|
The school bell was a long awaited
relief to the monotonous and repetitive activities of the early post
colonial school for the young. With school subjects as handicrafts,
handwork and rural science sprinkled with math and spellings along
with religious stories, we anxiously waited for the bell to send us
young people home. Back in our homes, activities that we engaged in
depended on the economic status of the parents. Children were
expected to contribute somehow to the economic needs of the family.
Some gathered firewood after school and others helped out in the
farm, but no matter what occupied us children; we enjoyed our lunch
of garri in cold water. It was a simple meal that did not require
elaborate preparation passed on from generation to generation. One
simply poured cold water into a bowl with garri and it became a
meal. Every school child enjoyed that and it was capable of holding
one over till mealtime. Our people used to believe then that no
child could be hungry with garri in the house. We children learnt
the lesson well and years afterwards; we took it to our boarding
secondary schools. I made sure I took a bagful of garri whenever I
returned to school after the holidays. That was then, and enjoying
garri was what we all did after school.
Today, several thousand miles away from home, I still enjoy foboing
garri as we used to call it. Today, as I wind down after the day's
work I remember the good old days when I looked forward to coming
home from school. I recalled when garri and water provided a sweet
relief from the hot sun outside and so I, along with several of my
compatriots who have come to visit, grabbed a bowl and reached for
the dry stuff after coming in from the hot and humid American summer
sun. As we poured water into our garri my eleven-year-old son asked
if he could share. I asked him to bring a bowl from the kitchen and
with the zeal of a man intent on passing on a tradition, I told him
about the need to get a handful of garri and water enough to give it
a watery consistency. We sat down at the dining table and I began
savoring my garri with the pleasure of the memories of yesteryears.
My son sitting at the opposite side of the table did what all
children born in America do best: he began to talk about his day. He
told us about a neighbor's child who always comes over to play. He
told us about a favorite television program and about his friends at
school. He asked when I was going to fix something that was broken
in the backyard where they play, in sum my son used our time
together to talk as we always do at dinner. But this was no dinner;
it was cold water garri-drinking. When he turned to take a spoonful
of his garri, he exclaimed,” It has turned into foo-foo!” I realized
then that I had neglected to teach my son about one of the important
points of enjoying the snack: speed.
The garri episode demonstrated to me how much and how far removed
from our culture the children that we have here have become. At his
age, children back then knew what it meant to enjoy garri in cold
water, now our children mistake the garri drinking exercise for
ordinary mealtime when families talk and painfully realize that when
left long in water garri becomes hard. Some things have changed but
some still remain the same. Talking and wasting time while trying to
“fobo” garri does not mix. This simple and insignificant problem has
shown more than anything, the predicament of Nigerians in America.
Simple meals enjoyed at home have now taken on a religious ritual
where we eat in groups to re-live the experiences of our homeland,
yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to convey our experiences
to those children that we have in America. At other times, whatever
we are trying to teach our children are seen through the lenses of
the western society. My son mistook this simple Nigerian snack for
an American dinner experience, and in the process failed to fully
grasp the benefit of enjoying a truly Nigerian experience. As I
reflect on this further, I wonder what will happen to all the
children born of Nigerian parents in the west. Will they know about
their homeland? Will they contribute to the development of Nigeria?
He might have learnt about the need for speed in the garri exercise
but some things still must be taught.
|
