Ayomikun Soyombo: Marry Igbo, I’ll disown you… you go waka alone (Poetry)

by Ayomikun Soyombo

Four_Hausa_Gun_Carriers_of_the_South_Nigerian_Regiment_by_Sir_(John)_Benjamin_Stone_cropped

   She dreamt of eating ‘fura’

   Barefooted on the streets of Kano

   Ali was a god

   She became his goddess

   “If you get belle for hausa,” mama warned her one evening

   Just waka go alone

 

1.We smell

Of bigotry

Our hearts

So far apart

We smile together

As if we are one

While deep inside

Hatred still lurks

Our love

Is bound by geography

Our unity

Bothering on tongue

 

 

 

2.Akin fell

Sweetly in love

With Amaka

She had beautiful eyes

He danced around

Like one gone insane

He couldn’t wait

To go prostrate at the East

One night

Papa called him

Marry Igbo,he said

And I’ll disown you

 

 

 

3.Adoabi

Felt something towards Ali

He melts her heart always

Like butter tossed into fire

She wanted her womb

To bulge with a Northern seed

She dreamt of eating ‘fura’

Barefooted on the streets of Kano

Ali was a god

She became his goddess

“If you get belle for hausa,” mama warned her one evening

Just waka go alone

 

 

 

4.The Yorubas

Whispers to their daughters

“Igbos are dangerous

Don’t marry their men

If he should die

You will see hell

The water they use to clean his corpse

You will be given to drink in gulps

They’ll chase you away

Empty handed,into sorrows

Though the sun rises from the East

Their hearts are dark”

 

5.The Hausa man

Tells his son

To beware of the Igbo girl

Their dowries,wicked millions

“How can he exchange 300 cattles

For a girl,” he asks his son

When the north remains

A big pool of beauties

Beauties that appreciate ‘dankwa’

Beauties that drink ‘kunu’

Beauties so cheap and close by

Heaven’s miracle”

 

6.Then the Igbo man

Calls his son

Warns him to never marry

From the Yorubas,especially from Ijebu

They are made up of charms

They can pluck the sun off the clouds

They can transform their in-laws

Into mad souls eating grass

They breathe juju

They ‘shit’ juju

“If you mistakenly impregnate a Yoruba girl

Nna,no come back home again”

 

7.This is what we are

Behind our walls

We nurture our seeds

With manures of hatred

We see the other tribe

As being a step lower

We see the other tribe

As a contaminant

Hence,whenever we gather together

Disorderliness springs up

If you don’t understand,peep into the national confab

There you’ll hear justice Kutigi screaming ‘order!’ ‘order!’

 

8.There won’t be order

Until we drown deceit

There won’t be order

Until Akin can happily marry Amaka

There won’t be order

Until Adoabi & Ali can kiss freely

There won’t be order

Until Nigeria melts into one happy mould

Bigotry gave birth to bombs

Bigotry gave birth to deaths

Until our aisles

Leads from the North to the south

And from the East to the West

There won’t be serenity

There won’t be order

Even if Justice Kutigi shouts ‘Order!’ forever

 

N.B : all the names featured in this piece are fictitious,the exception being that of Justice Kutigi,chairman of the national confab.

 

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Soyombo Ayomikun tweets from @alabaster85

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

 

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