Africans
Igboland Is Bleeding!
Ala Igbo is bleeding! She has been disappointed summarily by my father’s generation and my own generation.
Ala Igbo can be likened to that beautiful and productive wife that was a darling to numerous suitors. She finally agreed to be the wife of a very handsome and productive man who had potentials and promise.
In the beginning of the marriage, the man lived up to expectation as he was faithful, hardworking and ever present. But as this beautiful bride turned to mother, focusing on the pain of raising children, the value and respect the husband had for her began to wane.
The man began to take solace in beer parlours. He graduated to having numerous concubines. He did not hide his waywardness. The wife being an Amazon, made excuses for the husband. Gradually, she began to play both the role of mother and father.
She began to be the chief provider. She cooked, took care of the children and husband, worked herself out to earn money. She explained her husband’s excesses away to the children and outsiders who saw what was going on. She made sure the children did not grow to see their father in a bad light.
She wore huge smile on her face. But beneath the smiles lies huge scar and loneliness. Her son grows up, taking after the father. He joins cult. Couldn’t finish from school. She makes excuses for him. Tries to cover up for him the same way he covered up for the father.
Two of her daughters gave birth at home. Beautiful daughters we all expected to get married to deserving suitors. She made excuses for the daughters and helped them in training her grandchildren.
The fate of this once beautiful woman, is the fate of Ala Igbo today. Ala Igbo has been betrayed economically, defiled spiritually and made politically ugly, not by outsiders, but by her own. Yet, her arms are still open hoping that someday, like the prodigal son, her family will tell themselves the truth.
Ala Igbo is seriously hoping that one day her children will realise our homeland is theirs to plough and not to plunder. Like a loving mother, she has made a lot of excuses. She has made a lot of sacrifices. She has covered the shame of her children to her own detriment. She has lost her alluring beauty all to be there for her family.
How long she will continue to remain loyal and dutiful is yet to be seen.
Dear Umu Igbo, what outsiders have done to us is only one, but what we have done to ourselves are nine!
Written by Nze Tobe Osigwe (Ezeikolomuo)
