PIANOS AND DRUMS

          While scrolling through my WhatsApp contact status, I came across a tribute to the late Pa. Gabriel Okara( the poet of Pianos and Drums). Prior to when I first read this poem in Senior Secondary School, I had the mentality that anything that has to do with the African culture has an element of evilness in it. That is so crazy and laughable!
      When the first set of missionaries came to Africa, they knew they had a lot to struggle with in order for Africans to accept their religion.... So they opted for brainwashing which wasn't hard since the Africans already saw them as little gods because of their skin color and this still happens now. The question is " What makes the African culture bad and the white culture good?".
       In my first year in the University, I visited a shrine and I was telling a friend about how much I learnt, how good the priestess was to us,how  Olukun is not a bad deity and how much I would love to go for the Osun/Oshogbo festival. " They have brainwashed you into doing evil things" he replied. We all keep drifting to the path of another man's culture and damning our culture. What makes laughing like an hyena while sitting at a table with persons stuffed with expensive designers clothing, drinking tea, a part of our culture!. It has become madness for me to wear a traditional clothing to an "Official place" . The issue is the fact that everyone wants to be like the white man. Whatever is appreciated in the West or East becomes the trend. We have come to lose the rich, interesting morality the sharp beats of the drums has given us and have gained the slow, manipulating tune of the pianos.
        There is a need to see the beauty of the culture and accept it. Let's stop portraying the African dibias as the evil ones whilst the Pastors are the good ones! It is the most annoying stereotype ever. As funny as it is....this set of persons bringing up the stereotypes are those who still secretly do they count as abominable in public!. The music we listen to should bring pride to Africa. Our skin color is not the problem we have, our mentality is the problem!. We complained about the slavery of our forefathers whereas, we are greater slaves than they were. Imagine those who have helped us preserve our tradition asking for a special day of acknowledgement and the government rejecting it! But ironically, we can have different special days for religions which didn't originate from our roots!. Eugene in Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, discriminated his father and made his father live until his death as a pauper despite how rich he was because his father decided to stick to his tradition!.
        Even if, we have come to choose different paths in life, let's always trace our prints back to the calling of the drums.