The Faith of our mothers

They are always the last to go to bed but the first to come around in the morning. A typical African mother is highly religious and always remembers her children about her God.

After church service, a Christian mother would stay behind just to have a conversation with the Reverend and seek his advise about each member of her family. They would pray together and ask for God's favor upon her family

A Muslim mother would remain seated on the floor with a chaplet in her hand from completing maghrib to ishai, seeking the mercy of Allah upon her household.

Its quite a common sight when an African child wakes up in the middle of the night and see his Mom standing at the foot of the bed, with beads of sweat all over her face, praying fervently against all evil machinations towards him . With a Bible or Qur'an on one hand, and a bottle of olive oil on the other , such a prayer session could last for about 30mins to one hour. For someone like me who loves sleep more than ice cream, such unsolicited prayers could really make me nervy!

I had this classmate in high school who was made the butt of every joke because he was fond of sleeping during lessons. He later revealed to us that his mother wakes him before 5am for a morning devotion that would end at about some few minutes towards 7am. To make things worse, he doesn't go to bed early since he always watch movies and wrestling till midnight.

Due to the zeal of an African mother in religious activities, she tends to exercise and develop "psychic" potentials on her children.

"Bilqees, you have to be more prayerful and be very close to God. Moments ago, I saw a dream and in that dream, you were... ( mention any dangerous situation here)." In one of two cases , such a revelation could be accurate, but in most cases , they are just utterly ridiculous.

"Bilqees, when I opened your door, I saw a black cat sitting on that fence and staring at you through the window while you were asleep. But as soon as I invoked and and rebuked this devil in the mighty name of the lord, it disappeared". Mom would say, almost breathlessly.

" But mom, some cats are nocturnal ( active during the night),it doesn't mean they are devils". I would protest.

"So you mean, I am talking nonsense right, you mean I don't know what I saying? I don't blame you, so you think you are now smarter than your own mother because you are now in high school?.... Anyway, make sure you always sip this holy water before going to bed. Infact open your mouth let me pour it inside.... Oya bring your face, let me wash it with the water, so that witches and wizards will not see you "

The words of a pastor or imam are law to a a typical African mother. They never joke with any prayer, fasting or sacrifice that a "man of God" had asked them to carry out in order to protect her household from evil spirits.

Little wonder why most of them are easily defrauded by false prophets ( who are very common in my country) masquerading as Godsent. Ofcourse they know that a woman would do anything just to secure the future and destiny of her children.

Once, I return home from school, and I saw my mother had already slaughtered two of our best roosters and was getting them ready to be shipped off to a "man of God" who had revealed something very "important" about my younger brother's destiny. I was Soo angry because these were the chickens that she had promised to prepare for me on my birthday that would fall on the next month.

Sometimes, I and my younger bro would fake illness so that we won't be asked to come along to a prayer meeting at some far places. Ofcourse, mom already know we were just pretending but would just play along.

" The both of you would definitely be healed of whatever sickness when you attend this meeting because God will readily answer our prayers there". Mom would say. But If we continue to prove stubborn, she would just go and hide the TV remote in her bedroom after she changes the interesting movie to a boring channel meant for old men. She would then proceed to go lock the kitchen, after locking her bedroom door. Nobody will taste food or drink water till she returns home.

So, In our best interest, we just have to follow her to that prayer gathering, else we die of hunger or boredom. Chances are that she would buy alot of groundnuts and corn for us on our way back. That's her own way of saying "thanks for coming". Lol.

Nevertheless, our mothers are prayer warriors and their prayers had always been what has kept us going, even in adulthood. May God bless all our mothers 😁

Thanks for reading ♥️♥️🙏