Intersecting Roads

INTERSECTING ROADS

By

Obododimma


We meet
We meet to part
To continue
But we part
To meet again
Because we are part
Of the mysterious whole

We meet
To part
Only to meet
At the end of the tunnel.

Gate-keepers

By

Obododimma Oha

It should not be surprising that one takes interest in gate-keepers that we often find in films and plays. Gate-keepers could be very funny but nevertheless serious-minded. They could be awkward but clever, anyway. They could take all the blows, abused and battered, even by invaders. Gate-keepers are exposed in their small out-house and are subject to human and environmental relegation. They are ordinary folks and are required to mind their businesses, but could be useful to bigtime, big-house troubles.

I remember the gate-keeper in Shakespeare’’s Macbeth ironically suggesting to us that being at the gate after the king has been murdered in the big house inside is like being like the porter at hell’s gate. From him, we could see how sadness and joy are interwoven, and we try to laugh in-between our tears. That shows us that a gate-keeper is neither with joy or with sadness, and that these, flowing from happenings in the big house, affect gatelife significantly.

From porter of hellgate to film-show bashing of the gate-keeper, at least in Nollywood, we can understand the victimhood of the gate-keeper. The gate-keeper is uniformed, to mark his identity as anonymous (and is usually male, uniformed male!). The gate-keeper has to be costumed as anonymous, not just as male. Even that uniform needs to be funny. It should be pseudo-military; military but not quite! After all, the gate-keeper frisks visitors, but could be tied up easily by invading robbers and gun folks. So, that pseudo-military uniform is a fit; its wearer can only bark but not bite. Even if he holds a baton.

Let somebody from the big house desire to drive out; that “someone” would shout orders and the gate-keeper would tremble. Gate! And he acts accordingly. The gate has to fly open, or he buys the trouble. He won’t like it if the trouble is transferred to him. He won’t like it at all. So he opens wide the gate for trouble to pass!

Gate-keepers  get into trouble, sometimes due to what they have said that they should not have said. They get into trouble when they go beyond gatelife and enter the kitchen or living room. Their place and territory is at the gate, no more. But gate-keepers looking for trouble mess with the cook, the madam, the car, and sometimes the oga. In that case, they tend to forget their place and territory.

Oh foolishly wise people of the gate, when you morph to checkpoint hands, carrying guns and harassing travelers in the shithole, I shudder. Now that you will have your tollgates restored, is your lefthand collection not legitimized? It does not matter which thief wants to have a share of the loot or which thief wants to disadvantage which thief! Restore stealing points. That is the game. And the game is the foolish wisdom of gatelife.

When I see gate-keepers at checkpoints, I remember the Yoruba prankster god, Esu Elegba. He is settled and asked not to enter the main house. He stays at the gate, and when he is armed, I am sorry for those trying to pass his road-block! When Esu cocks his gun, somebody is finished.

It is risky to surrender the gate to Esu. Anybody that wants to pass and has to pass must submit to him. And to submit to him is unpredictable. Esu is the gate-keeper and anyone that wants to pass must see this security agent!

Intersecting Roads

INTERSECTING ROADS

By

Obododimma Oha

We meet
We meet to part
To continue
But we part
To meet again
Because we are part
Of the mysterious whole

We meet
To part
Only to meet
At the end of the tunnel.