Ember Months in Nigeria

In Nigeria, what do “ember” months mean?  This refers to the last four months of the year, which all end with the five letters e-m-b-e-r.

The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, was founded to minimize the high rates of highway crashes in Nigeria. The commission, in its survey, realized that the high level of deaths on our highways is disproportionately higher during the period. Every year, when the ember months come, the FRSC steps up its battle to minimize the level of road crashes by embarking on awareness, through media channels.

In Nigeria, many prefer to spend Christmas in ancestral homes. Thus, there is often a high level of migration. Such migrations are most common to the people of the southeastern region of Nigeria. The roads are busier, thereby escalating the possibility of vehicular accidents. Aside from that, the high levels of migration present a window for motorists, who move people for money. They drive at horrific speeds to make as many trips as possible. As is often said though, speed kills.

Highway activities have, however, failed to account for a small proportion of the strange level of deaths often recorded only during the ember months. At the end of the year, people just want a total Christmas, one that even deviates from what Christmas is supposed to be about. There will be business partners who will rat on their colleagues. There will be men or women who believe in money-making through rituals. They will kill their victims leaving bizarre remains of the victim, after wrenching the eyes, tongues, and private parts of their victims.

The ember month period is a perilous period of the year when wise people are considerate of all that is pertinent.

Could All of Us Be Polyandrous?

Recently, a video surfaced on social medai portraying Irigwe people as practicing polyandry, a marriage practice where a single woman marries more than one man simultaneously, sleeping with one husband today and sleeping with another tomorrow. The video is offensive to Irigwe people, not for any reason other than the fact that the video attaches Irigwe people to an identity that isn’t theirs plus the fact that they view such a practice with scorn.

The Irigwes are found in the southwestern part of Bassa in the north of Plateau State, Nigeria. A drive from Jos, the biggest city in Plateau State, to the heart of Irigweland would barley last for twenty five minutes. Thus, it isn’t a corner of the world that is so remote and vague to warrant the type of parody Lerin’s video sold. 

Lerin Nicodemus. credit: Gistreel.com

 

Before the coming of Christianity to Irigweland, there was a traditional marriage practice. If a woman marries her husband and later feels unsatisfied, the man comes back, one day, to discover that she is gone. On inquiry, close friends will mention a particular village she often talked about. The man sets out the next day to find his wife and restore his marriage. He finds the man in whose house his wife slept. The man hosts him in the conventional way you would host a guest and then sends him off with his wife. If the woman is determined to marry that strange man, she goes again. The husband repeats the process of restoring his marriage until she goes the third time, when he would have given up.  If she is still not satisfied she goes again, to a third man. This is what Walter Sangree, an American anthropologist, referred to as secondary and tertiary marriages in his deeply researched writings about Irigwe people. 

Could this marriage practice be what Lerin NIchodemous referred to as polyandry in her video?  If so, then we are all attached to polyandry, one way or the other. Take the case of a marriage practice, in some cultures, where a man can give his wife a double or triple divorce. When this happens, she must be married to two or three different men (as the case may be) at different times before meeting the criteria for remarrying her first husband.

There are practices that look strange in many other cultures. Take the case of a man who offers his wife for a night to a man that visits him. It is part of the hospitality to the visiting man, especially if he appears handsome.

The Irigwes are polygamists. A man can marry as much as four wives, if he so desires. Thus, they cannot be polygamous and polyandrous simultaneously.

Lerin looked and sounded so confident in her video that one would think she deeply researched on the topic before posting. As said in the preceding part of this writing, Irigwe land isn’t too far away. Thus, it is accessible. If Lerin looks around her, she is likely going to find Irigwe neigbours, as long as it is within the borders of Nigeria. She could also visit Irigweland and see things herself.   

Nigeria Now a Fully Capitalist Nation

President Bola Tinubu

In Jamaica, Rastas insist what they practice is not Rastafarianism. It is just Rasta, they say. They say the word “Rastafarianism” is an invention of journalism. They wouldn’t want to be associated with any word with the suffix “ism” since they are often associated exploitation. Examples of such exploitations are capitalism, colonialism, nepotism, etc. 

