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The Story of Bosaba

An old man sat down one evening to enjoy the sunset view with his grandchildren, this man was from the Kingdom of Bosaba in Africa, a kingdom with many tribes, he was a Milu, from the Milo tribe which is in the southern part of Bosaba, however his wife's parents were Culus from the Cowbell clan in the northern part of Bosaba, his son was married to a Punku, from the Peak tribe which is in the eastern part of the country.

As the man sat with the grandchildren, his granddaughter (GD) asked him.

GD: Grandpa (GP), why is your hair white? My daddy's hair is black and shiny

GP: That is a sign of wisdom my child, it shows the hair you see has seen many days

The grandson (GS) then says

GS: grandpa, mum says I only have to sleep 2 more times before we go back to Peak where we live

GP: yes my child, that means you have only 2 more nights to spend here in Milo , your mum wanted you to see grandpa before he goes away forever.

GD & GS: Where are you going?

GP: I am going away, to a place of rest

GS: Rest? We don't have rest in Peak, I want to go with you to have some rest

GD: Yes grandpa, there is never light in Peak and even here in Milo , we always use the generator and daddy queues for fuel.

GP: You cannot come with me my children, you have to wait here and try and make some rest possible for yourself

GD: Is there always electricity where you are going grandpa?

GP: Yes, every time, and there are no accidents, all the roads are good, no fuel scarcity, no police harassment, it is the most beautiful place ever.

GD & GS: grandpa we will come, we will bring mum and dad with us

GP: No you cannot come; you have to wait here, and refuse to make the mistakes I made.

GD&GS: mistakes?

GP: Takes a deep breath, and answers, YES, mistakes. Let me tell you the story of Bosaba



A very long time ago, I was a very young and vibrant man like your father,

*interruption*

GD: stop it, don't finish it

GP: What is the problem?

GD: Grandpa he is finishing the biscuits

GS: But mummy has more with her

GD: No she says we cant have more till tomorrow, don't finish this one

GP: Common son, you shouldn't finish the biscuit now, look how big your stomach is already, give the remaining to me you will eat it later

GS: Ok Grandpa

GP: Back to my story

I was a very strong young man like your father and I had everything going good for me, I cultivated my farm and it yielded plenty, I would take the kings share to the palace, bring some home and sell some, after sometime I met your grand mother, she was a very lovely and respectful woman and I wasted no time in deciding to marry her, after our marriage, my farm produce increased, your grandma is a Culu, from Cowbell, and Culu women are very hardworking, so with her help, my farm produce doubled and grandma will take the remaining to the market to sell on the market day. Life was good and I built this huge house we stay in now, I sent your father and his siblings to the best schools in other kingdoms and lived a fulfilled life - or at least that is what I thought.

After many years of farming on the lands I had bought, the land could produce no more and we moved back here to Milo to live in retirement, here my daughter is where I started realising my folly.

While I lived at Cowbell, the people all over Bosaba complained of hunger, but I was too hardworking to think of that, I worked very hard to provide for my home, build a house, but the best horses, I was not bothered about the noise around me, on returning to Milo, I discovered there were no roads for my carts to pass, the King had not brought electricity here, so I paid for the road to my house to be built and I bought a generator, but my joy was always killed when I looked at my neighbours house and he didn't have electricity, the people of Milo had no hospital and had to trek miles to Peak to get a single nurse who was overwhelmed with too many patients, this was when I started wondering how I wasted my youth, how I tuned off all the noise of the sufferings of the people, the tears of those women who cannot feed their children hunts me day and night, the struggles of the men who till their lands endlessly and harvest no grain, the mothers who cannot go to the maternity to have their babies and end up giving birth to still borns, when I look at all this around me, I weep deep in me, this why I now have to rely on your father for food, because I felt so sad I gave out all my money to charities to help, I started visiting houses to find out what they needed, I tried to raise some money to bring electricity to Bosaba. I was also sad because your aunty, your father's sister, is in another kingdom now, she stayed there after studing and she is doing very well and living good, but I am not happy she cannot get that kind of good life here, she is not afraid of robbery, or assisination, she is happy and contented, she is married to one of them now and has become a citizen there, but she tells me everyday how much she misses Bosaba and Milo in particular, but is she comes here, we have nothing to offer her. Not everybody from Bosaba is lucky enough to get into another kingdom.

The saddest part is that Bosaba is an extremely rich kingdom, but the king and his chiefs take our farm produce and store them in barns in another land, they live in affluence and can send their wives to maternities in other lands. When the King died, his son took over and did even worse than his father, he took people's land at will and turned the kingdom upside down.

I cannot but fail to wonder, when I used to work so hard and make plenty of goods from my farms, why did I not just take one day off to join the youth of my time when they asked us to come out in protest, we were all too busy with our lives, trying to make something out of nothing, trying to make provision for what the king did not provide for us, we thought it was the easiest way out, and when a few people asked us to follow them to the kings palace to demand some basic amenities, we refused to turn up, instead we went to the farm and even worked harder, we built bigger barns to store more of the extra goods we made, we gave our kids the best life could offer. But Bosaba was hanging on a thin thread, whenever people in other kingdoms have disasters on the farms and cannot produce, their king gives them some food to last them until he gets them a new land, they had manure to keep their lands functioning, but in Bosaba, one by one we all lost it, as our lands could produce no more, we worked harder and got less, there was no plan for continuous development by the king and his chiefs, it was a disaster waiting to happen, this is why your father now has to stay late into the night in his farm, he has started the way I started, working hard to make the best for you, he has not followed his mates to the kings palace to ask for manure to make the farms produce better, he has not asked for water pipes to his farms, when other kingdoms already wet their lands with helicopters from the air.

The biggest problem now my children is that, you are the ones to pay for our mistakes, now you will have to work harder to get anything from the land, other kingdoms have built walls around their cities and you can only get in after waiting very long to obtain a pass, this is why I am encouraging you not to follow my mistakes, when you are a little older, take matters to the king and do not let him destroy Bosaba much further, because at this rate, some generations coming after will have absolutely nothing to rely on.

GD&GS were very quiet after the story, and GS resolved in his mind to ask his father what he was doing to ensure generations coming after will not sweat the way he is sweating.

GD: Grandpa I am hungry

GS: Me too

GP: You can have your biscuits now, this is a reflection of the kind of attitude I want, if you had kept quiet and allowed your brother greedily finish up the biscuit earlier, by now you will have nothing left for the day, but because you spoke up and made him stop, and because he listened and kept the rest, now the both of you have something to eat for the rest of the day.



Fellow Nigerians, Bosaba is coined from the last 2 letters in Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba, and Bosaba's story is a reflection of the Nigerian story... I leave you with this note as a food for thought. Gone are the days of our parents when they finished from school and got jobs immediately, when they could fly out of the country without a visa, when the naira and dollar were almost at par, but generation upon generation of silence has led us to the point we are today. I hope like the Grandfather from Bosaba we don't look back one day and wish we had done more. 2011 elections is around the corner now, what are you doing to sensitise your neighbours and friends? That vulcanizer that fixes your tires, that girl you always buy recharge card from? That policeman you have bribed so often he now hails you when you pass? Why not just take 10mins to stop by and have a word with them, encourage them on the importance of the political process, tell them to join you on election day to vote people of integrity into power from the local government elections to the presidential elections. Like one of my ogas always says 'It is our problem, we can fix it'. Thank you.

Written by Ifeoluwa Adebayo