Mighty mother,
you left before
I remember to ask:
Did you also scrubbed my teeth
with unhygienic wool
and the fluoride
of bitter leaf - ashes paste;
Did you also bath me
with the protective currant water
of the Gwaris
or you had your own herbal assurance;
Was the red water
meant to scare off evil spirits
that bring convulsion, measles, polio
Did you also preserved my food
with brew ashes water
and fed me with fermented corn meals,
or put my hands between your legs
to feed me in bondage with grain cereal;
Did you ever hold back your cares,
and left me crying
until I am fagged out and surrendered
before you stretched a loving hand
to cloth me with your mighty motherly warmth;
Did you allowed me to eat unrestrained
and call it love that I have
a malnourished semblance
of a quashiokor victim?
Worthy son,
when GOD created mothers
to everyone HE gave the best;
I pressed your malleable head with artistic finest,
when you soiled my wrappers with your watery waste,
I cleaned them and cleaned you too,
when you cry but say nothing,
the duty is upon my wisdom to unravel
the silent message of your demands,
and give you the rich milk,
the milk of wisdom on my chest
as your Daddy grin in paternal envy.
Well now my son, tell me,
do I not shun the sacred oath,
when I preferred you to your father
that left his parent to cleave
unto me, all years past?
O, mighty mother,
only GOD is greater than you,
sleep in peace my dear,
I will stir thee no longer.
OKIBE, SAMSON ONMEJE
+2348056895054
THE POEM:
Inspired by how his Land lord and his wives raises their children prompted him to ask these rhetoric questions. Was he raised the same way by his mother?
In the light of the above, he questions the "love" of raising a child in this manner. He sees it as tyrannical or love lost.
The first stanza reveals the poem was composed after the poet mother's demise.
Stanza two tells us how the Gwari people (Abuja Nigeria) care for the teeth with a self made paste
(bitter leaf and ashes mixture). They brush their teeth applying this paste on a cotton wool. This is to point out to the western world that before the advent of their 'colgates, aqua fresh, close ups etc the Africans have their peculiar standard for maintaining a hygienic teeth.
Stanza 3: hygienic practice continues with autochthonous 'treated' bath water as alternative to Dettol liquid or other anticeptives. The poet asked if this treated 'currant' water could replace immunization.
Inspite of all these hygienic practice, he questions the mode of their food preservation and how they feed the children, forcing food down their throat. The response from the poet's late mother is purely a product of the poet's conscience (this is more profound than mere imagination) having compared his upbringing to an average Gwari child. After his conscience blames him for questioning the wonderful and sacrificially caring upbringing, he expresses remorse and apologizes to his mother. The poem ends with a pledge that he will never worry her any more in her grave - he seems to say "Rest in peace!"
