Arrows and Crowns: Happy Children's Day
My Mother has a blind spot for children that is impossible to embody, describe or comprehend. People and primarily children, loved Mum, and Mum honored their loved recklessly. Mum claims I "ranju mo" (scare or making faces at) children, but I refuse to debate that. Since when has telling children they can play in this house but don't come and fight Jackie Chan and break the television screen becomes ranju? When did reading riot act for children that, Yes, you can come and eat in this house but only don't wake up in your home early in the morning on Monday when everyone is preparing for school, and your Mother gives you bread, egg, and tea, but you insist that you want to go to Big Mummy house to eat 2 minutes noodle. First, that is ibaje (bad behavior). Second, you know Big Mummy does not cook. I will be the one to cook it in school uniform, and I hate to go to school smelling like kerosine and the kitchen. Also, please don't come to our house to eat and break the plates; when I use my hand to touch you small, you cry like I use the cane on you. Next thing Mum would say, " agba wa bura bi ewe o se ori.(Adults should swear they were never children) No, I did ewe, but when I was like you, I didn't break as many plates because if I did, Mummy would threaten to use them to design my face and pack all the broken dishes as a luggage to my future husband's house.
It took me a while to understand why Mum loved children. Some are too personal to write about, but Mum believes children are arrows; you aim them as far as you want them to go. To be clear, children as the arrow does not suggest children lack agency. Arrows are meant to be shot, so this connotes you to direct them toward their best and highest use(help maximize their potential). She also believes that children are your spokesperson in the future you may not feature in; what they communicate at the enemy's gates relies on what you put in them. Finally, Mum is convinced that children are our tomorrow. Along those lines, My PoP said recently, "Children are our crowns, and if they don't shine, our heads are empty."
If children are our crowns, what attention are we paying to this crown? With what glimmers are we decorating them to make them fit our heads and shine distinctively in the evening of our life?
I hope this children's day is not a day we snap pictures and read to children of wealthy people who are suitable for the optics while millions of out-of-school children roam the street.
I trust that this Children's Day help us rethink spaces where children of this country learn. That they are not learning under leaked roofs and lack basic access to critical materials that shape them for the future we envision for them.
I imagine this children's day would allow us to think about intensive training and welfare for our educators. With welfare, I once told Modupeola that Mum like to do "anifunimawobe" when she comes to our school to pay school fees. Maami will enter the staff room and "force" money into the hands of every teacher while smiling so big and giving them her "unsolicited" prayers. "Bi ese sho ori olori awode oni gbe tiyin lo. Ese Modupe O". I always felt embarrassed when she did this; even teachers who didn't understand Yoruba would say, "Amen, Mummy." If Mum saw anyone pregnant, she would tell them to let her know when they give birth. You know she would send something. One day I asked why all this feferity? She said, "inu didun ni mu ori ya." A teacher that is not satisfied or happy offers limited value.
I pray this children's day will encourage trainers to never give up. To continue to shape mind and future, nurture and steward greatness in our pupils.
I wish on this children's day that those who don't take education seriously will find the strength to do so.
By the way, I am beginning to love kids, or maybe a version of my Mother in me loves them. One time I was deeply angry with one son of Adam, and I was carrying face for him. He came where I was, saw a child crying, and gave the child foreign currency while calming him, and every angst in me against him melted. I said to myself, "Rosemary won pada get e sha!" I asked him if he wanted to go somewhere to grab something to eat? Na, so fight finish. In the famous Nollywood invocation at the film's end, "To God be the glory!
Happy Children's Day!
Posted on Facebook on May 27, 2023
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