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There’s nothing to beat the communal life of Africans. This is most especially exemplified by the Yoruba.
If they don’t see someone in a day, by midday that person would have received, at least, half a dozen callers. They would have come to see if he is ok.
Amongst the Yoruba, greetings are very important. Indeed, they have greetings for every occurrence in life. For instance, e kaaro, e kassan, e kale, e ku iyaleta, etc all of which the Europeans would just say a frozen, ‘hello’, and go on their ways.
The Yoruba will always look after themselves and you can never ever hear of a Yoruba that is reported dead in his flat. Even the traditional agbole is not westernized. You have rooms adjacent to each other
When it comes to raising of children, the Yoruba system is preferable. Every adult is a parent to a child. It doesn’t matter if they are not in the least related.
This is especially useful where both parents are eight to five workers. Children being what they are will of course, when left, to their own devices, be up to acts which their parents must not hear,ere egele.
But the fact that there’s an elderly person somewhere tends to curtail the children. You don’t get to hear of cases of adults being involved in cases of sexual molestation of the younger ones.
When there’s a social occasion, everyone in the household is part. They contribute, both in cash and kind, to make sure the event goes on smoothly. I wouldn’t want to comment on uniform, aso ebi,
Then, there are standards of behaviour that are expected of a gentleman, omoluwabi. These standards are held so highly by the people concerned. In the first instance, an omoluwabi must not steal. That’s why the average Yoruba prefers starving to stealing
Once a Yoruba gives his word, he is not likely to change it. In fact, he prefers dying to changing his word. The Yoruba believe that death is better than mockery, iku ya j’esin lo. This was eminently proved by the major participant in the June 12, 1993 unfortunate political event.
In spite of their weaknesses; if and when I come back to mother earth; I want to come as a Yoruba.
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