Misbahu El-Hamza

  Last week, while on phone with Malama, my mother discussing the kids – my brothers, she told me something that amazed me about her friend, Mallama Hama. Recently, my mother said, Malama Hama paid a sum of ₦20, 000 for her son to learn “Computer Studies” at a Business Café cum learning center for a period of one year at the end of which however little the boy learn, he’ll be given a certificate to leave. Now, I know some of you might be thinking what’s there if a mother paid such money for her kid. Well, this isn’t like any financially buoyant mothers you know. She’s an Arabic school teacher whose only four-month salary that I know can add up to the said amount. She’s one of the most hardworking mothers I know, doing everything they can to make the lives of their children and of others in their community meaningful even before the death of her first husband. She earned my respect since I was in primary school for her intrepidness and thirst for knowledge. Once my mother’s studen...

Growing up in the community where I grew up, like many children, I was in the company of half-learned and unlearned friends. In this company, I was told two processes that will unveil the world of the "unseen" to my human eye. I tried one of the two processes both of which requires no visiting the sorcerer or a voodooist to be completed. Starting with the one I couldn't try, it has to do with getting abundance riches. And I can only remember a bit of the processes. One was waking up in the middle of the night, naked, under no roof, uttering some words like a pastor speaking in tongues. (Cannot remember a single word but they're like summon.) The result? I was told a very huge and scary creature - jinn - will descend from the sky and ask me a couple of questions. If I am not frightened by all the scary things he'll do and say, the jinn will give me all that I asked (riches) else, I will be doomed from the minute I show a sign of trepidation. And he'll ascend la...