Aristide

By Babatunde Farfrae

When he was there for the first time, he learnt that he had to turn his trousers over so as to prevent it from getting dirty and learnt that each time he killed a bed bug, he had to put the stained fingers to his nose smelling them and then wipe the blood of the insect on the wall on which he had scratched his name and date of admittance…The strong force of Christendom with many wearing and bearing crosses did their very best in the wicked art of blood spilling with the conviction that they were inspired by the Almighty…Getting to Oshodi for the first time caught Aristide's admiration so he wasted time in looking at the population and traffic…On the faces of the population, he saw seriousness, conviction, and endless aspiration. On those of the drivers, he saw stress, anger and desperation…The idle people in Lagos are busy. The lazy are handy. ARISTIDE - A decisive story of a bildungsroman

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669843917

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Copyright © 2022 by Babatunde Farfrae.

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Rev. date: 08/18/2022

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DEDICATE

D TO

Gonlee Wamie Gaye

Life was booming in Lunsar, northern Sierra Leone where ore was being mined so Nathaniel, a multi talented young man decided to join the rest of his friends there. This fellow was a genius in the world of wood work, driving, machines, engines, and just everything he laid his hands on - Jack of all trade and probably a master of all. He was a very shy and timid person and did not have much to talk or laugh about if not with women because he was very fond of them. There are people who develop likeness for the opposite sex just because of their career and would go all out to marry them. Nathaniel was one of those. He had developed likeness for nurses so he told a friend of his who was also a nurse to hook him up with one. No one expected of him to get a woman through someone because he was already a father of two boys but, since he was likewise loved by women, he was helped.

The deal worked out for Nathaniel but it was not with one of the nurses who lived in Lunsar but in far away Freetown. She turned out to be the daughter whose mother had lost a child and not too long, a dream was had in which a girl child came comforting the family because of the death of the man-child. In that dream, the girl told her audience that her name was Sylvia and soon though, the same woman who lost the man-child did have a baby girl and named her Silvia according to the dream.

She was now a lady in her mid twenties, daughter of a paramedic who was living in the heart of the city. This strict colonial related Edmund whose ancestors were stolen from somewhere in Nigeria to England to be enslaved though some of them were fortunate or unfortunate to find their way to Freetown after the 13th amendment which abolished slavery in 1865, made sure that all of his children got the best of education and passed them through the hard times of life as he himself did under his post-colonial parents. Looking for Sylvia in a crowd, one had to look in front and below shoulders. She was in the habit of pushing her short self forward even though it was dangerous for her to do so. She was a brown-skinned single mother who had enjoyed the early part of her life doing all of the deeds that girls did regardless of her father’s strict discipline. When she was introduced to Nathaniel, she did choose to fall and in a short time, she was pregnant.

What?! Pregnant again? asked old Edmund whose bark was even worse than his bite. Considering his religious and social status, the old Master Mason thought it was just another sin, even a sacrilege in his godly house and a stain on the great name he had made for himself in the neighbourhood and Freetown as a whole.

The first pregnancy with George was said to be a mistake so I took the child and but this is no gad dame mistake, he shouted at her. Look! This boy (referring to Nathaniel), he has to marry you or you get out of my house, he threatened.

When the pregnancy was in its eighth month, Nathaniel wedded Sylvia four days after the popular St. Valentine’s Day and in the following month, she gave birth to a baby girl and these made her father very proud of her. Nathaniel had got what he wanted - a nurse so with their daughter Veronique, they sojourned in Lunsar where Sylvia first worked as a teacher and finally got a job at the Hospital. When romantic, Sylvia simply called her husband Nat and on a bad day, called him Nathaniel. The quiet man on his part though, had always called his wife the name she had predestined for herself –Sylvia and not long after these, Edmund fell sick and died.

One might have wondered why as a nurse, Sylvia did not pay attention to spacing her children because the next child Francis, was conceived and born just when Veronique was to enjoy her good months of breast feeding. Saturday mid-December was the day in which all Christmas related celebrations kicked off in the country and just at about 1:30am, the third child was born into the family.

She was just a woman who could conceive in and out of season and during her pregnancies, she did not wish or pray to have a particular gender so when this child was born, it was not unusual of her not to be eager or desperate in asking the nurses the way other women ask about it. The first thing she wanted at this time was a good rest which she did have and after the first session of it, she contemplated on whether to have another child because she had seen some bad days of miscarriages and abortions. She thought this new baby was pretty lucky to see life and light because before this, she had been warned by her gynaecologist not to have another. Her belief in re-incarnation was strong enough to convince her that her late father Edmund had made the come-back through her newly born son who was named Aristide the same who, after he was born, left her bleeding for days and if not that he was to live to tell his own stories, he would have sensed that this world was not his habitat and so leave as Edmund did because, while doctors battled on saving his mother’s life, he was left almost abandoned.