Today, Nigeria is now a fully a capitalist nation as against the mix economic setting we had and which is right for a nation in our circumstance.

In capitalism every service provided the people is aimed at making profits and one can rise to as high as his talent and hard work can take him. It is considered evil because it creates a situation where a few people have everything, while too many people have nothing, to quote Jimmy Cliff.

On the other side of the coin, you find the more humane Socialism. In Socialism, there is a limit to where investors can venture into. Government in such economic environments feel that certain basic services like water supply, electricity, cooking gas, etc, shouldn’t be left in the hands of people who are all out for profits. This is because a lot of poor people may find it difficult to afford such services, despite the services being fundamental to human existence. It was the reason why Nigeria practiced a mix of the two, allowing people like Aliyu Dan Gote to invest in certain areas of the economy but keeping water supply, electricity, gas, kerosene, diesel and other basic social services to itself.

But right now, Nigeria has withdrawn its intervention in many of these services, and life is now agonizing. Nigeria has not only handover electric power provision to capitalists; it has withdrawn, albeit slowly, the subsidy it was been paying in this area. In the area of water supply, the taps are dry and people have to resort to buying from mai ruwa with the health risk that such poses. Subsidies on all petroleum products have been totally withdrawn, leaving us totally in the hands of capitalists. This is the very decision of the authorities that feels like a red hot knife is drilling into our hearts. It is the aspect of government’s neutrality on social services that has inspired this writing.

Why did the Nigerian Government pull off support to this basic service? It is because it is eating up a huge chunk of the national budget, not just because the refined petroleum products are imported, but because it has provided a fertile ground for dishonesty to bloom in manner that is terrifying.

Nigeria is about the fifth oil-producing nation in the world. Sadly, the refined petroleum products used in Nigeria are imported, since the refineries in Nigeria are grounded and the government has been unable to breathe life into them again. So, the government goes to foreign nations to buy the products at prices ordinary people in those countries buy. There will be charges paid for shipment to Nigeria and more to serve as profits to importers. It is important to note that Nigerians aren’t paid equally as citizens in those nations. So, if a liter of oil in those countries is the equivalent of seven hundred naira, for instance, it will mean nothing to the citizens of those countries, but makes life horrible to us in Nigeria. It explains why Nigerians prefer to go and work abroad.

If Nigerians must be happy, its citizens must have to be paid as high as citizens in the countries from where Nigeria imports the petroleum products. It is either this, or the Nigerian government gets the refineries working optimally, seal the “porous’ borders and then bring back subsidy.

The refineries in Nigeria were the kitchen where the food that we grow is cooked and served to everyone. Since the kitchen doesn’t work anymore, daddy has to go and buy from restaurants. The cost is too high for him to bear, so he decided to let every child feed himself.

Minimum Wages in Some African Countries

 This is the minimum wage in some five  Countries as at 2021

Country	American Dollar Equivalent
Nigeria	$40.00
South Africa	$179.00
Ghana	$30.31
Ethiopia	$10.79
Egypt	$64.93
Kenya	$91.21

 

Mohbad: The Difficulty of a Guilty Verdict

Mohbad. Creit: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/

Everyone expects Naira Marley, the Nigerian Afrobeat sensation and CEO of Marlian Records, ending up on the gallows or at least spend the rest of his life or a greater part of it in jail.  This follows the sudden death of Mohbad, an artist signed to Marlian Records, a music recording label owned by Naira Marley. Mohbad died in a mysterious situation at a prime age of twenty seven.

By now, everyone knows Mohbad had reported that Marlian Records tried to end his life, following a visit he made to Naira Marley’s house. Months later, he died. Right now, the prime suspect is Marley and his close associates, one of which is a guy named Sam Larry.

The point now is that, when Mohbad died, there was no physical harm done to him –no gun shot, no stab, no gore... What is suspected is that he performed somewhere in Lagos where juju could have been used to end his life. But also, an ear infection is suspected. The law works only in the real world, but not in the realm of spirits. So, the possibility of juju as the cause of his death will definitely be thrown away. If however, the prosecution lawyer can prove that Marley is responsible for the ear infection or link Marley to other evidences that could come to the surface in the course of the investigation, then Marley would have to pay for it. 

