Cheers to the ‘embers!

For a long time in my house and since I can remember, Christmas and New year (first week of January) holidays are spent in the village.
The only year we the Fanta-chapman drinking children of my folks rebelled against this unwritten commandment and decided to stay in the city, my mother dearest was involved in a freak accident.
She broke her hand.
Mother dear had to go around with her arm in a sling for close to two months.
Considering both hands are usually needed to whip, chop, roll, grate, stir and cut all the mouthwatering delicacies that accompany the season, you can imagine how devastated we the now compliant children were.

During one of such Christmases, being the ever-obliging niece that I am, without being asked, I offered to escort my uncle around the village as he ran his errands.
The trip was uneventful.
My uncle finished his errands in record time and soon, we were headed home.
Halfway through our homeward journey, he started humming a tune and urged me to sing along.
As I struggled to follow his lead (the song was in my native dialect which by some wicked trick of fate, I have failed to grasp) he began to tell a story.
He told three stories.
By the time he was through with the 3rd story, I had covered the exposed parts of my body, rolled up the glass of the car and checked to make sure my door was locked for the 50th time.

To my uncle, I was this enthralled little girl enjoying his scary stories while in reality, I was a scared teen on the verge of twenties very close to pissing my panties afraid to tell him to stop because the first story he told was about a child who did not listen to elders and do as she was told – by gorilla’s in the forest.
He was driving on a road bordered by thick forests with things some might claim to be birds randomly flying by.

Christmas is coming!

But before Christmas comes, we would witness September’s passing, celebrate Nigeria’s Independence Day and fall prey to the Christmas sales that will go on for most of November.

This year, Independence Day falls on Tuesday October 1st.

Independence Day is an annual celebration commemorating the anniversary of a nation's assumption of independent statehood.

This year, God willing, this great nation Nigeria will be 53 years old.

Hopefully, by the D-day, I’d have come up with something very enthusiastic to say about Nigeria’s independence from oppression, exploitation and predation.

Christmas is coming!!