Can any good thing come out of Galilee? That was
thinking of Pharisees. But greatest miracle worker and preacher came from there. Don’t you know him? If you don’t, you are just like most Jews who still await coming of messiah. Of course he will come like a thief in night, but that would be his second coming. Hope you are not surprised?Like core Jews, don’t be surprised that Jesus will continue to spring forth from this present Galilee-Nigeria. Don’t be surprised that one of best selling authors whose books have a place in your eight feet library is a Nigerian. I won’t mention her name, rather his name. At least you are familiar with some of them who have laid down traditions for others to follow. If you are not, then let’s walk down memory lane.
Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian, won Nobel Prizes years back. Nineteen years ago to be precise. Dele Olojede, a former foreign editor of Newsday Newspaper in New York, won Pulitzer Prize this year for his story titled “ Genocide’s Child,” a series that looked back at civil war in Rwanda.
I was on Internet other day when I came across Fatima Musa. Her name sounds Nigerian though I’m not really sure if she is. But from story of her life, she is everything related to Nigeria. Peradventure she is not, then her past generation must have been “stolen from Africa” like Bob Marley sang.
Another border I will not fail to cross is Booker Prize. Ben Okri, who wrote Famished Road, won Booker some years ago. Still on border of English, Helen Oyeyemi (a teen, I would call her) is also creeping out from London onto literary center stage with publication of her first book, Icarus Girl.
And from his homeland, a controversial writer, Arthur Zulu, is riding higher in writers’ world with his books How To Write a Best Seller and Chasing Shadow! A Dream. Or, you don’t know him? If you don’t, go to a search engine, type his name and you would be surprised at what you will see. I want to be believe, he is laying a tradition, very different from others, for generations coming after him.
Apart from these great names I have mentioned, there are others lost in crowd. Those who think nine syllables names won’t sell a book. So, like George Orwell whose original name is Eric Blair. Like Mark Twain, (originally, Samuel Langhorne Clemens) they have invented themselves names, memorable names that will stick to their readers. They (lost in crowd Nigerians) are either moving with tradition or breaking it.
Say in Oxford University, tradition of school is believed to add great importance to beauty of school. If a student knowingly or unknowingly trampled one of rules, which makes tradition, there is always a consequence.
I remember in high school, some boys and I broke a rule and we served consequence. We had to mow lawn for a week. That was school tradition. But in Nigeria, (every tribe has its traditions and customs) consequences for breaking tradition of a tribe could be as far reaching as excommunication or even death.
In Nigeria, when a child is born, he or she has to wait for eight days to get a name. Yes, eight days and on eighth day, some rituals need to be performed. (I call it ritual because I see it like one) A ceremony is held, welcoming all extended family, including those toothless old men and women leaning on cane carved from ancient trees. For ceremony, salt, sugar, sugarcane, honey, alligator pepper, kolanut are bought forth and child would have a taste of these items as some prayers are said representing those items.
