper in her football club for many years, stopping many balls short of the net and just recently her basketball club won a 4 year defending champion.

Ifeabiago, your light will shine brighter as the years go by. You will always be an example of godliness and righteousness in your generation. The Lord will keep you and preserve you and make you a praise unto his name. Amen.

Happy birthday in advance.

Dec 28, 2015Jun 6, 2017

Dust To Dazzle: Jenny’s Story

My sister, Obiageli had always wanted to be a Medical Doctor. She was not like most kids (I for instance) who changed their careers as they changed their shoe sizes or maybe dress sizes…

When she was graduating from Nursery school, she won the ‘Most Humane’ award, which meant she was compassionate and could take care of people. Along the line, she read Ben Carson’s Gifted Hands and that really did it for her.

Fast forward to several years later, she had made straight A’s in her Junior WAEC and was topping her class in Senior Secondary School but I guess her life seemed to lack very serious challenges so two of her teachers came together and gave her a very daunting task- To prepare the Skeletal Structure of a Rabbit and submit it for the Children’s Day Science Competition in her school. School Teachers sef!

Anyways, she bought the Rabbit, killed it carefully (Animal Rights Activists where una dey?) cooked it carefully, skinned it carefully, ate it carefully (with her friends though) and finally got through to the bones which she had to preserve with chemicals.

As the day of the competition drew nearer, her heart beat faster as she had started quite late (fire brigade things). One day to the competition, some bones get missing (arrow from the village?) but she kept going and finally got the structure up. Did she win the competition? Sure thing! That’s how we roll…

Well, to Oby (now known as Jennifer a.k.a Jenny) she thought it would be easy to get admission to study Medicine in school, after all, she was a star student but the opposite was her story. She didn’t make Medicine in the University here in Nigeria, she did however get another admission in Ghana but instead of getting Medicine, she ended up studying Medical Radiography. That didn’t deter her though as she kept faith, grew in her relationship with God and dusted the course.

After her graduation and internship, she kept saying she wanted to go in for Medicine. She kept at it though, without being distracted and a few months later, it came through for her! She finally got admission to study Medicine in a University abroad. WOW!

I remember dropping her off at the airport when she was leaving, I was really inspired by her dedication in pursuing her dreams against all odds. She was not discouraged by the many seemingly disappointments she faced, all things worked out for her good and soon she will be inducted as Dr. Jenny…

Wow! So what’s that dream you have? What has God put in your heart to do? It might be taking like forever but don’t give up! Keep the fire burning, continue in pursuit and keep praying. Whatever it is, will definitely come through for you.

Cheers!

The Storytela

Dec 22, 2015

Take A Trip To Navy Town

Strike a pose

Uncle & Nephew

Girls! Girls!

The Water!

Relic

It’s countdown to Christmas day. Season’s greetings everyone as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

If you are spending the holiday in Lagos, and you are looking for somewhere unique to go, then Navy Town might be it for you. Here’s an article I wrote on my trip to Navy Town, posted on http://www.davinadiaries.com. Enjoy!

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I had to visit the Old Navy Town recently and it wasn’t exactly a trip I looked forward to. This was a Sunday and my idea of a great Sunday is to get some rest after Church Service, Sunday Cooking and all. Well, I had to go to Navy Town and to Navy Town I went. The Navy Town is located at Ojo (Your GPS should tell you the exact location) after the Kirikiri Prisons.

As we approached the Barracks, my apprehension turned to excitement as first of all we had to drive past the Kirikiri Medium and Maximum prisons. I didn’t know the area around the prison could be so peaceful and quiet. Then we entered Navy Town and my jaw dropped open.

Seriously, I was expecting the kind of chaos that would usually accompany the Police Barracks but men! Was I wrong?! The entrance to the ‘Town’ was a well paved road flanked by green vegetation on both sides. Wow! I tuned in to Nature immediately. Before then, we had driven past some really old buildings (I love old buildings!).

As we cruised into the town enjoying the scenario, the person we were taking there mentioned that there was a Sailing Club. So I went like ‘Sailing Club?’ I gotta see that men! So we drove towards the Sailing Club. On our way, we couldn’t help but notice how calm the town was. Everywhere was quiet and we saw some Naval Officers enjoying a game of Golf! I wondered if this was rowdy Lagos and then Ojo to be precise.

We got to the Sailing Club and it blew my mind. You see, I love water, I really do love water and then I love to watch the Sun Set at the beach and all of that stuff so being in that place, I was completely in tune with my inner self. I was almost beginning to ask that we build three tents and remain there when it occurred to me that this was not the Transfiguration. LOL

We lingered in the area, took in the scenery, bought some Suya from the Memorial Kitchen while I took as much pictures as I could before we headed to complete our journey. We did drive past some old buildings that weren’t so well kept and looked a bit dirty but then, we saw several modern buildings and several other new ones being constructed.

All in all, I was so glad that I went to Navy Town and I’m really impressed that in a country like ours where things are usually left to fall apart, some degree of sanity was retained in that place. Kudos to our Naval Guys!