...i read a story in The Punch about two women who were economically better than their husbands. The men’s families claimed said women cornered their husbands’ luck which, added to theirs, made them richer. The husbands became incapable of progress having been looted spiritually. 

 

A familiar story. In some families where one person is more successful than the rest, there have been charges of luck theft. To keep their luck safe, some people refuse rich men’s benevolence.

 

There was a fellow summoned to his village to defend himself against his brother’s accusation of luck poaching. The matter was to be judged by village people emptier than the accuser. He ignored them and, as far as they were concerned, his guilt was confirmed. *Being intelligent among lazy and ignorant people can be dangerous.*

 

Societies have their myths, but it is the job of culture entrepreneurs and change agents to drive intelligent civilization. Instead, Nollywood is feeding these insane narratives, deepening ignorance rather than removing it. Movies can be public relations. American exceptionalism was driven by that nation’s cinema culture. Movies can set a society’s sociopolitical agenda and shape the values it pursues. 

 

People still believe their destinies can be stolen. If there’s anything like destiny, it is a course of events—good and bad—beyond human control. Destiny would be both negative and positive. *The person stealing your destiny would have stolen your poverty, with it your pain and death.*

 

Way back in secondary school, a man was dragged into the premises to restore what he had plucked: a student’s manhood. I had thought the evil man scraped off the member leaving the accuser gender-neutral. *But no, the meat was still there, albeit shy like a young frog.* The boy denied his manhood saying the occupant between his legs was fake; that a diabolical barter had been executed. Fools that we were—teachers and students alike—we all believed, heckling the stranger to restore the missing proportions...

 

I think I will be late to work if I should continue. Let's conclude it when I return. Let me know if you wanna read it all... 


© Salem Ezeorah