There were some characteristics about this lad which were very different from the others. He didn’t suck his mother’s breasts. Though he did not suffer from sickle-cell anaemia, he was sickly and at some occasions, was so sick that doctors gave up on him. His days of sickness were enough to get Sylvia run off her skin because it was not easy for her to convince the demanding neighbours that her son was sick as he did not lose weight or his appetite and for these reasons, doctors discharged him. He started growing fat as though he was obsessed for, he made the best use of his appetite even at the climax of his sickness. When he started speaking, it was discovered that he had a speech deformity and was growing with the quietness and love of music like his father.

Whenever Aristide ate at a neighbour’s house he would go home to throw up and Sylvia who had warned him to say no when a neighbour’s food was given would beat the hell out of him regardless of his age. She tried to bring her children up in such a way that they did not just respect her but feared her. She would go to their school telling the class of what they had done at home knowing fully well that this was disgracing. All of the teachers knew her because she presented them with the sticks with which they were to flog her children and, because she wanted to impress them that she was the best of all mothers, she insisted that her children be given homework on a daily basis. She appreciated elderly people flogging her children when they misbehaved away from home and woe betide that child who did not come home to report that they had been flogged by this or that person and for what reason. The children did not like making such a report because another round of flogging followed thereafter.

Sylvia had taught her children that they were to eat their food in perfect quietness before which, a prayer was to be said. The drinking of water and eating at the same time was outlawed and once one had started eating from a particular spot, they were to continue eating to the end and not to dip the spoon in the centre, right and left corners and everywhere of the plate or bowl. Children were hardly given meat to eat but a small piece of fish because she thought that those children who were exposed to the eating of meat would soon turn themselves into thieves. It was compulsory for each child to say ‘thank you’ after each meal if not, they were reminded with a slap. No child was to leave their food to get bad and whoever did so would have the same food for the next meal. She did not say how many strokes of the cane she would give; she would flog till satisfied and it was not a matter of must for her to use the cane because whatever her hand got hold of was a good weapon and if none was nearby, her bare hands were good enough. She did not give herself in to petting her children so whenever she was around, the house would come to order and they were to always play with their books and not with toys. As Aristide was growing up, his mother was not smart enough to observe that he came with his unique styles - wanting to be around strangers at all times, did not like being put under pressure and preferred learning in quietness.

Aristide did not like going to church and the law in the house had it that, whoever missed church skipped a meal so he went to church simply because he wanted to retain his meal. The wearing of new clothes made him very uncomfortable unlike other boys who loved being in them. It was observed that boys loved their mothers most but he started admiring his father with reasons he discovered at an early age. Nathaniel did not talk much neither did he develop the habit of flogging his children. Though he sometimes did, he was always specific in giving his strokes of the cane. When he said six strokes, he meant just that.

Nathaniel did not have a longing interest in going to church unless on occasions such as New Year’s Day, Easter, Christmas etc. and would spend hours all by himself listening to good music!

Aristide started crying to be taken to school especially when he saw Francis wearing his uniform but the custom in those days was that, children must pass a hand over the head so as to touch an ear and if this was not possible, the child was not old enough to start schooling. Since there was no nursery school in their community, he was taken to a primary school at the age of five. Not too long after Aristide had started going to school, he began complaining that he was tired of it and started falling sick most times of pretence. He did not know if he deserved the grades and promotions awarded him but all he knew was that his mother turned some of them down saying that she wanted him to be repeated so as to make better grades to the next class as he was below the required age for the class in which he was. Before the end of the first term, he was overwhelmed by a strong hatred for schooling and his mother Sylvia had known this so she did not take it lightly with him. Although he had to walk over one and a half hours to the school, he could not make it with the local Temne language which spoken by pupils and teachers in place of English and nothing did anybody know that this was his reason for developing hatred for schooling. He only spoke Creole so most of the school’s term, he left the house not reaching the school but went walking about town till 1.pm then went back home especially when he was hungry.

March also happened to be the month Silvia had a double respect for because it was the month in which she had to be a woman and a mother again but for the last time by pushing out a boy she had been hosting in her very womb for nine months! Gossips had it that the boy, whom they named Pierre, was not planned for just as many other last children whose pregnancies were accidental. Pierre was indeed the Benjamin in the house and in his early age, he could display the anger of an adult. He was quick to throw a punch at whosoever. When angered, he would run as fast as possible tearing and pulling down the way caterpillars do. At the Nursery School where he started his education, he proved even to his teachers that he was growing to be the most educated among the lot. He had a favourite poem which he recited with a childish accent and innocence: Peter on the railway, picking up stones. Then came an engine that broke Peter’s bone. ‘Oh!’ said Peter,’ that’s not fair!’ then said the driver, ‘you shouldn’t be there!’

Aristide looked at the boy with a bit of jealousy as he recited the poem because he himself could not recite any.

Being the last child, Pierre enjoyed all that was enjoyed by children of that sort. Was he a spoilt thing? He probably was. He played the fool on many occasions and walked away with it because he was said to be a child. At his primary school, he played the nuisance in some corner then his no nonsense teacher asked him to call his parents. He was afraid to tell his father who was too busy with his work and something else. Well, he did tell him that the teacher wanted to see him. Why is he asking me to come, the frowning Nathaniel asked. When suspicion ran through Pierre’s face, he was flogged to say the reason. Grabbing Nathaniel’s legs demonstrating what he did and saying, I did it like this, revealed that he had done or was about to do the very act with a girl at school. The beating he received was one with which he lived for years.

