Breaking Kola: An Inside View of African Customs

Breaking Kola: An Inside View of African Customs

My new book is finally out in print and Kindle editions! I said both were available a few days ago, but when I looked at the Kindle edition it was badly formatted. I took it down.

Thank goodness for the brilliant people who finally made it real!

Preparing the print edition of Breaking Kola involved several small but somehow significant changes to the cover. Miggs Burroughs, cover designer, came through with tiny adjustments to one foot in the back cover design, then the size of the cover, and then the text on the spine!

The e-book required converting the text to the Kindle format. Opal Roengchai, my book designer, came through with the finished e-book on my birthday!

So you can now get either or both! (If anyone bought the Kindle early and found it badly formatted, let me know.)

I hope you’ll buy the book and enjoy reading! Then post a comment on Amazon.

TEAM Book Club Reads Becoming

Becoming is the book for the next TEAM Westport Book Club, January 14 at 7 pm at the Westport Historical Society. My Sister Grannies meets the same time, so I’ll miss the TEAM Book Club again!

But I am so enjoying Michelle Obama’s memoir. Are you reading it yet?

Igbo Caste System and Discrimination 

I wrote about osu in my new book. I introduced the concept in the chapter where my husband’s father is seeking a bride.

The senior men of the clan are meeting to decide whom to send to the prospective bride’s town. The person they appoint, the abaeke, will make discreet inquiries about her and her family. If all is well, they will later send him and others to approach her father.

Several men spoke at once, each suggesting a name for the role of abaeke. Others opposed or supported the different choices. After a few minutes, Ogbungwa said, “Enough! Obiora should go. He will ask about the woman and her family. He can call on the family that lives near Ezeonodu.”

He turned to Obiora. “Do you understand what you must do?”

“I do. I am not a small boy,” Obiora said. “I have carried out these inquiries before. I will ask about the family. Are there any mad people, or sickly? Are they hardworking?”

“Don’t forget to be sure they are not osu,” Nwafor reminded him.

“Of course. I know we would never allow our son to marry a slave,” Obiora said.

The osu were people dedicated to serving the gods. They were regarded as slaves and could not marry “free” people. The designation remained with a family forever. No respectable Igbo person would marry an osu.

People who had been captured in warfare or taken in payment of a debt were also called slaves but their status was not passed down in the family.

The use of the term and the discrimination that went with it were abolished in legislation in Nigeria years ago. But it still exists, though not spoken about publicly.

Now there is a group in the ancient city of Nri saying they will abolish it, and others who say they do not have that right! It looks like there is also a dispute about the legitimate ruler of Nri.

https://www.independent.ng/abolition-of-osu-caste-system-nri-community-declares-december-28-ceremony-fraudulent/

Implicit Bias and Black Professionals

Not to be outdone by the Igbo people, professional people of color in this country face daily, even hourly, discrimination in their work environment. Today it is often not overt, but still devastating.

The New York Times article a couple of days ago reinforced what my daughter tells me and what I’ve learned from other Black professionals.

Guests at hotels or restaurants will often hand their car keys to another guest who is black, assuming he is the valet. Or they will hand over their coat to be hung.

The medical setting is especially prone, or at least the one I know most about. Our surgeon daughter has filled us in on the many times she was mistaken for an orderly and asked to fetch or carry.

I told her I was writing about this. She said she had read the article and found this sentence most telling: “Dr. Ashley Denmark, 34, has overheard patients say they have not seen a doctor, even though she just examined them.”

And for me this incident stood out:.”Mr. Denmark, who is married to Dr. Denmark, has been patted down at courthouses where white colleagues walked in without a search, he said.”

I recall Beth telling me a similar story a couple of years ago. She was not patted down, but when she walked into an office building with three white colleagues, the guard stopped her and asked for her ID.

It’s too easy to make assumptions about people based on their skin color, and it’s so wrong!

And for a lighter note on this sad topic, Clem just reminded me of a story. When he first got to UK in 1952 and saw a white man doing manual labor, he couldn’t believe it!

Gifts for the Women 

Several amazing volunteers prepare a jewelry sale at our church each year. We all contribute what we’re not wearing any more or are ready to give up, then buy what others have contributed!

It’s great fun and a wonderful source of Christmas presents for the women in my circle of gift-giving.

And a good addition to our income!