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In the great land of Idu was the young and very wise Tortoise whose aged father became very sick to the point of death. As the eldest son of the father, custom and tradition demanded that he should prepare heavily for the burial ceremony of his great father who was a titled Chief and a community leader. Due to poverty, unemployment and other factors the Tortoise pictured the situation as more than he could manage and he had to travel out of the community to escape the traditional rites and his right as a “bonafide son”, or “nwafor” in the Igbo language.
While leaving, he mentioned a little to others about the city he was traveling to and gave them a condition and sound warning that they should only contact him if an incident that had never happened before in their land should occur!
Indeed many of his friends and some of his enemies were greatly disturbed at his leaving in the face of his father’s illness; many thought he should stay to do the burial so that they might eat and be merry because the father was advanced in age and famous. Yet the young and wise Tortoise was a being of his words and he would only to return to the land should something new take place.
Unfortunately, the old father of the Tortoise did eventually see his last day on earth. The news spread to everywhere like wildfire in the harmattan; everybody was sad and unhappy. They continued paying their condolences to the wife of the deceased, “Madam Tortoise – now a widow”, and asked after the young tortoise but indeed they were told of his movement out of the community for the city to look for better pasture and of the sincere warning and prerequisite for contacting him. However, there was the simple fact that new thing(s) that had never happened before in the land had happened. Strange!
The elders of the land set out for the city in search of him, locating him in one crescent of the city and breaking the news in "the normal way" to him. “Your Father is dead,” they said. “Oh!” shouted the Tortoise. “My father. You people mean my father is dead?” “Yes,” they replied and continued, “We need you very urgently for his burial rites and traditional rites as custom demands.”
The young Tortoise frowned and became instantly angry. He shouted at them, “What is the new thing that has happened? Indeed the death of my father is far from being a new thing.” He showed them the way to the door, with the elders trying to convince him to reason with them to no avail.
Back in the village, the elders “being elders” had gathered to proffer ways to make the Tortoise come back home to the community and face his responsibilities and bury his father; or what tradition calls a right of the Tortoise.
They entered into the brainstorming session and listed the following suggestions and new things had happened. They sent out a memo to the Tortoise in the city telling him that:
(1) A man is pregnant in their land
(2) A person standing on ground fell and killed a person who was on top of a palm tree
(3) An egg dropped and broke his mother’s pot
(4) A sheep was born with horns.
Indeed, a fine work from the council of elders and the product of good thinking. The message was immediately passed to the Tortoise in the city and he became very worried. He really had to travel down to the village to see for himself all these great new things that had happened. Yes, he had to go back because new things had happened.
When he finally came back to see with his own eyes he saw the body of his late father waiting and he had to do first things first. Immediately, he remembered the old saying: “When the music changes, steps too follow to change.” He realized that nothing had happened but his father’s death. He buried his father in good faith and traditionally, and learnt from the elders many new things that his mates would never know and he continues to grow in wisdom.
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Henry Ekwuruke
Henry Ekwuruke is Executive Director of the Development Generation Africa International.
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