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223
The Double-Edged Calabash
<p><br></p><p>We carry our history in this calabash - sweet palm wine of tradition in one half, bitter herbs of unquestioned cruelty in the other.
</p><p>They say curiosity killed the cat.
</p><p>But what if the cat just needed answers?
</p><p>What if the cat saw something sacred... and asked, Why?
</p><p>In Benin City, when the British took the bronze heads, our kings sacrificed servants. Two faces of violence, same root of power.
</p><p>Why must questions taste like disrespect?
</p><p>When a Yoruba boy asks why twins were left in the evil forests. When an Igbo daughter challenges the bride price. When a widow refuses her head-shaving mourning.
</p><p>We call it "culture" when leaders bully, from village squares to university halls. The same minds that built Great Zimbabwe's walls also stoned "witches" in Malawi. Our brilliance and brutality flow from the same Nile.
</p><p>What of our stories, beautiful and broken, that we were taught never to question.
</p><p>I’m not here to burn the village. I’m here to understand why we built it this way.
</p><p>You say, We don’t eat this animal, it’s taboo. Tell me, why?
</p><p>You say, This river is sacred, don’t bathe there. Tell me, why?
</p><p>Why men can't cry. Why progress must wait for permission.
</p><p>Is my asking a threat to your tradition? Or a bridge to its future?
</p><p>I kneel before my ancestors' wisdom, but won't swallow poison because the calabash is ancient
</p><p>Not because I’m disrespectful. But because I love this land enough to want to understand it.
</p><p>To live in it more freely.
</p><p>We are not just heirs of tradition. We are its editors, too.
</p><p>And we must ask, if it doesn’t serve the people anymore… Who, then, does it serve?</p><p>Because the future of culture is not in blind repetition, it’s in sacred questions.</p>
The Double-Edged Calabash
By
Godwin Erite
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Godwin Erite
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