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I was present at Professor Wole Soyinka’s 83rd birthday anniversary in Abeokuta. The theme for the celebration was tolerance.
And we actually need the ability to be able to tolerate our various differences. God in His wisdom didn’t create us the same way. By the way, if we had been alike in terms of race, language, religious belief, class, gender,etc would this world have been so interesting?
But as long as we acknowledge and respect each other’s differences we shouldn’t have problems.
Itire of my days was a good example of tolerance. Especially religious and ethnic tolerance!
Some of us were Christians, some were Muslims, and some were traditional worshippers. And most ethnic groups in Nigeria were represented with a grain of foreigners. When I say foreigners, I mean our West African neighbours. There were even some half castes.
One thing about religions is that they often overlap. One could be a Christian but still be a traditionalist. A similar situation applied to the Muslims.
As for me, I am a Christian, however we still made offerings to Ogun. Actually, there was an ojubo, place of worship, at home.
When anybody wanted to appease Ogun, they came with kolanuts, gin, palm oil, water, bitter cola, alligator pepper. etc. Of course, a rooster will be part of the sacrifice.
I fully participated in the rituals. In fact, I used to look forward to it.
Yet, we attended a church. No wonder, a song about a religion not debarring one from participating in traditional rites used to be my favourite.
Our church was an aladura, prayer warripr, one. As if there are churches where prayers are not said.
One thing I will always remember is when a woman went into trance and gave me a message. The message was that I should be in the church for three days, abo. The prophecy was that it was best I didn’t go to school so that I might escape some danger.
So, I didn’t go to school for those three days. On the fourth day, I went to school.
During break at school, someone just threw a stone at me. The stone hit my eyebrows. The next thing I saw was blood gushing out of the wound.
That incident strengthened my belief in the power of prayers and the existence of prophets. In fact, the occurrence converted my class teacher to my church member.
The Muslims too were doing their own thing. I remember one elderly neighbour of ours. Whenever they were celebrating Sallah, he would reserve mutton for me. On the second day, he would call me. and then go and cut a handsome size of meat for me from the carcass hung in the ceiling.
Before then, when the Muslims fasted, we may help them break the fast even though we never fasted. We also enjoyed the ajiwere that came at every dawn during the fast to use their songs to wake the Muslims to take their dawn meal which was an essential part of the fast.
On the day of the festival proper, the various musicians assembled at the oba’s palace for a competition. We were all there because the show was religion blind.
By the way, on Fridays, some faithfuls would prepare mosa, a corn meal, that is sweetened with sugar. We were not found wanting.
The so called idol worshippers would always have some sacrifice to offer. They called it ipese. Well, whether knowingly or unknowingly, we were part of it.
Itire was class blind. The rich, the not so rich and the poor all had their rightful places there.
A major in the army had his home there. Other successful people also lived in Itire.
Most of their children didn’t go to any special schools. I can remember I attended the same primary school with the major’s children. The only difference was that while we went home in our foot wagons, they were ferried to and fro in a chauffeured Land Rover. They never discriminated, though. I could forsake anything for the usual school children adventures which rides in the chauffeured Land Rover would have deprived me of.
We never discriminated on the field of play. In fact, we all played together. That was because we didn’t see our parents discriminating. They bore every situation like a community.
Everyone existed in their own space due to the inbuilt tolerance of those days.
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