GLOSSARY (of Nigerian slang)
Agbero- Street boys or men.
Danfo- Commercial bus.
Gala- A common Nigerian snack, hawked on the streets.
Harmattan- A dry, windy and cold weather in Nigeria, usually comes towards the end of the year.
Pyo wota- Water sachet, commonly hawked on Nigeria streets.
1989- CHRISTMAS EVE
Dust fills the air; there’s dust everywhere. The trees dry up, needing just a drop of moisture to come alive. They have been abandoned by the chirping birds for the not so dry ones. The grounds are reddish, dry and caked. The dust has painted the roofs, brick-red brown. The wind is blowing angrily carrying a fog of dust along with it joyfully, a combination not too pleasant to the people. It is a season of boom for Vaseline and Balm sellers - the sellers of essentials for cracked lips and cold goose-pimpled chests, the annoying effects of the harmattan. It is a chilly morning. It is now almost noon, the sun gradually finds its way excitedly through the grey clouds like it escaped or something, it creates some warmth. Christmas is in the air.
The impoverished streets of Lagos; unlevelled some areas without tar, the streets are nourished by the hustle and bustle of the people; agbero boys with heavy chests and danfo drivers with pot bellies brawling here and there, street sellers shouting “buy pyo wota” or, “gala! gala!” Street hawkers hawking one item or the other, everything and anything, even bed sheets. Naked children with flat, skinny chests and protruding bellies running up and down, some running along the streets rolling old tyres and pushing handmade toy cars, they frown at the dryness and coldness of the weather but they do not let the dry weather stop them. People are looking for one thing or the other to do to earn a little cash for Christmas. Many are yet to buy their Christmas chicken, fish or even Christmas rice!
The opulent neighbourhoods on the other hand bear a different story. You find exotic Christmas lights, beautiful and classy Christmas decorations, neatly tarred roads, tall trees and flowers gracing the sides. There is little peace and quiet but a different kind of noise; Christmas carols playing gloriously from mansion to mansion, the sounds of Fela Kuti and Michael Jackson music interrupting the seasonal tunes, people in their homes on their soft cosy sofas singing joyful Christmas songs laced with elegance, finesse and silliness, heartfelt laughters and happy cries of reunion, fat chickens, turkeys and cows yet to be slaughtered, sisters and cousins admiring each other’s expensive Christmas mullets and afros, brothers showing each other their designer shirts, fathers chattering excitedly in the sitting room with their wealthy colleagues and friends, biting into large chunks of meat and singing along cheerfully to Fela Kuti music. Mothers have their outfits set even for their young laughing children.
Joy filled the parents heart as their older children arrived from school days ago, most of them from abroad. The neighbourhoods are full of adolescents and young adults sharing one fancy experience or the other, never daring for their parents to hear about their campus misbehaviours. Conversations of how shopping is more fun than hours in the library because of the dreaded deadlines and examinations, about how cute Caucasian boys are or how Caucasian girls are more exposed and have long, silky hair in contrast to their short, tight-curled afros. Ikenna was one of such 'privileged' children.
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Have a blessed week :*
Zee.