My Village Life

Growing up, I spent a lot of my holidays in the village with my grandparents. Back then my biggest problem was my grandmother waking me up for the 6am Anglican church morning prayers. I was on holidays but still had to get up at dawn. I loved following my grandmother to the nearby markets to sell her wares and sample all the local delicacies.

I would occasionally go to the farm with my grandfather and enjoyed the long journey which would take us through streams, over fallen trees with the smell of the Cocoa trees and the dampness of the soil making for a heady aroma. Lunch on the farm was as good as lunch at home as everything you needed was available in the farm house. Food was organic and freshly made, the meat was freshly caught and the palm wine was tapped by my grandfather.

I even had my own basket to take to the farm. It was much smaller than others as they made allowance for me being the town girl who is not used to that life. Anything I brought home in my basket was for me. Life was simple and good. Issues were local and most could be easily solved. Strategies for village living were not complicated.

Today, I live in a village; a global village. I don’t know most of the people in other neighbourhoods but I am affected by their actions and the things that happen in their areas.

There are stark reminders of today’s village life starting with global warming. As I am watching a hurricane in American earning its fancy name, I know that days later, I will get some of the rain even in the United Kingdom. Over the past two decades, I have noticed the rising temperatures which have made my life a tad more bearable each year but I can’t help thinking about its effects on areas that are already hot.

The second stark reminder of my village life is Covid which started in such a far place that no one could have ever imagined it reaching their little corner but it did. It’s effects reached places that were ‘minding their own business’ as we say in Nigeria. We didn’t go find Covid’s troubles but it came anyway and didn’t give us an option but to fight a fight that we didn’t know was coming and wasn’t prepared for.

Today, village life is dealing with another problem which started in a far neighbourhood but it’s effects will be felt by people who are currently minding their own businesses. The effects of the conflict in Ukraine will ripple to other parts because we truly live in a global yet small village. I am starting to realise just how small the world is.

Ukraine exports steel, coal, fuel and petrochemical products, chemicals, machinery and transport equipment and grains including barley, corn and wheat. Circa 54% of Ukraine’s exports go to China and “Made in China” ends up in many other neighbourhoods.

During the Brexit debate, I recall someone telling me I should prepare for Seville oranges and marmalade not being available in supermarkets. I can honestly say I haven’t looked for, bought or missed the oranges and the marmalade since Brexit but no doubt many would have.

Russia’s exports include Iron, steel, fertilizers, wood, cereals, machinery including computers and aluminium. These may sound like Seville oranges but we can’t forget Russia’s top exports are Petroleum, Refined Petroleum, Petroleum gas, Coal and Briquettes and Wheat.

We have a phrase in Nigeria that says, “when two elephants are fighting, it’s the grass under them that will suffer.” This is the reason why we can’t be oblivious of what is happening on the global stage.

Everyone in the UK is expecting huge increases in energy and other household bills in coming months and many people have broken down while describing the toll the rising cost of living is having on them. It’s the same story in the US and I am sure in many other nations; and people in Nigeria are not immune to all of these rising costs as well.

Sadly I have read some flippant comments about the struggles of people in the ‘developed countries’ as though there is some pleasure in seeing them in the kind of distresses that others have coped with for many years. This can be because some in developed countries have been condescending when talking about these kind of distresses where the sufferers have been in ‘third world’ and ‘other’ countries sending the ‘not so’ subliminal messages that they matter less.

Today’s global issues have no respect for skin colour, race, nationality, religious or political affiliations or any other preferences. The only immunity we have against them is for us to ‘come and reason together’ to make our little corners of the global village better and help other little corners to be better. We must keep up the faith and stop all ‘me, myself and I’ thinking because it no longer serves our needs in a global village. Now we know when one person in the village sneezes, the rest of us are at a risk of catching a cold.

In conclusion, a phrase I grew up hearing that says, ‘when the sky is falling, it falls on everyone’s heads’, is now making sense. Thanks for reading my post. Have a great week.