Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like your enemies are everywhere while your friends are nowhere?
Now, imagine hearing so much about that as a kid and growing up to see that materialize. It sure isn't an easy thing to face. It is also not a fun experience. However, that's the fact and it's exactly what this post is focused on.
I want to share about my home which now feels like a warzone.
Lemme tell you about that.
I am a Nigerian. In this part of the world, we have a lifestyle that encourages travelling to the village during festive/holiday seasons. Christmas is obviously the biggest holiday season in Nigeria. This is a time when both students and workers know that holiday is around the corner.
Nigeria is not even a country that's mostly dominated by Christians. We have a lot of regions that are for Muslims. Yet, whenever Christmas is around the corner, the holiday cuts across regions. Everyone is open to celebrating the occasion. This is usually a time when people travel from different parts of the country to their hometowns so they can celebrate the season with their immediate and extended family.
It used to be an occasion like that.
Imagine what it would feel like for siblings to travel back home with their wives and kids. Then, cousins and nephews will get opportunity to reconnect with each other. Aunties , Uncles, Grandparents... everyone. Also, people in the hometown will get opportunities to reconnect with those that lives in other towns.
There's usually so much to eat on those occasions. Back then, my Dad usually spends a fortune on such occasions. He likes to buy a lot of things while we travel back to the village. He makes sure that he gets a gift for a lot of people in the village. He also gifts money to some relatives.
My Mum also buys a lot of foodstuffs to make sure that there's always something to eat for all the people who come over to say Hi and Hello. She also gifts cash and food items to some of the relatives we visit when we travel back home for Christmas.
Trust me when I say this... It costs an insane amount of money for them to do all that. Yet, they are open to doing it because they want to see people happy and they want to also help people.
Can you even imagine the outcome of their benevolent acts?
People smiled in their presence. They were so grateful. However, a lot of them didn't genuinely appreciate any of that gesture. They did a shit load of fetish black magic to drain my parent's wealth, bring sickness upon us, and rain mayhem on my family.
I remember my Dad getting so sick, he had to be taken from one hospital to another across several regions in Nigeria. The hospitals didn't have any clue of what was wrong. They were just doing trial and error while wrecking us with hospital bills. At some point, my Mum had to take my Dad to several churches for prayers and co.
All these were happening around 2007. I was just 10 years old back then, and memories of the damage my family had to face are still very fresh in my mind.
It turned out that my Dad was actually poisoned in our village. It took longer than a while for him to fully recover and get back to work. My Mum, who also experienced all that, started to warn us about our association with folks in my Village. We all had to be extremely careful.
We had to be very careful of what we ate whenever we visited the village. We also had to be very careful of who we visited his/her house. It's not so much about being physically assaulted by anyone. In African villages, most people are more concerned about spiritual attacks done through fetish black magics.
Interestingly, a lot of people outside Africa are still doubtful of the existence of black magic and stuff like that. I also would have been super doubtful. However, I've seen it happen too many times to know that these things happen and some people would receive money you gifted them and then use that same money to do some fetish things.
It's a wild world out there.
The people I saw as family growing up are now the same people I'm weary of. I don't mess around with them and I don't lower my guard around them, especially when it has to do with food or drinks. Too many people's food and drinks get spiked with harmful substances when they are not looking. I sure wouldn't want to take that risk.
I can still recall sometime in 2016 when my paternal Granddad died and was being buried. It was a tough time for all of us. We all had to travel to the village for that. While mourning his death, my Mum almost fell inside a pit toilet. It was a very horrifying experience for her. She fought for her life in that period, and it was one of the unforgettable negative experiences she had that season.
It's already more than a decade since we last traveled back to the village. My siblings and I grew up with the understanding that our village is a wild place to be. My parents decided that we needed to be grown-ups before we all would make any other trip back home.
Now, we are all grown up. My youngest sibling is 17 years old. So, I won't be surprised if my family (parents and siblings) decide to travel back home during the Christmas holiday. It would be a decision that would generate mixed feelings because I know they would all like to reconnect with our family members. However, no one knows who to trust.
I know that I won't be available for that. The first two weeks of December are already booked for me. I have a trip to make and my fund is already channelled towards that trip. So, when I get back from Mauritius, I won't be open to going on another trip.
The next time I would likely be making a trip to my village would be when I'm getting set to get married.
Hopefully, when that time comes, my village will be a place where I can comfortably bring over my future wife and kids.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
