Stories for Younger Generations: Stories from Years Ago

By Olusola Sophia Adebayo-Anyanwu

Stories for Younger Generations are a collection of stories about children of different backgrounds, upbringing, and religion, which reflect the Nigerian culture, children upbringing, and the concept of discipline in education about forty years ago. There are also some short animal stories as they would be told to children in Nigeria during that era.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524682590

Olusola Sophia Adebayo-Anyanwu

Olusola Sophia Adebayo - Anyanwu was born in the UK but grew up in Nigeria. She worked as a secondary school teacher of English in a Federal school and relocated to the Uk in 2003 while continuing to be involved with the education of children. She is blessed with 5 children, 3 daughters in law and many grand children. She currently lives with her family in UK.

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© 2017 Olusola Sophia Adebayo-Anyanwu. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  08/25/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8258-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-8259-0 (e)

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Dedicated to Mr Emmanuel Chima Anyanwu, my husband, who once asked me the question, ‘can you be able to send your message across to children?’ – This is what has challenged me to write.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank God for the talent of writing and the years I lived in Nigeria.

I thank my children: Francis, Augustus, Stephen, Sharon, Philomina and my daughters in law: Oneme, Doyin and Martha

I thank my publishers, AuthorHouse.

Mantra: The gracious hand of God is upon me -Nehemiah 2:8

PREFACE

On Workers’ Day, May 1st 1987, at about 5.30pm, I was seated on the carpet in my living room making corrections on a completed manuscript. One of the Beatle’s cool numbers was playing loudly on the gramophone.

At that moment, two lady friends of mine who were both colleagues came in to visit me. Out of curiosity, they asked me what I was doing and I told them. One of them, Nnenka, said to me, ‘why not write stories for young children? They have not got enough books for literature.’

So I saw with her. I said to myself, ‘that will be a very interesting venture.’ So I picked up my biro and I decided to address my mind to young kiddies.

I hope children, young people and even adults everywhere will find these stories interesting. Not only that but that these stories in themselves present something entirely new and exciting from what they have been used to in the past years.

Olusola Sophia Adebayo – Anyanwu

CONTENTS

1  A Change Of Life

2  The Meal

3  The Trap

4  Jumo

5  The Four Friends

6  The Greedy Boy

7  Xmas In The Village

8  Learning A Lesson

9  A Narrow Escape

10  The Thief

11  Animal Stories

12  Tim And Tess

13  Lai The Crocodile

14  Treachery In The Barn

15  Tara’s Funny Game

16  Grandma Kinky

17 Ted The Human Dog

ONE

A Change Of Life

CHAPTER ONE

Soji Omodele is ten years old. He speaks Yoruba language very fluently because he is a Yoruba boy and his parents speak Yoruba to him. He comes from Igbara Oke in Ondo State in Nigeria. He schools there and is in primary 4 at St Paul’s Anglican Primary School, Igbara Oke. At his school, the teachers and pupils all speak Yoruba Language. Nobody speaks in English Language. Soji thinks Yoruba is the only language in the world because this is the only language he hears everybody around him speaking. Igbara Oke is a small village in Ondo State. There is no electricity and water supply. Soji has heard people like his uncle say that there are places like towns which are bigger than Igbara Oke with electricity and water supply and where other languages, like English, are spoken. He does not believe this because he has not been to such places. He says, ‘I will not believe there are places like towns till I go there.’

Soji’s parents are not rich. His father is a bicycle repairer. Not many people own bicycles in the village. This makes his business bad. He also farms and does other odds to supplement his income. Soji’s mother sells vegetables, groundnuts, corn and palm oil in the market. Soji is not their only child. They have four. The first child is a girl called Kike. She is twelve years old and in class six in Soji’s school. There is also another girl called Labake. She is eight years old and in primary two. The youngest is a boy called Laolu who is six and he is in Nursery two. Next year, Laolu will go in to primary one.

CHAPTER TWO

Soji and Kike fight a lot. Soji is a troublesome boy. He knows he is his father’s favourite child. He always comes first in the class too. He is very good in Arithmetic and farm work. Sometimes during the holidays, Mrs Omodele, who is also known as Mama Kike, lets him do her selling for her. So Soji too is also a favourite of his mother. Because of his parent’s love for him, Soji behaves anyhow he likes. When he beats or fights Kike, nobody listens to her. They will tell her, ‘next time, keep off Soji’s way. Don’t you know he is a boy? That is how boys behave.’

Then Kike will tell her parents, ‘no, I don’t believe you. That is not how boys in my class behave! Also, Laolu does not fight with Labake!’

When Soji and Kike fight, Kike abuses him. She would say, ‘just look at all your body, you ugly beast. You have sores everywhere. When you grow up, no woman will come near you.’ At this, Soji will beat up Kike. She tries to fight back but she is only a girl. Also Soji is bigger and stronger than she is. Soji is not only rough at home. He is very rough at school. He quarrels and fights a lot. He takes things that don’t belong to him. Sometimes, he makes his friends get angry. When they chase him around, he falls and gets injured. There are many scars, marks and wounds on Soji’s body which he got because of his roughness. Soji walks to school along with other children. They sometimes sing songs, talk about their teachers or talk about things that happened in school the day before.

CHAPTER THREE

Kike, Labake and Laolu are always neat. Their skins shine and glitter with the oil of the kernel which they rub on their bodies. They keep their heads neatly shaved of all the hair and oil it. Their heads shine. Soji is different. His uniform is dirty and torn. There are no buttons on his shirt. Also, he does not take time to oil his body and head. He always looks like a person who painted himself with chalk or brown sand.

One Monday, on their way to school, Labake said, ‘Kike look at Soji. He did not take his bath this morning.’

‘Who told you that?’ shouted Soji.

‘Why are you so dirty like this?’ demanded Kike.

‘I will beat the two of you o,’ threatened Soji.

‘Go home and take care of yourself Soji,’ urged Kike.

‘It is true. There is still time,’ advised Labake. Because his sisters told him he looked so dirty, Soji took handfuls of sand and threw it on both Kike and Labake’s bodies. Kike told Labake not to worry. ‘Labake, don’t worry. When we come back from school, we will report him to mother.’ But Soji only laughed and ran to school.

Soji continued being troublesome. Because he was very intelligent, his teachers did not beat him. Also, because he was brilliant, his parents too did not beat him when other children reported his bad behaviour to his parents. They would say, ‘oh leave him. He is only being a man.’

CHAPTER FOUR

One day, some class six boys were playing ball near the mango trees in their school compound. It was break time. They were playing against the class five boys. Soji was among those looking. Sometimes, when the ball is kicked out of the field, those who are around help pick it up. When the ball got near Soji, he picked it up and threw it hard at Kunle’s head. Kunle always beats Soji when Kike reported him. Kunle was the bell ringer. Kunle was so angry and he beat Soji very well. Because of Soji’s troublesome nature, nobody begged for him. Some other boys even joined Kunle! ‘This rude boy! You don’t know your seniors,’ one class six boy said and he pinched Soji. ‘You don’t know what it is for a ball to knock a head,’ said Niyi as he took a stone and stoned him on the head. Soji cried out but they did not leave him alone. Kunle and his friends refused to leave Soji because he had not begged them. Instead of begging them, Soji said he would report them all to his father. Finally, Kunle knocked Soji on the mouth. His mouth started to bleed and one of