“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.”
...Bible
I just readof a fight between two royal fathers and was a bit livid with rage. But after
the passage of my moment of indignation, I soon realized I have no reason to be
angry or concerned about the two. Then I smiled, and decided to write a piece of my mind.
The gist
was that two royal fathers (name withheld) slapped one another in public and
had to be separated when they went for one another jugular by the police on standby.
They were spoiling for war.
Their grievances?
One Royal father chose to do “area-boy”
by disrupting an event organized to remember a deity in another land. The
offended Royal fathers decided to report the incidence to the police, hoping to
get justice. Both were invited to a conciliatory meeting at the police station
to enable them sort out the problem amicably. They chose, instead to use the opportunity
to shamelessly exchange fisticuffs, using the police state as their boxing
ring.
Not long
ago, a royal father was seen running half naked (so I heard) chasing his wife
across the street and battered the poor woman to stupor. He acted as if demon possessed him but the
people said that was his usual behavior. He was renowned to be a tough man who
is not ashamed to fight dirty. But fighting a woman? Hmmm . The wife eventually
sued him.
Not long
after, another royal father was docked for raping a female Corp member serving
in his domain. The case is still on. There were also cases of Royal fathers begging government for contracts. Nothing bad in this except that some of them didn't execute the contracts. In the military era, some Royal Fathers sold their own people to be in good book of ruling dictators.
In the
olden days, Royal fathers, were known as kings and are seen as a creature next
to gods. So sacred are the stools they held that, at a time, when a King die,
all his servants must die with him and go with him to the next world since the
king will need all of them in his next journey. They were referred and highly
respected. Some don’t even appear in public while some are restricted to confined
area(s) where only a handful of people can see them. And when they appeared in
public, the whole town will want to see them just as the smaller towns will pay
homage to the king to seek his blessing.
Their words
and actions are seen as the words and acts of gods and are therefore
unquestionable. Those were the days when humans are closer to the gods and the
kings interceded directly between gods and man. Things went normally; gods
walked among us.
Then came
the age of despots and power drunk rulers: The kings became more powerful and
their words stung rather than healed their people. They snatched lands, wives
and turned their fellow men into slaves who must worship them. To consolidate
their reign on power, they indulged in acquisition of charms, amulets, and
became adept believers of voodoo. Soon
they started departing the original ways and started acting like gods over men.
They started getting more and more disconnected from the creator as their evil
and pride piled up.
Their gods
responded by gradually withdrawing their support from them, and making other
people more powerful than the kings. The kings’ power became less and less
potent and they desperately have to rely on their worriers, herbalists and
magicians to concoct powerful charms for them and help them stay afloat.
When
foreign kings invaded their lands, some of them were taken as slaves, and their
lands seized while others had to flee, and became ordinary men in strange
lands. War after war; town after towns fell and are conquered. The once upon a
powerful kingdom became fragmented as individual entities opted to become
independent and live separately when they could no longer tolerate injustice
and excessiveness of their original kings.
In the midst
of this confusion, the west discovered primitive, fetish Africa still living
the past while the world leave her behind. Most of them, Africa, neck deep in barbarism
and wickedness. All the bloodsucking warriors feeding fat on the sorrows and
helplessness of their people.
Not long
after, they surrendered to the white domination. Not that the whites are
better, but that they (Africans) are too lazy and backward in thinking that
they have no sense to pause and ask
themselves how they got to that stage. The whites offered them easy way out,
your people in exchange for gun-powder, gold and silver.
One by one
the kings capitulated to one offer after the other. Often on the term presented
by the whites. Greed, avarice, insensitivity, lack of compassion for their people, destruct of their own
worriers and desires to maintain their grip on power became the primary
motivation for them as they traded their people away into slavery. They called
it treaties but I called it trade-off.
Gradually,
the land getting smaller and the white got more powerful. Freeborn blacks are
sold into slavery into a land of no return; so long they are not of royal root
or the aristocrats. They did all these without looking into the future. They
were happier to be called kings and chiefs, while oblivious of the fate to
befall them. Soon the friendly whites are to become colonizers. They supplanted
local cultures and languages with foreign ones and we were so proud and happy.
Eventually, the administrative role of the whole territory soon fell into the
hands of the new colonizers who wasted no time in confining the kings and
chiefs to the background.
The once
referred Kings and chiefs and the sacred worriers and custodians of deities
soon became second class on the land they are supposed to be leading. They woke
up from their slumber only to find that the power has shifted from them to a
new realm they never foresaw.
Bared,
naked, hopeless, powerless, exposed and desperate to hold on to their last
connection to power, the traditional stool that served as their only possession
and link to the land, they negotiated their way out, and surrendered to
mediocrity. They accepted to be tagged royal fathers, traditional rulers and
what have you and abdicated their ancestral roles as the absolute leader of
their towns. Thus the mystery behind the kingship, the next to god endearment
broken forever.
They are
nothing more now, than titular stool and are the reminder of our once upon a
time thriving cultures. Even their “sons”- the new generation of leaders that
took over from the colonizers (now known
as politicians) have refused to let go of the power inherited from the colonizers
and have chosen to confined the “Royal fathers” even into less glorifying
position of upholding the last relic of our dying (if not already dead)
cultures. They do not respect the Royal
fathers as it was in the olden days but find uses for them as a veritable tool
for winning elections.
So as I
read about the two fight royal fathers, I just smiled, thinking of how they got
the whole generation into this current mess we are in. I felt no pity for them.
But I pity the people who will be given machetes and guns to fight on their behalf
over land, whatever, and shed un-necessary blood. They will die over the greed
of those who have no passion and desire for them.
When Royal
Fathers choose the part of dishonour, it is time we remove “Royal” from
the “father “and hand them gloves so that they can showcase their shame to the world. It is time we begin to realize
they have lost the last vestige of royalty attached to their names. It is time
for us to ponder on how they get here and let them fight their own battle.
....Isqil Najim
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