One day after school, Aristide and Pierre were playing on the road when the latter saw a snake which was later known as a spitting cobra. Pierre was just about two and a half years old. He invited Aristide to get closer so as to see it clearly. As the community was one with a record of poisonous snakes, Aristide didn’t wonder how Pierre came to know that the creature was indeed a snake and not something else. Being the fool he was, he honoured the invitation but the latter was wise enough to pull back in avoidance of the serpent. The big, long, black snake with red strips was just there as if waiting for a frog which they always waited for. Aristide had heard several folk tales about snakes being dangerous and aggressive but this did not look so. He looked at the snake’s tail expecting it to wag. It didn’t. His eyes went to its head and he observed it was getting bigger. This fascinates him even more because, nobody ever told him that snakes spread out their necks like that but one of the folk stories he was told taught him that snakes don’t harm children and he considered himself one. Still looking at the serpent, it started getting up from its head going down but not to the tail. He and the snake were face to face looking at each other eye to eye then particles of venom could be seen spraying directly into one of his eyes. The particles which missed their target dropped on his sweating nose and what a cold sensation on that hot afternoon. The entertaining snake went down on the ground faster than it had gone up and turned around in haste as if to report that its mission had been accomplished.

As he ran off to tell Pierre of what he had missed out, even before reaching the house, he felt a burning sensation in the eye. He rubbed it till he could not tell the difference between itching and burning because by now he was beginning to cry within himself because he knew what had happened - the snake had spat in his eye.

He ran into the house crying aloud and just when the good neighbours were there to render help, he locked the door and was all alone in the house. It took them over an hour to get him open up but before this, he had gone to the bathroom where he discovered that he could not see himself in the mirror. He was blind but managed to trace the door and opened it after he had been reassured that there was no snake out there. The neighbours in the absence of his parents suggested and practised all the herbs they knew. When one herb would not bring forth an immediate remedy, an aggressive one especially a woman, would recommend and come with hers. If that was not accepted, arguments which ended with insults came up. Some got annoyed and left the scene with the intention of telling the child’s parents that conditions would have been better if a particular neighbour was not there or if a particular remedy was accepted and used on the crying blind boy. None of these experiments worked!

Father Wusu was Catholic Church member who was known by everybody in the community except someone who was a new visitor. He was the closest to the priests and read Bible during masses. He read very well but when he stopped for two or more cups of palm wine on his way to Church, he skipped some lines of the Bible verses. He would clean the church, rang the heavy bell on Sunday mornings and assumed the office of a catechist therefore he was nicknamed Father Wusu. He happened to pass by and seeing the confused crowd, forced himself into it. Before asking what happened, angry women were already complaining that certain women would not allow this or that leaf to be used on the boy but Father Wusu, seeing Aristide’s eyes, grabbed and swung him on his shoulders as if he was a kidnapper and he headed straight to the St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

As father Wusu walked the two hour-journey, people who saw the boy’s eye felt sorry for him because the eye ball had come out as if it was going to explode at any moment and the frisky boy on his part, could not complain that he wanted to protect the already blinded eye from the sun, dust and breeze. When they got there, they met the Fathers (as priests were called) cooking so Aristide thought it was not going to be a matter of urgency for them but one of them immediately left the cooking and ran into the house for his car- key. They drove to the Mabesseneh Hospital the same where Aristide was born seven years before the incident and there, he knew the treatment given to him was even painful than the venom in his eye.

After the treatment, his parents were to be taking him to the hospital every other day till great improvements were made but they were too occupied with work and church matters and didn’t think it was necessary for them to put their child ahead of such matters by making it their duty and responsibility to be taking him to the hospital but left him to walk the long distance alone in the hot sun.

One day as he was going to the hospital, he met a group of boys playing football and he decided to join them. He spent the whole day playing in the street without going to the hospital and when he got home, his parents did not know what he had been up to. With the street playing in his mind, he started leaving home for ‘treatments’ and even though he felt occasional burning sensation in his eye, he did not mention this to his parents because they would have told him to go to the hospital all alone. It was when one of his mother’s church members reported seeing him play foot ball in the street that he was stopped from going to the hospital and resorted to home medication which was, the application of liquid milk into both eyes.

Rumours went around town that the ore mines was to be shut down and all of the expatriates would go back home. This was not just a bad news to the workers but also to the community and country as a whole because hundreds of jobs were to be lost.

At last, the rumour turned into fact. The mines were closed. Huge sums of money paid to the workers and while the town was seeing its last financial boom and merriment, Nathaniel and Sylvia were in Freetown looking for jobs and a house. Before they finally left Lunsar, they had it in mind to leave the children with someone so they would complete the school’s term.

Nathaniel’s mother Naomi was the only one Sylvia thought of so she went on to talk with her about it.

Grand ma Naomi in her sixties had not resigned from the day to day fashion and inter-personal beauty competition. She would wake up in the morning, had her bath and spend up to an hour with a mirror. Her beauty was not such that was enough to get men look