No Exemption

No Exemption

ÒWE YORÙBÁ (YORÙBÁ PROVERB)

Ìlàra kò mọ àgbà; ìfẹ kò mọ ọmọdé

Translation

Envying does not recognize old people; love does not recognize young people (or it could be stated as this, envying does not exempt old people neither does love exempt young folks)

Beautiful Lady

Application

It is a proverb that has several uses depending on how the person wants to use it and the condition of its usage. It could be used to call people to order, telling the people that the world is a place that is full of mysteries and that there is no total exclusion to the rule in the world. I will have to share two stories to back this proverb up.

Sometimes we become baffled seeing someone who is at the peak of his or her career as well as being stricken in age still envying a young person who is just coming up.

There was once a professor in the island of Tikeyt called Marao.

Research Student

On Envying

This professor was 70 years old and was about to be retired in one of the island’s Universities. One of his students works impressed scholars from outside Tikeyt University and they all held an adhoc meeting on him, on how to assist him so that his work becomes accepted globally.  His lecturer, professor Marao who was a member of the committee that deliberated on the student’s case having heard what the resolution of the committee was for the student started working on how to discredit the student’s work such that what was in the pipeline for him would be dropped by the world’s body.

Every move of professor Marao was checkmated by other lecturers.

Having seen his disposition to what they wanted to do for the student, he was excluded from the committee, what they wanted to do for the student was secretly carried out without his involvement neither his knowledge until the student receives grants from the world research body.

When professor Marao saw what his colleagues have done behind his back, he resigned his position from the committee and as lecturer from the University because he cannot stand the shame. Envying does not exempt those who are stricken in age…

On Love

The people of the island of Murahsi were surprised to see the priest of Murahsi getting married to a girl he christened 21 years ago today. The people were saying amongst themselves that “…neither does love recognize younger ones”.

The Brief Story

Murahsi island has 20 tribes from different islands that migrated there about 15,000 years ago. After the tribes from different islands’ that immigrated into Murahsi Island discovered that the weather of the place is favourable and that everything they lay their hands on in Murahsi Island prospers they did not think of leaving the island.

A tribe out of these tribes was eventually chosen to be their priest seeing that many of them undergo trainings on this art before doing anything, thus, the 20 chiefs, representatives from each of the tribes that make up Murahsi Island decided that they should let them be occupying the positing without fighting (or competing) for it again, while the position of the leadership will be rotated among the remaining 19 tribes.

The representative of the tribe that was chosen to be occupying the position of priesthood after meeting with other members of the tribe accepted the offer and a monument was set to show what their resolutions were that day such that their children in the future would not fight on these resolutions.

Priest and tourists

With everything settled and each tribe knowing what and what not for them, the island of Murahsi kept making developments in all spheres.

Every child born within the island would be taken to the high priest who will perform some religious rites before pronouncing the names given unto the child by the child’s parents.

According to the agreement, the order of the priest of the land cannot be altered, when a high priest dies, the assistant high priest will step into the office.

When the island becomes widen, the tribe producing priests decided to have worship centers at the four corners of the island namely: west, east, north and south with the head at the center. Those people in those corners are named assistants; first, second, third and fourth.

Instead of the people traveling far, they can take their offerings and new born children to those centers for naming.

Monument

Choosing A New Assistant

The least of the assistant high priest has just be chosen because the high priest has died and his first assistant has been sworn in to take his position immediately since there cannot be vacuum in the position because the people of the island loves religion. The forth assistant high priest has moved to the third position; the third moving to the second position and the second has moved to the first position. Leaving vacant the forth position to choose a qualified priest to become the forth assistant high priest of the land. It is the west corner of the land that this assistant high priest will occupy. The person chosen to become the forth assistant high priest is called Poamah.

The Order

Poamah was 23 years old when he became the forth assistant high priest of the island of Murahsi. People who have been occupying this position before were all married before being chosen to occupy the position, but Poamah was yet single when he stepped into this office. He was however planning for his wedding by the end of the year when he was chosen to occupy the position.

No one thinks the high priest of the land would die like that, that year because he was still young and vibrant when he died compared to his predecessors. He died at the age of 66 having spent 5 years in the office.

