The Preying Mantis is an insect. In traditional mythology, there are many superstitious beliefs about it. It is a mysterious and fear inspiring insect. Children are afraid to kill it to avoid unpleasant circumstances. The slow movement is its mystery. Growing up in the village, I reverence the praying mantis. What many adults do not know is even then, a number of children would secretly kill the praying mantis and watch it discharge its larvae. Children broke many taboos in the village setting. Nevertheless, when adults ...
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The Preying Mantis is an insect. In traditional mythology, there are many superstitious beliefs about it. It is a mysterious and fear inspiring insect. Children are afraid to kill it to avoid unpleasant circumstances. The slow movement is its mystery. Growing up in the village, I reverence the praying mantis. What many adults do not know is even then, a number of children would secretly kill the praying mantis and watch it discharge its larvae. Children broke many taboos in the village setting. Nevertheless, when adults witness or hear about any taboo being broken they take children through some form of cleansing. The praying mantis became for me a symbol of control, rigidity of traditions, unquestioning loyalty and blind faith. In 2004, when the Nigerian Tribune asked me to write a column for their Sunday edition, I thought of a way to be obvious while being obscure. I also wanted to be critical in a humorous and respectful way because the Nigerian media in my opinion was full of aggressive and abusive writers at the time. I thought I should prey on the prevailing mindset without denigrating the belief system. Preying Mantis stood for two values: change and reflection. The title is a pun on the insect Praying Mantis, except that I chose to prey on old, worn out and beaten paths. The insect in my culture is a symbol of meditation and sobriety. As I expected, many people never noticed the difference in spelling or concept. In the four years that I wrote the column, I wrote on politics, politically exposed persons, culture, society and any topic that was trending. The materials are organised in two volumes, Socio-cultural Commentary and Political Commentary. The first volume has ninety-nine chapters while the second one has sixty-two chapters. The chapters are short and readable, as one would expect from a column that restricted one to less than half a page. We have chosen to organise the materials thematically instead of chronologically in order to give it the feel of a book and distil out the thought pattern or message of the writer. Nevertheless, we dated the articles in many cases. Dating will help the political articles read better because it will facilitate the reconstruction of the context of the essay. There is a glossary of names and terms that would be unfamiliar to the international readers and many young Nigerians. These terms are italicised and presented in alphabetical order in the glossary. As one would expect, a lot has happened since 2009 when the last piece was written. The major actors are all gone and technology has transformed the world beyond recognition. You would agree that the average human has changed little fundamentally in the most important areas of life. Prejudices are widening, wars persist and are expanding, bigotry is finding new expressions and man is still a merchant of error and injustice. Let me conclude with some extracts from chapter ninety-nine of volume one entitled, Signing Off. ...What has length of time to do with life if there is no impact? Every position is for an appointed time. The fact that we are applauded is not enough reason why we must begin to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to. Better people are yet to be born and more glorious things will be done after we are gone. I know of a man who was snatched from the jaws of death and made the ruler of a country to try him out if his conversion was real. For a while, he remembered his God and for a while longer he remembered his women. Then a little while longer after his memory recessed, he sought the glories of men and enjoyed the adulation of Hippocrates. He thought in his heart to build a castle to heaven and would have climbed up high but that God in his mercy caused him to fall while he could still be saved. We must be humble enough to recognize that we are a piece in the puzzle of life.
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