I FOUND IT - by Àdùní

I think I have found it. The reason behind the untimely death that is everywhere like an epidemic. The reason why this plague our land. The rate at which young ones are dying this year is alarming. It reached a period where I became afraid for myself. A Yoruba Proverbs said “The death that takes your love ones is quietly dishing out warning to you” I don't know but I kept wondering Why are young ones dying while the old ones keep living? Then I found it. Well, I didn't find the answer to the death itself; but I found something that made me question the kind of society we are now. Because another Yoruba proverb says, he who searches for “what is not it” may eventually find “what is not it.” The world seems to have turned upside down. Something has changed. We are in a society where the young look at the elders without respect that once held our communities together. In Yoruba culture, respect for elders is not merely spoken but it's also demonstrated A young man is expected to prostrate and a young woman is expected to genuflect before an elder as a sign of respect. These symbols are not merely symbol,and it does not denote inferiority but they represent humility, acknowledgement and honour The culture is gradually disappearing. We are no longer doing it the way our parents did.Instead we bend halfway like someone planting maize with Cutlass in the farm and call it respect. And the problem is not the physical gesture but what it represents: Humility Respect Honour Even the Bible states it that “Honour thy father and thy mother so that may your days be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” In this context, your father and mother are elders and those who are older than you. Never undermine them; worship them. You can question them You can disagree with them Never disrespect them. Because there is a way you can disagree with elders without disrespecting them Unfortunately, disrespect has become something we have normalised. I have seen it. I have witnessed it. Different scenarios. Different people. Different occasions. I have kept quiet about many of them. But what I witnessed today made me bleed on paper. I wish I could pen it here but that's is story for another day It made me stop and ask myself: What exactly are we losing? Maybe the deaths of young people have nothing to do with how we treat our elders. Maybe it does. Maybe there are medical, social, economic and environmental reasons behind them. But if nothing else, perhaps these losses should make us pause. Perhaps they should remind us that life is fragile. That tomorrow is not promised. That the people we disrespect today may not be here tomorrow. And that the values our ancestors handed down to us were not all meaningless traditions. Maybe we should start looking again. At our culture. At our manners.. At our humility. At the way we treat one another. Because sometimes, when a society loses its values, the consequences may not announce themselves immediately. They simply begin to show. And perhaps that is what frightened me most about what I witnessed today. Maybe I haven't found the reason young people are dying. Or maybe I have found another reason our society is dying. Whatever it is, lemme come and be going with my wonranwonran jare @ÀDÙNÍ

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