When this happened, they knew the person to step into his office, his first assistant and he was quickly moved up the ladder without issues, and the forth, third and second moving up the ladder in that order.

Having seen that the forth position was vacant, interviews and screenings were conducted for the qualified priests and no one was thinking of Poamah to be the one to be chosen because he was still single.

People suggested that he quickly arrange for his wedding so that he will get a chance of being chosen but Poamah being an organized, meticulous and methodical person refused altering his plan, saying, “what shall be shall be, water that a person would take and drink from a river would not flow pass his reach”.

Since he decided not to usurp his actions, people leave him with all of them saying they were cock-sure he won’t be selected.

Screening Method

Their kind of screening involves selecting 20 people from each section of the Murahsi island: west, south, east and north, to come and talk about whom they saw when they brought their offerings to the assistant high priests.

Screening

All of the priests selected to fill into that position were expected to do rotation of about 12 months each at each of the sections. It is those who have completed the rotations that would be chosen.

Twenty priests have successfully completed the rotations, but it was 20 of them whose names were penciled down because 2 priests were sick. Out of those twenty, people were saying one would never be chosen because he was yet to be married.

When the people from each section of the island started talking about whom they had seen and how such priest has attended to them, about 11 people from the west said they were most impressed with the services Poamah rendered unto them when he was in their locality, while 12 people from the north said the same thing about Poamah, fourteen people from the south gave him pass mark while 13 people from the east could not readily forget his services which is yet to be paralleled.

After the committee in charge of the screening heard the selected people out, they shifted to the presenting clauses and after serious deliberations into the clause, they decide to wave it aside that if he can perform what he performed as being testified to by people despite being single, they are sure that he will perform better when he gets to this position and when married.

That was how Poamah was chosen to the amazement of all.

People’s Reaction

When the committee in charge of the selection announces the name of the Priest that they have chosen to fill the vacuum of the fourth assistant high priest in the island there was joy everywhere as the people praise them for the intelligence they have used in making the right choice, in choosing for them the person who has the mind of people at heart.

Poamah and his spouse were seriously planning for their wedding day which was expected to come up at the end of the year and with him being the number fifth in the order of the priesthood in the island now, people were sure that the wedding would be a unique one, a one to be remembered for a very long time to come in the island and most especially in the order of the priesthood.

People showing happiness

People were looking for means of paying him back what he has done for them when he was at service in their localities and the time to pay him back is when he would be taken his heart throb to be his’.

Three months after he assumed this position in the west side of Murahsi Island, a baby girl was given birth to and according to their custom she would be taken to the assistant high priest in their region for the necessary sacrificial rites and pronouncing her name.

The needful sacrifices have been done by the subjects under Poamah and he was left with breaking of cola-nut, sharing of garcinia cola and honey among the people present for the occasion on the eighth day. It is after he does this that he will announce what the names of the baby are as he would have been told by the baby’s parents.

Spiritual Eyes Opening

While sharing the Kolanut, his spiritual eyes were opened and he saw a rope descend out of the firmament, as he behold this rope in the spiritual realm, the trance was cleared off. He looked around to see if there are strange things around, but he couldn’t see any. He said silently to himself, “a trance in a broad day light?” One of the priests under him assisting him heard him say something and he thought he was talking to him, and he said “sir?” He replied that he should not bother, it is nothing.

He moved to the next thing which is sharing of the garcinia cola and after saying what needed to be said before sharing the garcinia cola, his eyes were again opened and he saw a hand bringing the hand of the baby girl and putting the hand on his hand, after this has been done, the trance again cleared off. He looked at the baby on the laps of her mother, looked at the wrapped baby girl’s tiny hands to see if there are any strange movements there, but he couldn’t see any movement. To avoid being overheard again, he asked himself internally “what is happening?” as to receive an answer from his spirit but no answer was forthcoming, thence he moved on with the ceremony.

Kolanuts

When he was sharing the honey, his eyes were again opened the third time and now what he was that the rope he saw at first is now being used by an unknown hand to join or tie together the baby’s palm and his. After this has been done he heard a voice surrounded by multiple voice of people saying, “congratulations”, and the vision was cleared off.

