…the gods must really be blowing their top right about now! So many reasons our kids are wayward nowadays. We are free to blame it all on the economy, the changing times, bad parenting, the societal implosion, religion: too much, or the entire lack of it. If we like we can blame it on the popularity of the Internet and the profilgacies of monthly allocated gigabytes on web Porn and other nonsense on SM.
But one significant miscue largely ignored in the disturbing trend, paving the way for the erosion of values amongst our teeming adolescent population; perhaps, a significant, contributory factor in the moral decadence, as observed in our youths lately could be the death of the “Af’ope F’olorun” Culture.
There was a time, a time not entirely too long ago; when about eight days after a baby was born- the joy of the baby’s arrival was hitherto harvested in an early morning routine of spirituality mixed together with carnality-in the form of a predawn or early morning refreshments. I can’t speak for the rest of the regions but in the SW of Nigeria where the Yorubas hold sway, the ‘Af’ope’ shindig was a must!
“Af’ope F’olorun”, by the way simply translates to: “Now thank we all our God”. Quite a popular Christian hymn back then. It was equally translated from it’s original German composition as “Nun danket alle Gott”, written around 1636 by Martin Rinkart, which in turn was inspired by Sirach, chapter 50 verses 22–24, from the praises of Simon the high priest. It was translated into English in the 19th Century by Catherine Winkworth. It’s a good guess that the song could have been translated into Yoruba by the late Rev. Ajayi Crowther, since he pretty much shared his linguistic genius with us all, in his translation of the entire English Bible into the Yoruba language. However, much can’t be ascertained of the happenstance that eventually made the hymn into the sectional anthem devoted to baby christening, which furthermore fueled it’s popularity.
The shindig on face value wasn’t usually, particularly remarkable save for the wondrous, sweet fragrance and the magnificent ambience of the new arrival. On its own strength alone, it’s easy to surmise it as not an event to look forward to if one diligently hoped then to have some kind of supernatural encounter with the Almighty.
The Catechists, Evangelists, Pastors, Imams or Alfas of this world seemed to show face to ‘fulfill all righteousness’- to name a baby, act up with spiritual hubris and deliver some kind of sanctimonious jargons, laced with a moralistic perspective or some apocalyptic visions. They were there as well to make some quick money and most importantly to be amongst the first crowd to dip a succulent flesh of hot bread: fresh from the traditionally, earthy ovens from the nearby bakeries, into the delicious spread of a specially made, moderately peppered-stew, garnished with generous hands of delicately packed contents of the “Geisha Instant Fish Stew” brand or that from its then major competitor; the filmy, oily chunks of Sardines from the Titus brand. And Of course the tea cups were filled to the brim and were steaming hot too.
The officiating ministers- Christians or Moslems alike never failed to keep to time at an Af’ope Shindig, hence the food gets annoyingly cold! It’s also out of place to demonstrate errant spiritual zealousness for obvious reasons. Impossible to do so cause once a carnal nose caught the whiff of the notorious fish stew, the spiritual brain must resets itself to hearken to the voice of reason!
It’s only a thought that: maybe if we reintroduce this shindig back into our functioning realm, one baby at a time; maybe…just maybe these ‘men of the cloth’ and the ‘exotic ones of the turban’ would prove more diligent in dedicating these kids properly unto better foundation of values and moral equity than we have now. For we never can tell the loads of scientific tidbits we might be missing out on, as it pertains to the efficacy of hot ‘Buredi Agege,’ hot fried fish stew and hot buckets of Lipton tea favourably disturbed by copious amount of ‘Peak Milk’; furthermore sweetened by extra cubes of ‘Lion Sugar’ in the ways these kids eventually grow up, to walk the straight and narrow path!
After all, we can only be in it, to win it!
*the history of the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God” culled from Wikipedia*
