Have you ever tried to remember what you sounded like as a child? Well, this is more like it. Straight from the writer’s childhood memories, these mind-bending stories would leave you in stitches.
Long before the era of Big Brother, when ladies’ skirts stopped well below the knee and the modest ones insisted theirs kissed their ankles. Days when the neckline of dresses hung just below their collar bones. Not for fear of cold or anything, but because the bosom of a woman was a chest of secrets, […]
🎶🎶 Mio mo *Jesu Oyingbo . Mio Jesu Agege. Mio mo Jesu Ikeja, Jesu ti mo mo apata aye raye. 🎶🎶 That would be my grandmother (Maami) and her band of prayer benders from Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), with me in their midst wondering “what’s going on here?” Again, no one had cared to explain […]
I was barely 4 years old, away from my mother who was heavy with my younger brother. And while I loved being with my doting aunt and cousins, I pined for home. I missed my mum sorely as she was so close to my chest. Like Yoruba’s say, they say you should eat it, you […]
Our house was a stripper who had passed her prime and no matter how much effort was put on other houses in the neighbourhood, ours always insisted on ruining the view. You could never miss this imposing face-me-I-face-you that drew attention to itself. 159, Herbert Macaulay Street, Yaba, Lagos popularly called 1.5.9 was an enviable […]
I was a quiet little girl who loved to dream. I loved my space and books long before I understood the consequences of ignorance. I lived in my imagination and it was really beautiful in there. From those pages, I visited the four walls of this world. Curled up in one corner, I’d stir at […]
I made a curious observation at a-year-old birthday party quite recently. Babies born in this era of accolades don’t cry during their one year birthdays as much as we did during our era. Why? I asked. The answer is simple; they are selfie natives. Every day is a holiday, an excuse to be vain and […]
Wednesday and I were never friends, and I had my reasons. From kindergarten to secondary school, the only time I had proper secular education was when I went to Unilag. Mrs Peters, the proprietress of Philomena Nursery and Primary School was a devout Apostolic Faith woman. So every Wednesday like this, we all sat in […]
This time years back, my mum would take my sisters and I to Eko market and buy us “ready-made” a.k.a imported dresses, knee-length white socks, konkon shoe and other paraphernalia of Yuletide. We’d elbow our way through the pressing crowd, momentarily getting missing, as my mum tore through the crowd, screaming “omo mi omo mi” […]
Most evenings on my way home, I write a story in my head or my phone. About people, faces, feeling and conversations I saw, heard or felt during the day. Some stories never make it out of my head because I struggle to find the right words for them. Others trigger strings of memories. Today, […]
Her skin was the richest shade of brown with the gleam of good furniture on it. I could’ve sworn she polished it all night with Cocoa Butter. She wasn’t quite mad you see, but her life had its own pace, a little relaxed than ours. Often, she recalled a joy locked away in the distance […]