A Lost Generation* [archives]

‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’

~ Jedidiah Ben David (Middle Eastern Poet, Sage and King

 

Nursery rhymes have never really been innocent. They were historical parodies in old England, rebukes of the high and mighty, exposés of shady elite affairs and criticism of government officials- coded bitter truths which if spoken openly were sometimes punishable by death.* The childlike minds that said them however, were. That was in the days of Sesame Street, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch reveling in his trashcan. Now, the revolution is changing that.

1, 2, don’t buckle my shoe; lace them-

I wear original crocodile skin pumps.

3, 4, don’t knock at the door; use the doorbell-

The tone is PG unrated hip hop.

5, 6, don’t pick up sticks; what are hand guns for?

We bust heads with AK-47s and our lunch packs are now passed through metal detectors.

7, 8, don’t lay them straight; what’s straight?

It’s politically incorrect language alongside absurdities like gay and prostitute.

9, 10, you’re a big fat hen- in personality, activity and age; and I intend to be offensive.

We cuss, we swear, we drone expletives.

11, 12, yes, dig and delve- into a pile of pictures, magazines, effigies.

Dark corner porn stash.

13, 14, no maids a-courting; fractured cohabiting is all we’ve known-

Single parents, visiting fathers, absentee mothers.

15, 16, no maids in the kitchen.  Mama knows.

Ungarnished Indomie, Chocolate, KFC, Mr Biggs, Tantalizers, Chicken Republic-a celebration of junk.

17, 18, no maids in waiting; why wait? Sex appeal sells everything except Bibles.

Just use galoshes in 5th grade.

19, 20, my plate is empty-

And so is my heart.

I had my first crush at 5- when I really should have been preoccupied with cops and robbers (police and thief) and playing with toy trucks (and my parents did a good job). Some statistics tell us that over 70% of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa have had sex by 15, and of these about 50% had it first before they were 12. There is a paradigm shift in the things that matter to children. If today’s children are allowed to grow up by default, they grow up lost. If they sit blankly before an uncensored screen, they die twice over. Maybe there are really no more children. Only child soldiers, underage labourers, teenage rape victims, abused adolescents, paediatric addicts, young crack-heads, greedy super-kids, gangbanging youngsters, prodigals, leeches. And the child is the father of the man.

Aggressive parenting is not as aggressive as it sounds; not wild belligerence- rods, whips, shouting, screaming, ranting and raving. It is pure love. Instruction. Turning off the TV. Being there to tuck them in bed. Daring to spend time playing peek-a-boo. Reading their book reports. Saying No. Modeling integrity. Being at the guy’s ball game. Daring to withhold his allowance. Teaching them to play the guitar. Playing dress up- make up included- with your daughter. Spending alone time with your son discussing issues more important than male sexuality. Spanking him with your hand and loving him with your heart. Staying there with arms wide open. Becoming vulnerable. Fighting for them. Whispering their names to heaven. Learning their nursery rhymes.

Africa curses her children. Defiles them, verbally and physically abuses them. Sells them, puts guns in and blood on their hands. Dedicates them to spirits and sacrifices them to devils. Pays their way to Italy. Burns them in Soweto. Shoots them in Liberia. Rapes them in Johannesburg. Makes them beg in Niger. Enslaves them in Mauritania. Politically barters them in Egypt. Miseducates them in Chad. Kills them in Sudan. Brainwashes and prejudices them into hating others who aren’t them.

‘It’s 9pm. Do you know where your children are?’ *

I don’t. Really.

Break the cycle. Nigeria neglects her children. But who is their father?

*Unlike nursery rhymes such as “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary” alluding to Bloody Queen  Mary Tudor who murdered and tortured English protestants,  “Humpty Dumpty” which refers to a canon mounted in Colcester that the Royalists could not reposition after it was blasted off a wall during the English Civil War, “Jack and Jill” referring to the 1793 beheading of French king Louis XVI and his queen Mary, “Jack Be Nimble” which was reminiscent of the pirate Black Jack notorious for escaping authorities in the late 16th century, “Remember, Remember” which alludes to Guy Fawkes’ botched attempt at blowing up the English Houses of Parliament and “Ring a Ring o Rosies” which refers to the Bubonic plague, the lyrics of the “One, Two, Buckle my Shoe" nursery rhyme have no correlation with any events in history. Maybe, just maybe, they have a correlation with the events of the future.

**Sunday national news opening line by Frank Olize; NTA Newsline Anchor (1980/1990s)