Today is
exactly two after my twenty eighth birthday, a day that as serendipity will
have it fell on my day of birth, Monday. Maybe it was not so serendipitous
since I am finding out that it is expected every person’s 28th falls
on the say they were born. Oh well chance or not I was totally thrilled by the
idea. My birthday has always brought an excitement outta me I never really
understood.
As a child
I live the earliest of my years in a compound house in a compound neighbourhood.
Much Akin to the ideal Ghanaian society everybody older than you was a brother,
sister, uncle or aunt depending on their age. And though most of the families in the
neighbourhood were not too well off birthdays were a special. It was celebrated
by the preparation of ot), a meal made by crushing boiled yam and mixing it
with palm oil. It was served with boiled eggs in an earthen ware bowl. Now the
ot) in itself was special since in the neighbourhood it was our equivalent of a
birthday cake and so only appeared on such days, but the best part of it was
when all the neighbourhood kids were gathered for the photo. The celebrant sits
on a kitchen stool behind the mound of ot) properly garnished with eggs sliced
in half with one whole egg sitting at the very pick. The rest of the children
stand or squat around him and as he poses as if to take the first morsel. It is
classic.
No number
of birthday cakes or parties can beat that feeling of being the only kid to eat
a whole egg on that day. All the other kids got halves. There were no special
birthday gifts not trips to children’s park nothing, just ot) and photos, but
it was more than enough.
Somehow
this genesis has made me modest in my celebration of my birthday, it’s never
been about presents or outings but about
the number of people or for the sake of saying “neighbourhood kids” who
remembered and wished me well on the. I
would count how many twitter mentions and Facebook wall posts I got. How many
text messages, whatsapp messages and calls. The more I got the more it felt
like the neighbourhood kids gathering behind me to take that photo with the ot)
mound.
This year
though was quite different , some of the people I looked forward to hearing
from the most forgot, the tally on social media was not so high, the text and
whatsapp messages were also not as many. This year too I had more to reflect on,
see this at twenty eight my elder
Brother Onisha who is the one man second to my dad that I look up to the most
was getting married, at same age my only sister, best friend and confidant was
also planning her wedding. At 28 Onisha
was had just become a houseman and was well on his way to becoming the
superstar doctor he had always wanted to
be , Terko at the same age was a well-established and respected voice in
aquaculture in Ghana and was also on her way to do great things. So at 28 who
am I, where am I headed, what am I doing with my life.
I still
have some of those pictures from my childhood, and every once in a while I’ll
look at them remember the old days, and some of the faces. I’ll try to tell
where everybody was and what they were doing with themselves now. It amazes me
how we all started together and have transformed. Our paths have led us into
diverse places and scattered us to the winds but the bond we shared is still
strong whenever we meet.
I choose to
define myself in this, that I am the boy, tiny and frail in the front of the
picture who has become the man who will change his generation. That I am the
boy God has raised from humble beginnings and is about to do great things.
Though most of the earlier questions I asked of myself remain unanswered I know
one thing that this path I have chosen will take be beyond the reach of the
heavens. Happy birthday to me.
