Igede Watch
You cannot grow up in a typical Igede setting and will not hear this about our ancestors– “Dead long ago but yet around seeing everything and have powerful influence in the life of the living relations”. I grew up to hear this, and astonishingly, the current raconteur keeps pointing to the forefathers we have no access to, making further investigation or confirmation impossible.
So, on this second Saturday, I hope my letter will meet them well wherever they are right now. Dear ancestors, I hope you are comfortable with the happenings around the land. We were told that you people watch and are so powerful to bless or sanction; if that is true, then it has been a long we heard from you people. Could it be all lies all this while? Dear reader, your guess is as good as mine. I am beginning to see this as a hoax.
I appeal to you readers to remain calm despite our slip-up. Understandable confusion. But one thing is sure, the uncertainty about this belief cannot be assuaged by recourse to lawlessness and bastardization of our value system. No progress without a problem. No movement without friction. We are in a world where we are roommates with difficulties. Every age level has a specific problem commensurate to that level.
There has been a wide-ranging and confusing debate about Igede national interests. The erosion of Igede interests. The disintegration of identity. The promise by the politicians. The silence of the stakeholders. The indiscriminate and unprincipled unpredictability of the youths. Much of this confusion stems from the complexity of individual interest painted and decorated with the cloak of Igede interest. The new environment has been variously interpreted as progress. Are we really at the end of our history? Are we not embarking on a movement back to the era of outmoded power politics? The proliferation of clannish conflict approaching anarchy and the clash of interest. This clash is not really about the approaching civilization, but conflicting trends towards fragmentation–maybe, just maybe.
Apart from the surface laugh and relationship–can we say that the Igede world is cruel unforgiving, rife with violence and injustice? CAPITAL NO. Humanity can collapse into futility, driven by ignorance and falsehood, but ours is the clash of interest. We have a common date with destiny, and we must honour it. How do we find common ground in all these? DO WE NEED THE ANCESTORS TO DO THAT FOR US?
Ohe Oluhye a dahị ụbwọ. (So help us God)
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