Surprisingly, there are protests globally for justice –we never knew he was that famous. However, in death he became extremely famous. Another shocking part of his story is the fact that he has a song that talks about his death and the rumors in the aftermath.

Some media stations –radio and TV– have banned airing of Marley’s music, concluding that Naira Marley is responsible for Mohbad’s death. Among them are MTV Base and Sound City. I don’t expect that from huge organizations such as these. At most, they could have just kept quiet but prefer not to play the songs pending the outcome of the verdict that is sure to last for months, if not years.

Anyone can be responsible, assuming it is a case of killing in cold blood. It could be the Marlian Record team, but it could be someone totally unconnected to these guys. Sometimes, when you pronounce that someone is after your life, some other enemies could take advantage of the circumstance and strike, knowing the law wouldn’t look in their direction.  But it could be Marley and his team, using people who are close to the target to get him, using, perhaps, a biological weapon like an ear infection. But it could be a poison on a meal Mohbad was served. As a recording label, Marlian Records has a lot of money and could deploy that to search for advance approaches anywhere around the world.

Naira Marley understands the place of evidence in judicial processes. When he was arrested for saying that internet fraud is not really a crime, he was eventually released and went on to sing a song with a line that says, “Am I a Yahoo boy? No evidence.”   So, the prosecution has a tall mountain to climb in order to nail Marley as the man who ordered the killing of his former record company signee.

Gwom Rwei Kuru Passes at 80

Da Patrick Mandung, late Gwom Rwei Kuru

Da Patrick Mandung Kwis was the Gwom Rwei of Kuru. Kuru is one from a cluster of communities that make up the eleven districts of Beromland. The Berom is one of the largest ethnic groups in Plateau State.

On Monday, 24^th July, a young woman visited Dara Mandung, seeking financial help that concerns her tuition fee –the royal father was passionate about education.  He requested her to return the next day. When she did, he kept his promise and gave away all he had that day. About an hour later, the royal father passed away.

The gesture of handing over all he had to a woman that wasn’t intimately related to him, other than the fact that she is also Berom and a subject of his domain, was an act of kindness for which he was famous in Beromland.

Before his death, Da Mandung was one of the longest-serving traditional rulers in the whole of Plateau State, having served for thirty-seven years. When he celebrated his thirty-fifth-year anniversary as a royal father, there were financial gifts from wealthy individuals. The traditional ruler shocked everyone by giving away all the donations to St. Dennis Catholic Church Kuru, where he was a member of the laity. The money was used to roof the church whose construction was on-going. As an act of giving-in-return, the church ensured it completed work on the cathedral in the three weeks before his funeral.    

Da Mandung radiated the humility of a child, greeting everyone he met, young or old, tall or short, not minding his own lofty standing in Kuru and Beromland.  As if that wasn’t enough, he formed the habit of taking part in night security patrols, until his subjects prevailed on him to withdraw, saying: it was for them and not for him to go out in the dark and eerie setting of nights for the sake of protecting the people.

To say the funeral of the Gwom Rwei was majestic was to say the least. On the penultimate day to his entombment, the corpse was taken round the towns that make up Kuru community, before it was left at his home for a night. This was in respect of his order that he should be given, at least, a day to enable him bid farewell to the people.

Mandung belong to everyone. There was the church but also traditionalists with Kuru overflowing with people like sand on the seashores. There were civil servants, serving and retired. There were royal colleagues from all corners of Beromland and beyond.  There were politicians, business people, miners and just everyone.

Kuru is set in a picturesque enclosure of towering rocks that compare to anything else like Gulliver compared to Lilliputians. The palace where the royal father and his council sat is, in itself, set in a ring of some of some of the topographic prominence that is the face of Plateau State. Traditional Berom warriors, not leaving anything to chance, stood at the peak of the mountains, for a vantage view of the surrounding areas.  Down below and beside the palace, the Gwom Rwei was buried in a mausoleum that exemplifies skill and craft that is deserving of a man of his regal standing.

