— Baba Ibeji welcomes a new child
CHAPTER ONE Little Beginnings
‘’Eku orire o!’’ The young and handsome doctor whispered, patting his back. The doctor congratulated Baba Ibeji in his mother’s tongue, which he was obviously pleased with. He had confronted the nurse who met him at the reception to communicate in his dialect. She, after all, was a Yoruba lady. They both had the same accent. When she speaks her defective English, her accent gives her out. He was pleased to see that the nurse’s English wasn’t impeccable. It is very rare to find one in a gathering of five in Lagos who does not have a slight understanding of the Yoruba language.
Baba Ibeji is not one of those people who neglect their mother’s tongue. In fact, he makes sure the Yoruba language is added to every conversation he is engaged in. Without hesitation, he replied to the doctor,Temitope.’
The befitting response paved the way for the child, who had just been added to his family. This child immediately erased his thoughts on the encounter he had with his landlord two nights ago after being reminded about his due rent.
The garri seller’s insult was also no match that night to erase the joy of safe delivery. Baba Ibeji realized that his situation was worth thanking God for, and so he named the baby girl Temitope, meaning ‘appreciation is mine.’
Being assured that his daughter and wife were in good condition, he ran home to inform the twins and the neighbors of the new child added to the family. The absence of light made the celebration longer and easier, for it served as an avenue for the neighbors to gossip. At least, if not about the new tenant who interacts with only the educated ones in the compound, they had the landlord to gossip about.
Tattling about the landlord was something they engaged in frequently, especially after the increment in the house rent. As they joined in the joy of Baba Ibeji, they also took time to enjoy the latest information on other pertinent issues. The twins were also part of the celebration, as their father ensured that no one slept while he celebrated.
The child was brought back home the next day with her mother, while the naming ceremony took place on the eighth day. Several items were present for the ceremony, including salt, sugar, honey, kolanut, sugarcane, and other essential items used by the Yorubas. The child was christened Anne; nonetheless, she was called Temitope because her father had insisted on that name.
Normally, being the child after the twins, she should have been called Idowu, but her father, who wanted to do things differently, was so insistent that his wish prevailed. He had once contended that a child’s name and his respect for culture shouldn’t be interfered with.
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Baba Ibeji proudly replied to his people during his previous contention with one of his cherished proverbs, ‘bayi la un se ni ile wa, ewo ilu ibomini.’ That is, what is acceptable in one place is prohibited in another. The Yoruba people are known to have the highest twinning rate. They deem it fit and necessary to name the child that comes after the twins, Idowu, and the one that comes after that, Alaba.
Growing up on Lagos Island can be fun and challenging at the same time. Okesuna is a very busy area located at the base of Lagos Island.
Staying in a compound with more than twenty rooms and over thirty tenants sharing the same bathroom and toilet can be an unforgettable experience. Some have chosen to use this experience to build a better future for themselves, while others are embittered and live with regrets all their lives.
Temitope’s beauty is that she is growing up in this kind of house and neighborhood to be a strong and dependable lady determined to succeed in life. If you can successfully live with several people sharing the same toilet and bathroom for years, witnessing several quarrels among them without being victimized or compromised, then you certainly can cope in any environment.
Right in this compound, where several kinds of people reside, a mallam with a good sense of humor owns a small shop at the entrance. Mallam, as he is fondly called by his customers, but Yakubu to his wife, Zainab, is a man always ready to brighten his customers’ faces. Mallam Yakubu had left his home in Kaduna, the northern part of Nigeria, after a clash between two communities, which led to the deaths of his two young boys.
After grieving for his boys, he took the advice of his friend Abu to come live in Lagos with his wife. The only language Mallam understood was Hausa, spoken by the northerners. Yakubu was no good at English, but after some months in Lagos Island, he was not only good at pidgin English, he was also better at Lagos business language—wetin you want?, how much you want?, no jara, ba fisi.
Most residents with different stories in the compound found Lagos to be a place of refuge.
