Childhood Lies
If you're a Nigerian then it's very possible that you've been on this path or has been told this lie before. Infact it's not just a lie but a string of lies. How could we be so naive that we believed such things? Okay enough of the whole dramatic intro. This actually came to my mind on my birthday which was a few days ago (28th July).
So I was on my way home with a friend. We were just having a conversation and I was just talking and demonstrating trying to explain something to him like a good narrator that I am when I noticed that I had just mistakenly (mistakenly because I was high) pointed at a tomb. Then that juvenile fear gripped me at first "oh I'm going to lose my fingers" I thought and started biting my fingers as remedy.
That was when my guy burst out laughing. The next thing I heard was "shayo na bastard" my guy was having a swell. Obviously the shayo in my system had made me forget that I'm no more a kid and those are just folklore that doesn't hold water.
How naive we were to have believed those things like
If you pee on the road and someone else steps on it first, then you'll have stomach pains. I mean how is that even possible? I remember when anytime I pee by a roadside and it runs out to the road, I'd have to spit in it and step on it so that if someone else steps on it. Just imagine how ridiculous that sounds.
I remember when I asked my dad how people usually get into televisions and he told me that those people turn into ants first and then crawl into the television. He told me that if I wanted to enter the television then I'd have to also turn into an ant before crawling into it. I remember trying his experiment by taking ants and placing them on top of the television and hoping they'll crawl inside so I can see what they turn into.
Another one is the man or woman in the moon. The story that she disobeyed God and He banished her into the moon to spend the rest of her life there in solitude and hard labour cutting firewood day and night. I've heard that the stories are different based on which part of Nigeria you're from.
How naive we were back then and these elders did not even pity us, they'll just be using our innocence to eat akara (beans cake). I don't know if you've been a victim of this deceit because I heard that the stories have different twists depending on where you're from. You can remind me of them and share how you felt when you eventually found out that it was false.
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