Da Mandung’s successor will inherit a couple of challenges that include how to end a nasty culture of youths dropping out of school to pursue mining, how to end the culture of partying into late nights in an environment replete with endless episodes of horrific and tragic night killings, and how to end the reckless and regrettable sale of lands by subjects.

Dara Mandung was born into a royal family in Kuru on April 12^th, 1943. He attended the Roman Catholic Mission –RCM– Primary School, Kuru, after which he went to St. John Vianney Seminary, Barking Ladi, hoping to become a priest, but –according to his son, Martin– his dad didn’t end up a priest. The tide of life reshuffled events so that his dad ended up with a mining company, despite having completed his course at the seminary.  He later left to join the Nigerian Army, serving in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kaduna. With time, he resigned from the Nigerian Army –where he worked in communication and intelligence– to join Shell Petroleum.  In 1985, though, he bowed to the authority of the Kuru traditional institution, when a delegation paid him a visit, requesting him to become the District Head of Kuru.

He left behind nine children.

 

Review of Caine Prize Shortlisted Stories for 2023

 Story:  Souls of Small Places

Author: Mame Bougouma Diene and Moppa Diallo

Country: Senegal

Woppa and Mame
Credit: Caineprize.com

For me, the French-speaking West African nation of Senegal resonates in my mind only when there is a political regime change or music superstar –Akon– is the subject of the conversation, or Sadio Mane – the football superstar – is the subject.  Now, A Soul of Small Places, a short story that is shortlisted for the 2023 edition of the Caine Prize for African Writing is the reason why Senegal is resonating in my mind, once again. 

A Soul of Small Places is a short story written by the duo of Mame Bougouma Diene and Moppa Diallo.  It is a story that is set in the pristine Senegalese hinterland. It is a story of a rural town that suffers a horrific ritual of rape that targets girls of elementary school age.

When Woppa was born, her mum, conscious of the danger she faces, decided to protect her. But the protection itself comes with extreme sacrifice –the girl will exist, but would actually belong to the spirits. Woppa has a kid sister by the name of Awa. So, in the real, the mother actually has one daughter.

Woppa’s ancestors, stretching back to her great-great-grandmother are flesh-eaters, coming in their spiritual form to devour anyone they deem fit. When provoked, their spirits rise to attack victims, targeting their hearts. To the flesh-eaters, blood is as tasty as cappuccino would be with us today. This is exactly what Moppa inherited, albeit without knowing.

Woppa is held late by a romantic outing. She, knowing she isn’t human, says it is more of a lustful relationship. As she and Awa walk back home, she felt Awa’s hand slipping out of her grip. She is prompted by the whispers of her ancestors. She swings into defensive action. The result is a scene that is crimson-red with gory remains of human bodies and scattered bits of human flesh.

In the process, Moppa becomes unconscious, bouncing back only after nineteen days. She is made to believe there was a stormy rain that unleashed a flood, wreaking havoc on the community and throwing her into a coma.

Back in school, there is a girl that wears a fetish pouch around her neck and sees beyond the ordinary, as a result. She is able to see that Woppa is a flesh-eater. She uses innuendo to refer to Moppa’s powers to Moppa’s and other kids’ hearing. Woppa confronts her parents. They can help but admit the truth to get over it, once and for all. From then onward, Moppa is fully conscious of her powers and her duty to protect little girls from rapist herdsmen.

Woppa continues to defend the girls in her village and the neighboring villages. One day, three herdsmen tried to gain entry into a house next to hers.  She is hinted at by a chorus of voices, as usual. Swiftly, she comes out, unleashing her powers at the men. She returns home as swiftly as she had come, without anyone noticing. The commotion draws the attention of men on patrol, but also her mum, who reaches the scene before the patrol team. The patrol team arrives and mistakes Moppa’s mum as the killer. They descend on her, taking her life. 

Woppa’s father, devastated by the circumstance of his wife’s death and the implication, –if people believe she killed the men –commits suicide less than twenty-four hours after his wife’s passing.

Awe is left alone, but does not trust anybody –among her close relatives– to raise her. Her sister’s spirit stands and watches the funeral of her parents. She whispers to birds who in turn whisper to the wind, relaying a message to Awa and hinting her to come over. Awa walks to the spirit of her sister who assures her that she will be going nowhere and will be there to protect her, forever.