A town with no restriction to age, status, or background. Sometimes, in order to tease the hardworking man, the little children waved at him so he could say to them, ‘I dey go to school’ instead of ‘you dey go to school?’
And upon sighting him on their way back from school, they would tease him in another way, but only for Yakubu to bring out his koboko (whip), which would effectively set them running and laughing. Mallam Yakubu was left alone after the children saw a decline in his age and growth in their years too.
Baba Ibeji’s little girl was no longer seen as a baby, for she had grown to be a beautiful lady, almost as tall as the general table kept in the verandah. The twins were also grown and apparently taller than the blackboard used in their classroom.
The boys had automatically assumed the responsibility of caring for their little sister whenever their parents were not around. The identical twins, who looked alike but were distinct in personalities, were always there to give the support every girl could ask of her brothers. And as a result of this, their mother found it easy to leave Temitope with the twins whenever it was called for.
Adebimpe didn’t want her daughter to spend too much time at home before enrolling her in school. The twins’ experience was enough to teach her a lasting lesson.
While her neighbor’s children were doing exercises from older students, her twins struggled to keep up. And this was as a result of the delay in enrolling them in a school. Keeping her daughter home longer than necessary would almost certainly backfire. In order to avoid such, she consulted with the only sisi akowe in the compound. Aina, who was fondly called Sisi Akowe due to her educational status, was a young female and intelligent lady who was currently in Lagos for her National Youth Service. The National Youth Service is a mandatory one-year program for all university and polytechnic graduates. It is a service to one’s nation with the aim of strengthening the bond and acceptance between different tribes in Nigeria.
Sisi Akowe was particularly admired for the level of intelligence displayed by her and also for her beauty. The gentlemen of Okesuna were her greatest admirers, and as a cheerful lady, she found life at Okesuna interesting. Iya Ibeji sought her counsel on getting an affordable school where Temitope could get a good education.
‘’The girl is seven already,’’ she explained to the young lady. She went further to explain that getting a school close to the house would be most preferred. ”I never want to make the same mistake I did with the twins!”
”Now that typewriters aren’t as widely used, our monthly income hasn’t been the same,” she explained, her face solemn.
Sisi Akowe was prompted to ask what her husband does for a living, but before she could open her mouth, Iya Ibeji had already explained to her that Baba Ibeji works as a messenger to a typist in Marina.
Having said all that, the young corporal told her of a school at Obalende where she could enroll her daughter in the Army barracks. Grateful for the information received, she hugged Sisi Akowe, who in turn promised to help her whenever the need arose.
She hurriedly left the room and headed back to her stall at Idumota to begin her sales for the day.
All through the day, she was courteous to her customers, who perceived that she must have received some important news. The aura she carried conspicuously indicated that something good had happened to her. Iya Ibeji treated her customers well despite the rough encounters she had at sales. It was evident to her fellow market women that something good had happened, as she was also singing while attending to her customers.
The joy most parents have in sending their children to school is the joy of a better tomorrow for these children—the hope of living a good life and becoming useful to society at large.
This hope, however, is sometimes unfulfilled when graduates are seen roaming the streets without employment or a means of livelihood. Hence, the hope placed in education reduces with time.
Getting home that night was exhausting. Iya Ibeji had to trek from Idumota to Okesuna so as to get food for the family.
She arrived home with her hands full. And as usual, the twins were the first to see her presence but the last to receive the sweets bought after Temitope must have had hers.
Immediately after dinner, she informed Baba Ibeji of her visit to Sisi Akowe. Even though she wasn’t talking directly to the children, they assumed they were also being spoken to since they all lived in the same room.
Occasionally, Baba Ibeji reminded them that they ought to leave the room whenever they perceived a momentous discussion between their parents.
Not until after the slight frown on their father’s face did they remember to excuse their parents. And as they made their way to go join other children outside, they passed the blame to each other until Kehinde insisted that they were both wrong.
