There is an adage in Yoruba which says :” Eni gbadire Otosi, gbe T’alaroye. ” meaning ” He who steals the hen of a pauper, steals the hen of a talkative.
But when the stolen hen of the pauper is heroically restored by another man, isn’t it odd for the same talkative to suddenly become easily managed into criminal silence without a word of appreciation to the hero who fought tooth and nail to restore his only hen?
This is what probably informs the African proverb that “The man to whom kindness or mercy is shown but refuses to show appreciation is like an armed robber who dispossesses one of one’s valuables at gun point”.
To some of us who know Ogbeni Rauf as a living hero ,keeping silent at a time some people,are going about carrying his mock coffin , blackening him,ironically during this period when the world is taking a step into Black history with nonviolence, insults our collective intelligence .
If some people think it is time to denigrate Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, some of us believe strongly that it is time to celebrate him.
“When I am right no one remembers but when I am wrong no one forgets,” so goes the popular saying.
Carrying the coffin of a living being is an insane expedition to locating the living among the dead.
Why is this a time to celebrate Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola?
First, let us go linguistic.
What is a coffin? It is a box in which a corpse is enclosed for burial. It is from Latin”. cophinus”, from Greek “kophinos”.
Corpse, being a dead body especially of a human being is confined into a coffin.
It is apparent that misguided people who went about carrying corpseless coffin know little or nothing that the same word: “corpse” which in the mouths of ignoramuses, has become an object of denigration, is the same “corpus ” which is a living object of celebration.
How? The word corpse, alternative of “Corse” is based on Latin “corpus” French “Corps” body. Its earliest sense up to 18 century was living body, but the sense dead body was also current from the 14-15 Centuries.
“Corpus, a body in its original sense was literal. From the 18 century it is regarded as collection of writings and from the mid-20 Century it is celebrated as a body of spoken or written material for linguistic analysis.
This is why what faces one from a front point of view faces another from a back side point of perspective. We are definitely at a moment like this settling for such collection of writings on Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to laying the records straight.
We are now remembering ” Black History Month, stepping into Black History with Nonviolence in Action, even as we celebrate Champions of Nonviolence like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther king junior and their Nonviolence weapon as ”
A Force More Powerful “and I am reminded of how my Vision 2000 Nonviolence project which became a Paradise Lost has now become a Paradise regained in Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s humane character.
Says Walter De Lamare, “If there is any knave here among us, it is he who tells a story he cannot prove”.
Time to celebrate Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is here .
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OLALERE FAGBOLA.
