In junior secondary, we had many competitions. One of such was to read novels within the African Writers Series, from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart to Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams. On the Igbo side, my all-time Igbo writer, Tony Ubesie, dropped the matchless peerless novels – Ukwa Ruo Oge Ya O Daa and Isi Akwu Dara N’ala – which I consumed in multiples.
But in all the books, Uwadiegwu, an Igbo novel, was full of wisdom, and could be seen as a practical guide on living life! He dropped many zen-like ideas. For example, if you must borrow, borrow from your kinsmen because when debts are localized, they are better, since by Igbo culture, if you are unable to repay, and your neighbour locks you up, he will also be responsible to take care of your family!
He posited that Nwaoha [a child to the community], Adaoha [a daughter to the community], Ekeoha [a male child to the community], etc make it clear that a child does not belong to the parents alone, but to the community. And if your lender is part of the community, it gives you a cover in case you cannot repay since raising those kids are part of their issues also.
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He went on and on, and none of those things made sense for a teenager but over time, I have come to appreciate the book. A great session was: do not fight wars with your neighbours for a foreigner because one day any war will end. And if you must fight wars, make sure the wars are not in your homeland.
This takes me to the news that Donald Trump had spoken with Putin of Russia. People, did you read this well? Just imagine if Ukraine’s Zelenskyy read that book because right now, everything Europe has cooked has gone sour. Trump is leading on this matter because Putin and Zelenskyy should not be fighting, just as Israel and Palestine must stop wars [I mean grandchildren of Abraham sharing so much hatred, not good]
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