Here we sit quietly;
Palms on our cheeks;
Aching to hear
The voice of the ancestor
Who has refused to speak
To his people from the foreign land
Of white spirits.
The Ifa priest throws his beads
On the divination plate
"Speak our father!" He implores
He repeats the same process
Time and time again
"Show to us where thou art father?"
The priest asks again and again
Yet he looks up each time a frustrated fellow,
Shakes his head vigorously with pouted lips,
And he gives the same answer over and over again,
The answer of silence
The ancestor would not speak.
"Try one more time please,"
We urge him
He throws the beads and pleads
"Should I offer you gin
Or is it the head of a goat you want?"
Suddenly!
He jumps up and we exclaim "Ahaa!"
The ancestor must have answered.
"The ancestor is livid!" Shouted the priest.
"No one, I say, no one can force the ancestor
To speak from the land of white spirits!"
Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy 2017
