In the last publication, I promised to share with you a short story, a personal experience I had few years ago when I travelled to my village. Please enjoy the story.
If you missed that post, please click this link to access it:
It was April 2021, precisely 3 years ago. My family had travelled during the Easter holiday to visit my grandma. While we were there, there happened to be a traditional marriage ceremony of a relation of ours there in the village. Since we were around i.e. in the village, my dad, Ihechi (my younger sister) and I attended. My mom was somewhere else for a program.
After the ceremony, Ihechi and I were called alongside other girls, by one young aunty (who Ihechi and I didn't know).
When we got there, we saw many other girls of our age. We both wondered what the gathering was for but waited patiently to find out.
We all were individually given some money though different amounts, which we were told was our right. Ihechi and I were extremely confused but we collected the money, thanked her and left. We had seen her give some of the girls there before we arrived. Of a truth, all the girls of our age who were present at the event were given money.
In our confusion, we called our cousins whom she (the aunty) had sent to call us, and enquired from them what the money was for. They simply looked at us, laughed and said we should ask our dad. We decided to heed to their advice and to inquire from our Dad why we were given the money. Unfortunately for us, we could not get the answer to our question immediately because our Dad was busy with some people discussing. So, we had to wait for the discussion to be over before asking him the question.
As soon as he was done, we called him aside and in a low tone narrated what had happened. Seeing our confusion and innocence, he laughed which further confused us. Thereafter, he told us that it was the tradition and our right. He promised to explain further when we get home.
Believe me when I say that all I had on my mind were question marks. Tradition? Our right? How? I kept asking myself and trying to make sense of what our Dad said. I eventually figured that I just had to be patient and wait for the explanation as I could not think of anything.
That night when we got home, we sat down and listened carefully as our Dad explained. He told us that the money given to us was part of the bride price that was paid by the Groom for the marriage of the Daughter of the Land. According to our tradition, part of the bride price paid by a groom each time a daughter of the Land is married is for the young girls from the village. So the money is shared to them after the marriage ceremony according to their ages. I couldn't believe my ears. We both were shocked to the marrows.
The next day when our Aunt and Grandma were told what happened, they laughed, after which they gave us further lectures. I had never heard or seen that anywhere: TV, books or stories, and I have also never heard a thing like that elsewhere after that encounter.
Now I know, but more important to knowing is the fact that I witnessed, I experienced something unique about my culture. Who knows, I may or may not have heard of it in the future. But you can bet and stake any amount of your choice that I would never have witnessed that if I did not travel. Mind you it is not just that we travelled, Myself and my Sister. We traveled, we related closely and actively with other children of our age, visited their homes with them to greet and know their parents and their other siblings as the case may be.
There were occasions we visited these new found love of ours in the village just to chat with them in their various homes and in exchange they visited us too. The experience of those moments, the knowledge shared and bond created are wonderfully unique.
As I already noted, we were part of the traditional marriage activity that took place in the village, reason of which our knowledge and experience were enriched with the event and activities of the traditional marriage, the extended and extensive discussion held with our Dad, Aunts and Grandma (now late) concerning the traditional marriage and much more, yours truly is able to share with you this new knowledge and experience.
Need I say that being close to our root is packed with huge benefits that we may not be able to totally talk about now as they are too numerous.
Do you have any such experience(s)? Please feel free to share it/them with us.
With the knowledge of these benefits, we are encouraged to serve as gap standers by desisting from associating the villages with mainly negative stories. We can resist the urge, the temptation to be lured into such talks and instead encourage those who have made a habit of converting our minds into a dumping ground for negative stories.
As Kingdom minded teens and kids, part of our mandate is to populate the society with positive stories. Seek and shall find them. Our Master Jesus Christ is still on His throne doing good, day in day out. We must be striving and doing so diligently and consistently, having our objective as Children of God through Jesus Christ clearly in mind.
A specific mandate to you, all the Kingdom minded, success driven Teens and Kids reading this publication, be you an old or new visitor to the Platform, is to seek positive ways of changing the way we view villages and the people living in them.
We are equally urged to talk to our friends who are in the habit of making such derogatory statements about the rural settlers, and encourage them to change and pray that the Holy Spirit helps them to understand and to change their hearts.
As we go further into the new month and second half of the year, I urge us to be gap standers, to be a voice to the voiceless and defence to the defenceless. Let us strive to intercede for others just like my grandma did.
Dear friends, endeavour to leave your comments in the commentary box below. Share with your friends and invite other kingdom minded, success driven teens and kids to join us here because the more we are, the merrier.
Bye
Anchor/Host
Nnabugwu Chinaza
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