He was confused, but he has to complete the process he has started for which the people are gathered before him that day. What he needs to do now is carry the baby and call her names for people to hear.

He was now nervous, assuming he has seen anything like this in his dream before, he probably would have called for one of his superiors from other part of the island to come and do the naming ceremony for him. Such is allowed in the island in as much as the assistant high priest is not busy that day, but he did not see anything before now and he cannot handover the program of the naming to his subjects except he wants to be demoted by the authority.

He gathered the pieces of himself together internally, before he collected the baby girl from her mother he has been thinking that he would again fall into some trances or see something extra-ordinary but none of this ever happened. After collecting the child from her mum he said, “the name of this child is Kaldeo, Kadarah the daughter of Kaleleo” and after saying this everyone clapped, while some lift up their hands for joy.

He repeated the name again as he has been trained to do, but nothing out of the ordinary happened again. At the third time that he will make mention of the names which the baby girl would be bearing in the world, he implored those present to repeat the names after him as he says it one after the other.

Poamah: Kaldeo

Congregation: Kaldeo

Poamah: Kadarah

Congregation: Kadarah

Poamah: the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kaleleo

Congregation: The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kaleleo

He called his subjects together, surrounding the baby and the assistant high priest as the said some things and the baby girl was handed over back to her parents. The naming ceremony is ended.

The parents and the people close to the parents of the baby started sharing what was prepared for the occasion to the people that graced the naming ceremony. Poamah however left the scene into the inner chamber asking one of his priests to tell those who wanted to see him to wait a while.

Naming Ceremony

In the room where he paced up and down the chamber for a while thinking about what he saw, those three things in succession. He has not heard of something like this happening to anyone before what is going on? He asked himself again as if something would bring answer to him. He poured water into the gourd to drink, raise the gourd up to his mouth but put it down again because his mind was still not at rest. He sat on the stool in his closet for a while, confused, but when he couldn’t get answer to this, he decided to wash his face with water so as to look relatively fresh again before leaving the chamber to attend to those who wanted to see him. It was in his mind to ask from others if maybe he would find someone who will tell him what those things he has seen meant.

The Ugly Incident

Three week after the naming ceremony and after seeing those things which he saw, he received a message that his spouse was sick that he should come. He rushed to her house, after seeing her; he made some healing sacrifices as he has been taught trusting that she would be healed. After performing those things, given her those she needs to drink, the lady was relieved and she sat up started talking with her spouse. Poamah stayed with her for the day before returning to his place later in the night.

The following morning before he got out of his mat, the messenger from his spouse family got to him that his spouse eventually passed on during the midnight watch. It was not allowed that priest should cry when putting on the regalia of the priesthood, neither in the room where they were offering sacrifice.

So that he would be absolved of any of the charges he rise up and follow the messenger with the news to his spouse place. On seeing the body of his spouse, he cried bitterly.

When other assistant high priests heard of what has happened unto him, they came to him separately and in group to comfort him. People from far and near also came to comfort him.

The shock of the untoward incident made him forgot what he has seen such that he could not make inquiries into what it means again.

He lost touch of life and to him life becomes meaningless. He would not talk to any other lady again other than performing the sacrificial and ceremonial rites as being demanded of him to perform for them and they will leave. For three years and more, he sees nothing in a woman. Now, he was not afraid that he would be removed and someone else put in charge.

His superiors however did not see anything wrong in his activities, he is yet to get over the shock, removing him from the position  would not make him get over it faster they reasoned among themselves and agreed that he should left alone until he resolves on what he wants to do. However if news gets to them of him having illicit affairs with anyone, he would be asked to produce a wife within certain time, but if that never happened, they agreed to leave him, people are enjoying his services they said among themselves.

Out of Shock

When it was few months to four years that he has lost his fiancée, his mind becomes attracted to a lady who has come to perform some sacrifices in his temple in the west.

Lady Fisicoh has just moved to the west and she is single and of the marriage age. She used to come to the temple regularly to pray and make sacrifices. Through this, Fisicoh and Poamah became attracted to each other. People started seeing them together and people were glad that at last he has gone out of shock and has found someone whom he will soon settle down with. Everyone was looking forward to when this will happen.

