The Problem I Have with Yoruba Christians
I grew up in one of the deepest roots of the Yoruba people, What is now known to be the largest West African city and the intellectual capital of the Yoruba conglomerate. My mother is a successful business woman in Ibadan. But I’m always surprised by how my mum renders her assistance to people, when she is not really expecting anything from them. Loving a person just to win their favour for a later event, or just to put them in that emotional confinement is not the kind of love I saw in my mother.
Humans are fickle. We are fickle. And in our majestic fickleness, we have a template of how one’s personality should be, yet we claim we understand that we are complicated. Out of malice, we criticise our dear friends. We tell people who are quiet why they need to be loud, and ask people who are loud to remain silent. Common tweet on twitter, you will do fifteen drafts. We have all become fans of perfection and when someone raises the subject of imperfections in a room, we darken the scope, we deliberately mix imperfection with evil, with the dark side of humanity, when we clearly understand the point. We hijack the aim of the subject, the aim of making people learn how to appreciate individual differences. When an issue is raised, we skewer it with our old odious principles. We ‘crush’ on principles, like say na one fine celeb. ‘Babe’ doesn’t even know we exist. We are now angels jostling to out-angel one another, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote.
We can do big things when we ignore the little things. We really can. ‘Before you think of committing suicide, just know I will be there for you’, says someone who treats his wife with disrespect, says someone who throws tantrums at gay people. Gay people are not even humans. So when they explain to you, you relay the matter to Sodiq and Gomer. Snitching on the rest of us.
People are going through a lot, living below 1 dollar in a day, please don’t make their lives any worse if you cannot make it better. Why do we even think we are good? Why do we point our finger towards others? What’s our definition of being good? I cannot even define being good to you so what makes you think your definition is right. We claim to be good yet we frown at the truth. Our definition of good is by circumstance, by some kind of ass kissing, to roast one another, to put other people at a disadvantage, as if we are competing for a shady Goodness Cup. Then they go again, ‘We are humans, we have preferences’, preferences, which fluctuate on petty reasons.
We should do better, it’s hard I know, especially in this social media age when it is easy to assume an air of kindness, when in fact there isn’t any kindness at all. You should do a lot better! And you might need to start learning some Yoruba. Welcome.