Mame Bougouma Diene and Moppa Diallo’s innovative writing style delivers prose with embroidery of poetry in a manner that is breathtaking. It announces their arrival so astonishingly that we can’t help but notice.

The Soul of Small Places is a story with a strong chance to clinch the 2023 edition of the Caine Prize for African Writing.  

 

Story: Weaving

Author: Yvonne Kusiima

Country: Uganda

Yvonne Kusiima
Credit: www.caineprize.com

Thomasina –the younger– and Jessica are little girls born and raised in Kampala by a wealthy mother who suddenly dies. The two girls are compelled to move to rural Uganda to live with a granny in a two-room shack.

Jessica cried the day Grandma told them they will be weaving with her. For her protest, she is exempted. Thomasina finds herself weaving plastic mats with grandma, every day. The task is difficult and Grandma is harsh, flogging Thomasina with every single mistake. As a rookie knitter, it takes Thomasina a whole year to weave a single mat, while grandma’s experienced hands finish more than a dozen within the same period.

It is time to market the mats and Thomasina is made to sit under a hostile sun trying to woo buyers. It is a Herculean –most that come only watch and move on, never buying.

An American boy, whose mother’s charity work brought them to the village, approaches and buys everything to please Thomasina. He gets talking to ten-year-old Thomasina about what seems like romance to her. While she thinks that love is in the air, the American boy has lust in his mind, only interested in a hit-and-run.

In the evening, an American boy walks her to the woods carrying the mat he bought from her. He puts her on it, stealing her virginity. But then he turns back to his real love, a girl with fully matured hips that is unmistakably adult. Thomasina is devastated. Devastation is only a small fraction of her woe as she ends up pregnant.

Jessica and Grandma are divided on how to deal with the pregnancy. While Jessica wishes that her sister be allowed to keep the pregnancy and the baby, eventually, Grandma is against it because it would mean an additional burden.

Grandma, however, had her way, forcing Thomasina to take a native mixture that terminates the pregnancy.

Yvonne has a humble, disciplined, and charming writing style that is sure to win her fans across the continent. Through branches of her story, she is able to let us feel the mood of rural Uganda: the modest understanding of rural people, the poverty, gossip, superstition…

With her shortlist for the Caine Prize for African Writing, Yvonne has pulled herself from behind the horizon. With or without the prize, though, she has come and would shape conversations on African literature as long as she stays in writing.

 

Story: Daughters, by Our Hands

Author: Pius Ekemini

Country: Nigeria

Pius Ekemini
Credit: www.Caineprize.com

The story, Daughters By Our Hands, written by Pius Ekemini, finds root in an imaginative theory that a woman who can’t breed can reverse her condition if she meets another woman who is willing to donate or sell her nail. The nail is attached to that of the barren woman. After three weeks, there is a mix of genetics. Once the hybrid nail is inserted into a worthless womb, it magically reverses its fortune.

A mother, Eme, sells nine of her ten nails. The sole nail in her kitty gives her a much-cherished daughter, Aniema, who is cherished partly for the mundane benefits Eme expects to get from her nails.

But the Aniema has her own opinion as to how she intends to use her nails –they will not be sold. She prefers to donate them to poor sterile women who wouldn’t have been able to afford the nails. But Eme still hopes her daughter will cave in.

One day Aniema returns home with three of the nails gone and without money to show they had been sold. The mother confronts her daughter who said she had donated the three to a poor woman she met on a bus. Eme is badly hurt by her daughter’s decision, a situation that hurts deeply their relationship.

The poor recipient of the nail pays a visit to her “egg” donor three years after their accidental meeting. She came with three beautiful triplets, reminding Aniema who she is and thanking her for her generosity.

Daughters, by Our Hands, is “clean” and makes for speedy reading, as such.  The writer shows an amazing descriptive power that opens the reader's eyes to possibilities he may not have believed existed.

Any story that makes it to the shortlist of the Caine Prize has a chance. A lot of times, judges often complain about how tricky it is to come to a decision on who should take the prize. Having read the other stories, I think that the judges will again have to crack their heads to come to a conclusion as to who takes the prize.