Pardon my silence. It was not because I had nothing
new. It was because my voice was claimed by overwhelming emotion that made words
of no use.
In the last few weeks I have felt pain, anger, fear. Pain
especially, for my friends Farida Shehu Kaikai who I lost in the Dana air crash
and Ndako who lost members of his family who were enroute Lagos on the same
flight, to attend his wedding slated for the following Saturday.
I wondered how he felt, I wondered what I could say or do to help, I prayed but I knew it was not enough. But I pray still.
I wondered how he felt, I wondered what I could say or do to help, I prayed but I knew it was not enough. But I pray still.
The stories of other victims on the ill- fated flight
surfaced quickly in the days after the crash and a lifeless manifest came to
life as we heard about Rev. Akin of House On The Rock who left behind his small
kids, Vivien Effiong, the crew member who was due to get married, Ndako’s elder
sister who perished with her cute babies, husband, mother and other family
members, Echendu and Jennifer Ibe, the Mother and daughter who were to board
a flight in Lagos to India for medical checkup, staff of CIHP, NNPC and CBN, not
to talk of the people who were killed when the plane crashed into their homes.
Each
seat number and torn building had a story. It quickly became more than just another
plane crash as everyone found the human story behind the events of June 3rd. As
the stories spread, they were clearly about the human lives abruptly ended by a
tragedy. A human tragedy told in many stories by storytellers that evoked our
sympathy and rage.
A
few years ago, Author Chimamanda Adichie talked about the danger of a single
story. A single story is a one- sided account about a person, group
or event. She said that the problem with one story is not that it is untrue but
that it is incomplete. And it is dangerous when that incomplete story becomes the
whole story and defines entirely the person, group or event.
I watched a video of a similar tragic event that had occurred.
The uploaded video told the story. A man rode a jeep into the premises of a
business enterprise and an explosion occurred which set the building ablaze. It
told a single story. Like the plane crash, there were many stories as were many
lives lost in this event. Unlike the crash there weren’t many storytellers to tell
the human story. So we were sold the story of a building blown and a media
house attacked. And we reacted differently; we made no tributes, we held no vigils, and we did not call for donations to assist the families bereaved.
Adichie
introduces the principle of Nkali as she makes her case for the rejection of
the single story.
“So that is how to create a single
story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing over and over again and
that is what they become. It is impossible to talk about the single story without
talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word that I think about whenever
I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's
a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another."
Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person,but to make it the definitive story of that person.
The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, "secondly." Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story.”- Chimamanda Adichie
Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person,but to make it the definitive story of that person.
The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, "secondly." Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story.”- Chimamanda Adichie
I
started this post by talking about my friend Ndako. He got married. His story
reads a new line- happily married to lovely wife. Now when I think of him, I
think of my friend Ndako who I grew up with, as Ndako who is starting a new
family with the love of his life.
His
life is not defined by one story but by several, with several happy ones to
come! To define him by a single story is the greater danger of all.
Congratulations Ndako! I wish you happiness in your new life!
