Hate Is A Choice
A certain Eze, my guess, from Anambra because he has the hubris associated with people from there (my Igbo friend once told me among the Igbo nation, those from Anambra are very arrogant. I guess that's outrageous but my observations have somewhat confirmed that) while entering my details, saw Plateau and was prodded to ask. "Which part of Plateau are you from"? With an instantaneous eagerness, I said, Jos, Jos North precisely, and he smirked and asked further, "are you Afizare or Anaguta"? I said Hausa with a grin and a slight gnashing of the teeth since that was what he was looking for. As if that wasn't enough for Mr inquisitive Eze, he stated with all sense of seriousness and confidence, "you are from Kano" with an emphasis on the K followed by a devilish smile to further irk me as he hoped. But, sensing his intent, I didn't give him the chance. I said, I'm Hausa from Jos and I smiled back. I was surprised to know that he knew places like Bauchi road and Unguwar Rogo so I concluded he must have stayed here in Jos to have known the places and of course, to have been inflicted with the "indigene-settler dichotomy" nonsense.
My guess is, if not for the magnanimity of perhaps NYSC or the conducive business atmosphere in the North, Mr Eze, my friend, wouldn't have crossed the Niger bridge let alone exploring the vastness of the North and even get to know about its diversity and mundane things like ethnicity and other inanities.
I wasn't offended because I don't give too much credence to stuff like that but my worry is, how could an Eze know something so peculiar to probably only people from Plateau? Who is "exporting" this profanity and absurdity? Ethnic jingoism is too old fashioned now. The world has moved passed it. People are now global citizens not some tribal chauvinists with a very low and poor view of the world. Imagine an Amo, from Plateau in Awka, telling an Ebonyi man that he does not have the right to use Anambra even though, say, his grandparents were born in Awka with all the attendant similarities. I guess you all know what would ensue afterwards.
That same friend of mine once told me that, the Igbo from Imo is no friend to other Igbos, say, from Enonyi, Enugu or Delta (if at all that's an Igbo state). He sees them more like frenemies albeit being most probably from the same ancestry. Of course I know what my friend was trying to entrench--ethnocentrim which is what many of us are fond of doing and guilty of.
On the global stage, sadly, racism is the big brother of ethnocentrism. I guess it's a cancer in human body to naturally be attached to its ancestry but what is not natural is to hop on it and promote it while sowing the seeds of discord and discrimination along the way. There's been this raging debate and sustained commentary on the "Hausa-Fulani" coinage and debacle. A mini historical tussle has been ignited which both camps are trying so hard to show superiority or at worst, trying to apportion blame for who cheated who or short-changed who. God knows I never found that debate enticing hence my decision not to say anything after all, I'm no authority in history but the attendant consequences of that debate is too enormous for us.
At a time the world is competing in who is in charge of the technological revolution, we are here obsessed with mundane and medieval issues as who owns what land as if it's 5000BC Babylon. I have always believed that hate is a choice. You are the sum total of what you eat, drink, where you visit, the people you surround yourself with, the literature you consume, the music you listen to, the friends you keep, the perspective you see things from, the mindset with which you interact with people with. It's simply: garbage in; garbage out--GIGO. It behoves on you to define what output you want to be.
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