By Hope Eghagha
It was the late
Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi who first tickled my poetic imagination on
objects, parts or things that look alike or seem different but indeed are the
same. This came in form of a wise saying, that linguistic form which the
African skill for imaginative communication had perfected along with proverbs
and aphorisms before ‘Westernisms’
caught up with us. I had just been introduced to the play The Gods are not to
Blame as a sophomore at the University
of Jos. A character posed
the question to the unfortunate King Odewale and his wife Ojuola: what is the
difference between the right ear of a horse and the left one? No difference, I
dare say. They are similarly shaped and perform the same auditory functions
even though they are located on two different sides of the face.
However, this aphoristic question cannot be
applied to dogs and monkeys. For, in spite of the fact that both are animals
they are different types of animals. Okot p’Bitek the Ugandan poet wrote in
Song of Lawino that the ‘graceful giraffe cannot become a monkey.’ Furthermore,
we cannot ask, whether figuratively or otherwise ‘what is the difference
between a Rolls Royce and a Beetle car;’ they are both cars but cars in different
categories, in terms of pricing, prestige and general construction. If you
arrive at Dangote’s office or Mike Adenuga’s residence in a ‘Tortoise car’, the
security men would not bother to entertain enquiries from you. Just drive home
and return in a Mercedes 600 car and watch the difference! I remember once when
a young man asserted ‘all women are the same’ and another man countered ‘all
women are not the same; my mother is not a prostitute.’ Hehehehehe!
