Take A Trip – The Storytela

Jul 10, 2019Jul 10, 2019

A Suicide Room For Kings

Right in the 19th century expansive palace of King Toffa, in Porto Novo, Bénin Republic lies a room which nobody enters till date.

The many chambers of the palace

We had just arrived Bénin, our first stop was at Porto Novo, Le Musée du Palais Honmé.

The tour guide was quite detailed and we had an interpreter from GOTA tours who translated into English.

King Toffa who built this palace had about 120 wives and was quite instrumental in allowing the both Christianity and Islam co-exist with the traditional Voudou religion.

The Palace court where important meetings are held

Now, one of the rooms the Tour guide showed us was the ‘dark room’ marked with signs saying ‘do not enter’. We asked why it was called the ‘dark room’ and he told us that Kings would usually go in there to commit suicide. This was quite alarming.

He explained that different poisons and objects for suicide were kept there and a King who probably lost a war and didn’t want to be captured would go in there, drink the poison and then step out of the room and die.

Statue in the courtyard

The King needed to die outside as nobody was permitted to enter that room even if it was to bring out a corpse. Interesting, isn’t it?

The feeling of despair that makes one commit suicide. Choosing to end it all instead of spending one more day in confronting the situation.

Bringing it forward to the 21st Century, one question to ask is, is suicide really worth it?

Considering that there’s a life after this world. Whether we believe in this life or not doesn’t mean we would not experience it because there’s more to a man than the body we see or the mind we think with. There’s a spirit inside the body that would continue to exist in the spirit realm after the body dies.

So if suicide just kills the body, what becomes of the spirit? The real you?

Suicide starts from a thought, that lie that says ‘just escape, end it all and it would be over’.

The truth is ‘would it?’

Don’t wait to die to find out. Get help.

The fact is, no matter how dark or bad things look, they can still change for the better. Keep your hope alive.

And if you don’t know what else to do, close your eyes and say ‘Jesus, help me’. It might sound ridiculous at first but keep saying it and help will come in ways you can’t even imagine.

And like the sign outside the dark room says, do not enter the Suicide room please.

Need help overcoming those suicidal thoughts?

Email us at info@thestorytela.com

Interested in visiting Bénin Republic?

Indicate in the comment section and I’ll link you up with a tour operator.

Warm Thoughts,

The Storytela

Jul 1, 2016Jul 1, 2016

Take A Trip To NCF Lagos

The weekend is here once again but most interestingly, the holidays are very much around the corner. Thinking of where to go with your friends, spouse or the kids? Well, if you would be in Lagos this period, the National Conservation Foundation should be on your list of places to go. It is located just after Chevron roundabout on Lekki-Epe Expressway.

For ten years, I wished to go to this place, yeah right, 10 solid years! I heard about NCF Lekki in 2005 from my sister and I kept saying I would go, I would go and before I finally got around to going, 10 years had passed and by this time, I had a small son tagging along with me.

The NCF is a fun place to be, I particularly loved the Forest Reserve (or Jungle according to my son) with the many many Monkeys swinging from tree to tree and even crossing the walkways.

The new Canopy Walkway was a big hit too. It’s the longest in Africa at about 22.5 metres at the highest point above the ground and 401 metres long. Only ages 14 upwards are allowed on it so my son couldn’t go but since we had other people with us, he stayed with his aunt while I enjoyed the climb with a friend.

After the Canopy Walkway, we got to a place that looked like a park and games arena but apparently it hasn’t been so well maintained so we really couldn’t play much apart from lounging on wooden chairs and my son did try to do some climbing.

Happens to be that refreshments weren’t sold there, oh yeah! We were quite thirsty and a bit hungry but praise be to God, a good Samaritan who had more than enough to drink with his family gave us two cans of Ginger Beer which we shared. LOL.

We watched a few fishes swimming in a pond, then traced our way back and took some pictures of the giant tortoise of over 100 years old, Then the Peacocks that refused to spread their lovely tails for us.

All in all, it was a great outing which cost just 200 naira per head and an extra 1000 naira per head for the Canopy Walk-Way Climb. I had looked forward to climbing the Tree House but it was boarded up at this time, I do hope it’s fixed and re-opened soon or another one built.

So have you been to NCF? What was your experience like? Planning to go there soon? You may visit http://www.ncfnigeria.org/ for more information.

Cheers

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???

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!