Shocked

One day, one of the priests under Poamah, Priest Sekhun, has finished his posting under Poamah and was moved to the north for another rotation. When he got to the north, the assistant high priest Iglalah of the north asked him about Poamah how he is feeling and he told him that he is getting on well that in fact he has now found another lady, to this lady he will be married very soon.

Assistant high Priest Iglalah was very glad to hear this, but something pushed him to ask for the name of the lady in question from Priest Sekhun. Priest Sekhun told him that the name of the lady is Fisicon.

“Fisicon? or what do you say?” he asked from Sekhun.

“Yes my lord sire. Is anything the matter? Do you know any lady that bears that name?”

“Oh yea, I do, but may be she is not the Fisicon that I know”, Iglalah said, adding, but can you tell me more about this Fisicon to be sure she is not the same Fisicon that I know?”

Yes my lord, I can. On the day that Fisicon first got to our temple I was the one in service that day, and she told me that she has just relocated to the west from the north, that she was a trader and having been coming to the west for a while she discovered that business pays in the west than in the north that that is why she is relocating to the west.

“Uhm mm. Go ahead.”

I did my portion of the rituals and passed her to my boss Poamah to finish the rest. After this the lady does come to the temple everyday to do prayers and that was how she and Poamah became close and started going out. Now, they are planning to be married.

“It must not be true. Can you tell me her complexion” Iglalah asked

She is light in complexion, pointed nose…

Talk not again, she is the person I know. She is of a dubious character and every evil deeds of the world is complete in her, Poamah cannot marry her. You will leave very early tomorrow morning to the west and tell Poamah that I need to show him something about this priesthood.

Very early the following day, priest Sekhun left for the west to his master and deliver the message of Assistant High Priest Iglalah unto him. As his superior, he left everything he was doing and headed for the north. They couldn’t get there that day and slept at one of the inns. The following day they got to Iglalah who told him about the lady, Fisicon.

Poamah appreciated his boss, Iglalah and left Fisicon. After leaving Fisicon he has not been able to see a lady that is appealing to his mind.

The Meeting

Every end of the year Kaldeo visits the shrine with her parents and siblings to celebrate end of the year and receive the yearly blessings from the assistant high priest Poamah according to their culture. Since there are many people in attendance on these special days, there is no how Poamah would have known Kaldeo, even if they see they will exchange greetings as priest to congregant.

However, whenever they went for the program in the shrine, Kaldeo used to tell her mother that something in her was telling her that she will be married to a priest. That would be good, her mother would say.

But when Kaldeo was 15 years old, she was not saying she would be married to a priest again, she now gets more specific and says, and one day she will be married to assistant high priest Poamah. Her mother said that may not be likely because pressure has been on Poamah to get married because of his position and you are still young for that now. That was how Kaldeo did not talk about this again.

On the exact day that Kaldeo clocked 20 years of age, she and her mother were in their way home from the market when they saw assistant high priest Poamah. They greeted him and he stopped to greet them, asked about their welfare. Kaldeo mother replied that everything has been fine, “thanks to the priest who is always praying for us”, she added.

Poamah looked at her daughter from head to toe and said, ”you are blessed with a beautiful daughter or is she not your daughter?”

“She is sire. Don’t you know her again?” Kaldeo mother asked.

“No, I don’t. Am I supposed to know her?” Poamah asked too

“Uhm mm. You may not. For it has been a while. You are the one who gave her name some years ago, and co-incidentally today is even her birthday”, Kaldeo mother replied

“Ha! That is wonderful. How many people will I know again. They are many.” He face Kaldeo, may you be blessed my daughter”

Kaldeo said “amen” as she replied him, the assistant high priest Poamah’s mind was taken back to the trances he saw when he was given her the name and it was as if they were doing another naming ceremony. She looked very well at the mother’s face again and discovered that Kaldeo was the child of that day. “Is the trance of about 20 years coming to fulfillment now” he thought within himself as he remembers what he saw.

He told Kaldeo that she is free at anytime to come and see him and they parted.

As from then, Kaldeo and Poamah have been meeting and it was not surprising that the revelation of two decades eventually come to pass.