Rakes and Knives

I read a story by a young man called Mister Charles-Idu. His story is called “hoe and machete.” Although this is my story, it was his story that inspired it.

Will it be fair to say the British people that colonised Nigeria left us with rakes and knives? Will it be fair to say that the British strategically planned our current state? I’m sure it’s not fair to say that. They didn’t take our brains did they? At least not physically.

Still, I can’t help but think they might as well have. They gave us rakes to ensure we keep farming for just ourselves and our families and then they gave us knives to settle every dispute we have with each other. A country so so so blessed, yet more than half of the population depend on their farms.

Hear me out. Is it possible to put 3 different countries together forcefully and not expect disputes? Is it possible to randomly give one of them the largest land mass in the country and expect the other two to remain silent? This automatically creates a tussle for power. This automatically creates tribalism. This automatically creates chaos.

You don’t believe me? I have one word for you. Biafra. These problems caused the Biafran war. Yes, the foulest war Nigeria has ever witnessed. The saddest war Africa has ever seen. The war that changed the history of Nigeria for ever. The war that Britain watched.  

Why must we end every clash with knives? I don’t see the United States of America or England ending their country’s battles with knives. I’m saddened when I think about how they left us. I almost feel they gave us false hope. How can you hand a baby a rake and a knife? Somebody once told me that if the British government knew the amount of oil Nigeria has, they would never have left.

As far as I am concerned, all our country’s problems stem from the very beginning. Boko Haram that plagues Nigeria today is a product of the tussle for power, tribalism and chaos that I mentioned earlier. All our problems are. 

Enough of the blame game. Let’s face the reality that is our country today. We don’t need the government to sugar coat the problems or try to “fix” problems that are not the real problems. What we need is a government that will realise the root of the problems and then truthfully rebuild the country. As far as I am concerned, Nigeria needs to discard the rakes and knives and then, rebuild itself.

Have a wonderful day!

With all my love,

Dárà Rhodes x

Ourselves

“We don’t know enough about ourselves & continue to be enslaved by a narrative about ourselves told by other people” - Thabo Mbeki

I read this quote to my immediate younger sister and her reply was “yes nau. If you want to hide anything from a black person, put it in a book.” Her English teacher told her that.

Mbeki is right. We don’t know enough about ourselves. The video above, made me cry the first time I watched it. Why do we refuse to educate ourselves about ourselves? Why do we continue to believe and re-tell the single story told to us by other people about ourselves?

 I think we need to read more. I think we need to ask more and I think we need to learn more. Other people’s narratives of us can only continue to enslave us. We need freedom. Our children need to know the truth about themselves.

I thank the Lord for the Nigerian and African writers and only God knows how much I love them but we need to teach the children to love them too. I have a dream that one day, children will swap and scramble for African books, the way I scrambled for and swapped Enid Blyton books. As a child, reading Enid Blyton was “IT.” My friends and I fought for the ‘person who has read the most Enid Blyton books’ title. Only if Enid Blyton was Nigerian or African. And dropped little nuggets of our history in those stories that sparked my imagination so much.

Only if we had a Nigerian writer whose head was filled with knowledge and heart filled with passion for telling that knowledge to our little children in ways that spark their imagination but fills them with pride when the book ends. Only if.

Maybe then, Mbeki will be wrong.

Have a wonderful day!

With all my love,

Dárà Rhodes x