My Heritage

I come from a tribe in Nigeria that takes its oral history very seriously, almost cultic. The holders of the ancient traditions actually belong to the cult that has preserved our ancestral lineage; the names of our forefathers, the stories that surround each one and the context in which they performed acts that made them worthy of note or not as the case may be. I can tell my ancestry to the twelfth generation. Twelve 'grandfathers' that is. I can, of my 'grandmothers', but the stories get more complex so I stop at the fifth.

I was probably about four and this is indelible in my minds eye, when I noticed that whenever I greeted my mother as good kids are wont to, in naija, she would respond and add a greeting that I did not understand. It sounded like the word, glass, in our dialect and so I asked her why she would call me 'glass'. She laughed and explained that, in our culture, each clan? had a special name used to greet them. She had a different one and she told me hers.

Growing up, we were never sat down and told of this important part of our history but it kept cropping up in conversations and ceremonies were held to remember it; the 'war of horses'. My younger brother who loves history asked our grandfather and he explained what happened, which forefather's time and why they had to move en-mass a few hundred years ago to where we now call home. And so each clan would hold extensive ceremonies to remember and would subsequently have added to their special greetings, something in the line of 'warrior, in the war of horses'.

I can imagine a whole tribe, weary of war, packing their lives and heading away from danger. This was a conscious and carefully planned decision because; each clan had a 'totem' to identify them and to help with administration wherever they would subsequently settle. I intend to write their story one day, maybe in book form.

When I look at wars around the world and other goings-on, especially currently in the Sudan, I look at the wonder of what is the European Union and can't help but appreciate their success in ensuring no wars have been fought in Western Europe in over fifty years. Because of leaders with foresight and vision, a forum was created that has led to one of the supranational wonders of our time. We can bicker about all that's not right or whether the UK should be a part of it or not, but to rest easy in our beds at night and not have to face the chaos of war; Priceless.