I remember a popular saying in this part of the world while growing up which states that “the good child is the father’s while the bad one is the mother’s’’, and since fathers are customarily both the head and breadwinner of the family. This simply made most children at that time to behave better by establishing the norms of good behavior and in fact, more hardworking than the present generation as every child wanted to be truly the father’s child.
Without being cynical, the truth is that success is not for the lily-livered and it is not wishful thinking. I am sure that most people including myself, will prefer and wish that becoming successful in most of life’s endeavours is not as challenging as they are in most cases.
There are too many empirical evidence to substantiate the fact that success is in most cases never bequeathed to anyone. We all must be strong and always be ready to weather the storms of life and endure the likely discouragements, disappointments and obstacles that life will most certainly throw at us on our way to success.
Simply put, we don’t need to take giant strides when starting ventures; the important thing is to remain consistent in taking one step after the other and sooner than later, we will eventually become successful. Julia Carney’s immortal lines states; (in her poem, Little Things) “Little drops of water,/Little grains of sand,/Make the mighty ocean/And the pleasant land./So the little minutes,/Humble though they are,/Make the mighty ages/Of eternity”.
Also ‘Hitopadesha’, which is an Indian text in the Sanskrit language states, “With the falling of just drops of water, the pot gradually gets filled up. So is the case with the acquisition of all knowledge and all pursuits”.
The cover story for this edition of Inside Watch Africa (IWA) is a feature on how Nigerian music which is currently taking the world by storm evolved. This success story is a culmination of the little steps that Nigerian musicians have continued to take from the time of the palm-wine music and highlife era which spread in the 1920s in Nigeria and neighbouring countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana.
In Nigeria, palm wine became the primary basis for what was later known as ‘Jùjú’ music, a genre that dominated the Nigerian music waves for so many years. During this time, a few other styles such as ‘Apala’, derived from traditional Yoruba music, also found a more limited audience. By the 1960s, Cuban, American and other styles of imported music enjoyed a large following in Nigeria, and musicians started to incorporate these influences into ‘Jùjú’.
The result was a profusion of new styles in the last few decades of the 20th century, including ‘Waka’ music, Yo-pop and ‘Afrobeat’.
As a Nigerian, I am worried about the deplorable state of our nation as everything seems to be failing on all fronts.
To be sincere, what worries me is the sense of hopelessness I have as I watch all the drama and shenanigans surrounding the upcoming 2023 Nigeria’s general elections play out.
However, my hope lies in the fact that one day all the little steps we have been taking towards having good governance system in Africa, particularly in Nigeria will sooner than later amount to something.
One thing we cannot afford to do is to stop taking those little steps whatever happens just as I wish our esteemed readers a very exciting time perusing yet another juicy edition of IWA. I encourage everyone to keep taking those little steps.