Pa Solomon

By Remi Oyedola

This story documents the sojourn of an independent man's determination to end the business of human trading in his hometown in the times past. It portrays a picture of the uniqueness of man and that a principled personality can always pursue the seemingly impossible and conquer. Pa. Solomon depicts that dynamism is a potent factor in life, however principled a person is. This could be seen in the way and manner the advent of a new religion was embraced by people and others like Solomon, with its advantages.

The catalytic nature of religion or belief could be seen in the various relocations and movements of various people therein. It is a known fact that embracing new styles of life brings with it new structures, movements, ethos, and way of life generally.

The benefit of such could be seen here through the introduction of formal education. In all, it is important to realize that you are yourself always; hence, use your uniqueness to reach the potential possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Infomediaworks Ltd
• Release date: May 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224322565

Remi Oyedola

Remi Oyedola enjoys storytelling and is skilled at making his audience glued to the scripts. Most of his stories are fictional, borne out of creative imaginations. He believes that in this way, the audience can always have some relaxation as this world's activities are becoming more complicated and distressing. Reading novels provides an active defusing of tension at any time and any place as well. Remi has been opportune to speak at seminars and symposiums with large audiences in attendance. He continues to charm people with his narrative prowess. He has also written and composed many stories, both published and unpublished; some of which include titles like 'Love from Hate', 'He's our Son' and 'The Bullocks'. He is a lawyer by profession.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

LIFE AT AKE

WHAT A WEATHER THIS was! It had been raining from dusk to dawn and round the clock. It appeared the windows in the cloud had broken and all the ice blocks had de-frozen. There were fears that the lazy dead man’s body would be dug up from the grave. Despite this, the sun could not wait for the day to launch. It shone like never before simultaneously with the rainfalls. Everybody went about their daily routines, even the indolent could not stay in bed as nobody could predict when the cat-and-mouse weather would relent. There were no meteorologists around then, perhaps they were not born, or no brains had developed enough to predicting the weather as a profession.

That was the situation on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year, seventeen hundred and fifty after our Lord’s death. People went about their businesses, ignoring the rain and the sun. Those who had brolly used them. Interestingly, in those days, most of the umbrellas were made of apocalypse leaves. They were large and strong with enough strength to withstand any beatings of the sun or rain. The handles were long and made of acacia trunks. One attribute of the famous and notable was to own a fanciful brolly. It was a sign of nobility. In fact, an aspiring bridegroom would have to buy and show his umbrella when meeting his potential in-laws for the first time. This would be used in assessing him and his capability to marry. Once he passed that stage, the first thing on the list of things to bring in order to get his wife was an umbrella.

Of course, the local goldsmith should qualify for such a position. Gold had continued to be a spectacularly valued mineral since creation. Hence, to make a profession in that direction was noble. He had made a big round necklace of gold for himself, which must be on him anytime he went out. The gold chain was so long that it would flow from his neck and touch the fore of his feet. This goldsmith was luckily endowed with a six-feet height. Adorned with a cap, he would always spread his umbrella whether it was sunny or rainy and would be waving his other hand at people as he passed by. Despite the weather of rain and sun together, the goldsmith was on his usual merry-go-round on this day when words came to him that his wife had fallen into labour and taken to the deity’s place. He hurriedly returned home to await the good news. The wait was so brief as his wife had given birth to a baby boy. What other way to celebrate than to get drunk, and that was exactly what he did!

As he looked at the baby, he yelled, this was the real me, a carbon copy of the main man. He strolled the palms and feet of the boy and the latter winked. He gently threw the boy up and caught him three times before giving him back to his mother. ‘Let the drinks flow’, he happily announced. His friends and well-wishers had gathered to make merry. There was more than enough to chew and gulp. Some even danced and sang. It was a thing of joy and a normal practice in all the neighbourhoods of Ake. Anytime a new baby was born at Ake, the relatives of the parents would assemble at Olumo to dance, sing, celebrate, and name the child on the eighth day.

