Daddy's Stuff

By

Obododimma Oha

I gave my son my computer to use for a while beccause his own was bad but warned him not  to tamper with my files. He promised not to. When he returned the  computer, the files were intact (to my great joy) but l discovered that he had done something worth  thinking about. He had created a folder for my files and had named the folder "Daddy's Stuff." It was not just just that he spared my files to avoid trouble or created the folder. It was more : the language that he used in the naming was something else. Stuff? He must have wondered what to call the folder of things I valued. OK, look at my music! Albums from Osita Osadebe, Oliver de Coque, Oriental  Brothers, Warrior! No hip hop! From their cobwebbed music you shall know them! This stuff fellow must be living in the past, he must have concluded. These and other things were just "stuff" to him.

It was also possible that there was an attempt to use Daddy's Stuff on that reading table to read Daddy's Stuff on the computer : half-eaten kola nut, many open books, bush lantern facing an ancient electric reading lamp, a grandfather clock, etc. The computer must have have become the new porter helping Daddy to carry all these stuff in the marketplace of life! 

Okay, just think about what the stuff fellow's  desktop would look like. Things and things! In fact, a desktop of   things, of stuff and stuff! 

I lent out my computer but that was a world encountering another world and showing its  exception in language, in its major signifying system. I exposed my world and should learn from it. Technology sharing would not save the day.  Language is, indeed, more helpful, more revealing. 

The choices we make in language can suggest what we are and where we are. If "stuff" designates my "orishirishi," the unrecognizable, what does my language also say about that other language, at least as a way of talking back? 

Well, the stuff fellow's world does not use derogatory description. The values of a world and its technology are all there to do something. So, my" stuff" may look strange but that "stuff" has done much for me. It is worlds armed with language as a weapon and which see values as "stuff" that need to be pitied. It is that world where life means nothing, where nests could be set ablaze, that need to be pitied. 

My music suggested difference and strangeness. Yes. Strangeness! Not even Michael Jackson! How could I value albums by Oriental Brothers and Osadebe? That was crazy, it seemed. But what if these musical albums are a kind of hip hop? That means that stuff rappers should also start thinking of relationships of things thought not to related. Is it not possible that every item is just a stuff? 

I would have been rejoicing if my son copied and played any of my music stuff! "Lai! Lai!" as they say in Nigeria. Has he finished playing his hip hop and "Yankee" music to think of playing stuff music? That would be stranger than strange! 

My stuff music gives someone belly ache, I was told, and the retaliation comes in the form of loud hip hop or "Yankee." So, I respect and protect my stuff world, even if its music cannot inspire other worlds. 

Daddy's Stuff is a folder for some reasons. In it someone has folded up a world. But the challenge is to open up a closed world,  to explore that world for opportunities and to learn lessons. 

Now we know that Daddy's Stuff is Daddy's world. Strange or Estranged world. But, importantly, the stuff is not only music. It is a world of things. The music saying deep things, giving out philosophies. There are  paintings and drawings and debates in social media. In fact, Daddy's Stuff is a great puzzle. A strange world. 

A world should not remain closed. It has to give and be ready to receive. Not folding or closing up. It has to have something to give, not just lie and receive. And it should think about what it is giving. 

Now Daddy's Stuff is not here within reach! 

Welcome, my stuff. You could have been deleted! And replaced with a movie or reigning musical. What would he do? At most, he would rave and rave and disturb the whole forest. He would make noise and threaten hellfire. Then, moody for days. And that's all. The stuff is gone forever, gone for good and the forest is safe again. 

So, welcome really my stuff. You could have gone for good. Welcome from Hades. You could have gone forever! 

Daddy's Stuff reminds me about the fact that there is   new life and there is a new language in town. It is is better to know it to know where one is. It is better and safer. 

Welcome, my computer. Welcome, things and things.