#ReadwithMe: Ma’ami

Ma'ami is a morally instructive story of an impoverished single mother who will stop at nothing to give her son a befitting tenth birthday.

0
The Best of Times
Advertisement

Ma’ami is one of the three novellas in The Best of Times by Okinba Launko (Femi Osofisan). I have read the novella a couple of times but my recent read was last December on my road journey from Ibadan to Akure. All the times I read the story, it felt like it was speaking to me directly, and the feeling was not any different this time too.

For a very serious writer like Femi Osofisan, not many are aware or still remember he has popular literature titles to his name, some of which are Kolera Kolej and Ma’ami which he published under his pen name, Okinba Launko.

Ma’ami is a morally instructive story of an impoverished single mother who will stop at nothing to give her son a befitting tenth birthday. At the centre of her efforts is the strong will to fulfill her son’s only desire, which is to eat meat on his tenth birthday. Such is the portrayal of how economically-disadvantaged this family of two is.

Advertisement
Ma'ami

The author takes us through the life-bonding experience of the unnamed mother and son as they navigate their ways through the seemingly arduous task of getting meat, which of course is luxury to them. The mother takes every opportunity to use the events and activities around them to teach her child a thing or two about life: from the predatory nature of life, the place of kindness in human relations, to believing that he can become anything he wants to become.

The narrative is so captivating and compelling that, in 2011, it was adapted into a movie of the same name by the Nigerian veteran filmmaker, Tunde Kelani. Like the novella, the drama film begins as a recollection of the narrator’s childhood experiences. The only difference between the novella and the film, however, is that the latter gives the grown narrator a name and the identity of a relatively successful Europe-based footballer, and a colourful subcontext around his reminiscence.

Ma’ami will make a nice read for anyone looking to learn a thing or two about the dynamics of life or looking to live the experiences of economically-disadvantaged people through the lens of literature. It is a simple emotive story that captures, among other things, the hybridity of single parenting and good parenting.

Excerpts from Ma’ami

Here are a few excerpts from the text that instantiate the above life lessons:

“The prayer of the worm is that it can dance, and it dances! The prayer of the potato is to be sweet, and it is delicious! Ah, the prayer of the palm tree is to give birth to kernels, and it always bears them in abundance! My son, the future is what you want to make of it! I believe you can do anything you set your heart on. All your ambitions will come true if you work hard!”

“Tears! What good are tears? Tears are for the rich, they don’t help poor people like us! Come, we must be strong, you hear. Even when we have to roll our pride a bit on the ground, as you see me do sometimes, putting on these acts. As long as I am able to pit something every day in your stomach, without losing my honour. ”

“(Life is) all a game. Some want to eat, some end up being eaten, ans some are there just watching and clapping.”

“Kindness is like a baton in a relay race. You receive it, and pass it along.”

On Never Giving In:

“You see how life is, my husband? One moment it is dark and frightening. You don’t know what to do. And then the next moment, quite suddenly, the sun is shining. You see, all we need to do is to try to be brave during the hard times, and they’ll pass away! Always remember that. We must learn not to give in, not to be frightened. If we are brave and fight on, we can never lose! Are you listening to me? Even in the middle of the worst thunderstorm, don’t be afraid, because there comes a time when the weather changes, and the sun suddenly appears at the end of the road.”

I laughed my heart out reading this part:

“Someone begins to accuse the government, and especially the Minister of Transport. I ask Ma’ami who the minister is but she just laughs.

‘How do you expect someone like me to know, my husband? Such big men live far, far away from little people like us. It’s one of the reasons we send you off to school, so that you’ll go and find out the names of our leaders. They are the ones who remember us only when they want our votes or our taxes. She laughs again, patting my head.”

Related:

Join Our Social Media Channels:

We also have two WhatsApp chatrooms with a little above 1,300 like-minded members. You can join any of them for further literary discussions:

  1. Literature PADI (Group 1)
  2. Literature PADI (Group 2)

Ensure you join one at a time to allow others to be part of our wonderful community.

Advertisement

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.