The African child ..... Part 2

Continued from the last blog post; The African child, part 1 .......Our village was a small one. Almost everyone knew every other person. There were about 15 compounds not counting the baale's compound  (village chief's compound), which was at the centre of the village and not very far from the village square.   The village square is an interesting spot with few but vivid memories. It is at the village square that we all gathered whenever an important announcement was to be made or a critical decision was to be taken. In the evenings,elderly men gathered there for discussions on day to day affairs, such as, improving the village's security, settling marital disputes, land disputes or intervening in dis agreements between friends while enjoying Alamu's freshly tapped palm wine. On days when palm wine was not available for any reasons, mostly, natural, say a heavy storm, the men did not talk late into the night as usual. Decisions made here are almost always final, as the elders were well respected and only next to the baale in our days. Of a fact, one could be punished for not adhering to the instructions given there. And, o my! The great iroko tree, that sat at a strategic corner of the village. You could see the tree from the entrance of any compound. It was under this tree that we sat every evening, to listen to stories of the great tortoise of old, or the extra ordinary dog.  Children listened with rapt attention, the little ones were usually the first to sleep off. Mothers called their childrens' names from the doors of their respective compounds when it was time to go home. Some had to be fetched by big sisters as they would have slept off. Those were the happy times though. There were also lots of distressing and stressful moments, but we learnt to be hopeful and strong, always believing that tomorrow would be a better day. And sometimes our misfortunes were outsourced to the gods. And the village sometimes did collective sacrifices to appease the gods when we had problems. .......... To be continued.