First born is in Canada.
Second born is in Dubai.
Third born is in Australia.
Fourth born is in New York.
Last born is in UK.
Parents are in Nigeria making trips once in a while to see them in the different countries.
They are all getting married and having children who will never really meet or know each other – virtual cousins!!. Their best shot is group video calls which will almost never happen because there’s no convenient regular time that works for everybody due to different global time zones.
When their parents die, their homes become desolate, and in no time, the family name become a distant memory.
They’ve all had to travel because Nigeria failed them and they needed to leave to another country where they can have a shot at life and their children won’t suffer what they went through.
This is the high price of japa that you can never put a financial value on that very few people talk about. The destruction of families and the tearing of siblings apart.
This is the silent evil that our leadership has bequeathed to us all. Even their own families are not left out.
One day we will realise the extent of the damage and the destruction that we have done to ourselves.
So, the whole truth is simply to know that japa maybe worth it, but it is also a journey that comes with a lot of pain and a high price.
On the japa downstream effect on families, fear not. The Igbo adage says it is better to be lost than to be dead. Any living person has a chance to find home someday, so long as he is alive. A historical and living instance is the state of Israel. We read the history of the Jews, Israel. Then there was no Israel for hundreds of years. The Jews were taken into exile several times by different people….Assyria, Babylon(modern Iraq),Persia(Iran). Finally Hitler engaged them family by family, not as a nation, in a determined genocide. Following that and with a world war that Hitler triggered, Germany was defeated. Then the current State of Israel was reborn in 1948. Shortly after, they had to defend their state against all groups of people surrounding them. Till date , they are still fighting for survival. God had decreed that after His people are brought out of the four corners of the world where they had been taken captive, they ( their remnants) would be settled back in the land He promised their forefathers(Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and from that land they will never be uprooted again. The war in Gazar is raging and Hesbolla plus other (five leprous) fingers of Iran, other descendants of Ishmael(Arab nations) Muslim Jihadists and finally, Russia will combine to ‘wipe Israel off the face of the earth’. But alas, we have been told they can not do it. At a point where they seem to be very close to annihilate Israel,their Saviour will appear in the battlefield with His superior heavenly forces, decimate and totally wipe out the armies of enemies of Israel. That will be a final battle on the valley of Megiddo( hence the real Armediddon). What do all the above have to do with Igbo and japa? Biafra is NOT dead. General Ojukwu told us about the “Biafra of the mind”. The tree was cut down but the stump remains fresh in the ground, waiting for the proper season to sprout out with vigor. Igbo language seems to be dying,yet it is being scattered to all the continents where preservation in small pockets is going on. The Jews still spoke in Hebrew when they returned to Israel from all four corners of the world. Their language and culture, their worship of Yahweh, their patriotism remain unmatched by any people. Igbo will rise again. Fret not because of what you see today in the land. Traditional marriages, new yam festivals, cultural events and ceremonies of Ndigbo are happening in Holland, UK, USA…..wherever the Igbo is scattered. It may not happen in our lifetime but be consoled that the Igbo will return home, rebuild their nation and resume the worship of Our Chiukwu just like Israel did. Console one another with that Hope. ‘Nothing pass God”our people say.
Ebube writes from Maryland, USA.