This goldsmith and his relatives were bona fide born and bred of Ake and so were accustomed to the tradition. It was no longer a tradition per se, but a way of life. However, this nobleman would not relent till the eighth day. He made sure that the drinks continued to flow every day until the eighth day. He had hired an Apala music exponent to perform on top of the Olumo hill at Ake. So as early as people began to converge, the sonorous tune of the expert belting out this kind of genre music rented the air. Few people actually forgot why they gathered together at the hill on that morning. They had drunk much and danced away their sorrows, even the goldsmith was not left out.

When the time came, he arose and was asked to name his child. He simply said the boy was Solomon. All ears tingled. What did that mean? That kind of name had never been heard of in Ake. All those present laughed hilariously, saying the goldsmith was talking out of a stupor. One of his friends tapped his shoulder again and asked him what the name of the child was. He simply replied, Solomon, and that was his name. They turned to the mother of the child, who quickly nodded that whatever the father said was final. So, the boy was known as Solomon of Ake from Olumo hill born in the eighteenth century.

Slave trading began to gain momentum. The slave traders were making much gain as sugarcane farming expanded rapidly in the Americas. The people of the coast of sub-Saharan Africa were easy target and submissive. People could no longer trust their neighbours wholeheartedly. Your own traditional ruler could help the slave traders to capture you, if only to save his own skin. The irony of it all was that the slave traders did not pay any money to buy these people. They merely captured these human beings as slaves, put padlocks on their mouths by using a hot iron to make holes in their lips. The captured ones were then lined up and chained together for onward march through the bush towards the sea for transportation to the Americas. As the business boomed, the more the traders searched and raided further inland from the coastal areas. They needed to capture more potential slaves, so they were moving further from Eko towards Ake.

The people gathered on Olumo hill and decided on what to do. They were obviously helpless as their deliberations revealed to them. They had no power to fight these desperate slave traders. Worst still was the fact that there were betrayals who could cooperate with these foreign slave traders at will. So, the wise elders decided that the urgent action was that the Ake lineage must not be forgotten. How would they do that? They thought that a mark on the face would do and that wherever one found himself in the world, the mark would reveal their origin of Ake. It would also be possible for an Ake man to identify one another elsewhere in the outside world. Hence, they came up with a form of tribal mark on the face known as Ake line. It was painful cutting one’s chins to make a specific mark, but the pain could not be as that of drilling a hole on both the upper and lower lips without medication if caught by slave traders! More so this type of marks would be made in future when the child was young, hence the pain would not be as much as on the adults.

The goldsmith promptly implemented the Ake decision. He made the tribal marks on his face and that of the entire household, Solomon included. The chronic pains lasted for a while, but the healing power of the tissues was tremendous. Everything returned to normal. The raiders had their seasons mostly determined by the high tides on the seas. They needed to ensure maximum safe delivery of their consignment through the high seas to the slaves’ bourgeoisies abroad. This period of raid was always a tumultuous experience as everybody ran to hide their family members. The fathers had more work to do, hiding, protecting, providing for their households and at the same time fighting to ward off the invaders. Many casualties were usually recorded as many husbands normally disappeared forever at this period of unrest. They were either killed or carried away to Liberia for onward packaging on to the far West.

Out of all these turbulent times, people attempted to live a normal live as much as they could. They had grown accustomed to the vagaries of life. Once the raiders left, those who were lucky enough to survive the raid of that season would promptly settle down to live again. There was no need for prolong mourning any longer. Those captured in that season would be dead. There was no hope of ever seeing them alive or dead again. Their spouses would quickly re-marry and move on.

One remarkable thing at Ake was the ingenuity of the people. They had the abundant wisdom of using herbs and leaves to make different concoctions. Since there were no widespread hospitals, the elders always formed a clique and rubbed ideas together on what tap roots and leaves could be mashed together to procure a cure or even prevent an ailment. Many of them specialised in unique ailments. Anytime some leaves were being plucked or herbs made, the children, most especially the males, often accompanied their parents to the bush. Little by little, the wards knew most of these practices and, at times, excelled. Solomon’s father was skilled in curing barrenness. He had narrated that it was inherited from his own dad. His herbs were very potent that any woman who was finding it difficult to conceive was relieved once she met with him. He had become known all over Ake and the environs.

Solomon grew by the day. He