ALLOW ME TO REINTRODUCE MYSELF

A story that is withheld, untold is a burden and I would like to offer my voice to Nigeria's unburdening

I grew up listening to stories. As a child, I had the pleasure of my mother's voice speaking stories to my ears. Some days, it was the story of Oluronbi, the barren woman who offered her first child to the god of the Iroko tree if he would help her conceive.

Other times, my mother told me of Idogbe who went against the King's command and ended up with a bird in his stomach. I liked to think that the bird was his conscience unable to contain his disobedience.

But my favorite story of all was of Jumoke, the fair lady wooed by all men and envied by every maiden. When the time came to wed, Jumoke turned away all suitors. Until finally, a handsome man from another town stole her heart. This man turned out to be an evil spirit who had borrowed human parts to woo her (I kid you not) and Jumoke had to fight her way out of this dreadful marriage by throwing balls of hot akara into the mouths of his goons to shut them up and stop them from announcing her escape. There's a real fancy song to go along with the story too. I’m sure you can imagine how much this story tickled my imagination at the time.

These stories were teachers in their own right, shedding light on a world far complex than I thought. The stories raised me. They became a part of me. And when my mother no longer told me stories, I went in search of them. At the local bukas where I sometimes ate, in the shops where I bought second-hand books, in the parks I spent some afternoons and in taxis as drivers and passengers recount their experiences and argue political scenes.

I actively seek out the stories of people. I constantly watch to see how a story will change something, how it will shape a narrative. And it never fails to do so.

I find that these stories often spill out of me even when I am saying something as simple and uneventful as a day spent in the solitude of my room. I long to watch stories connect people. And this is why I started this blog.

In the past few months of my silence, I’ve had to consider and ponder this, to figure out a why for my blog and I have got it now.

Nigeria is a country of about 180 Million people and our individual and collective stories have the beautiful ability to unite us, to provide a context and a history. But a story that is withheld, untold is a burden and I would like to offer my voice to Nigeria's unburdening. To provide a context for us to grow and be pushed into greatness.

So please allow me to introduce myself.

Hello, My name is Olubunmi Oladipo and you are welcome again to my space.

I am a reader, a writer, a thinker,

a speaker and a teller of stories and man, do I have stories to tell….

Welcome.

---

P.S - This post was first created for a video submission I had to make in March. Over the months, I have revisited it, tuning and refining it. And this is the final result.

If you are new to the blog, welcome! Please say hello and drop a comment. You can also read my other posts here and here.

And I would like to say a thank you to everyone who dropped a comment during my hiatus, checking up and requesting new posts. Thank you. It meant a lot that you watched out for my posts and checked up on me. I have been writing and you will enjoy what more stories I have to tell. Please stick around.