The Language of Joy: Twale

Yesterday, I went to an office where I needed to submit some documents and get assistance. When it was my turn, I sat at the attendant's cubicle, passed her my forms and as she went through them and verified, for some reason I do not know, I started to hum.

I was absent-mindedly humming the tune to Flo's Twale and moving my body to the rhythm in my head. I don't know the words but I vividly remember a performance of the song that I saw in Enugu at a competition and sitting at that cubicle, my mind drifted to that moment and my heart was soaring high. Without realising, I went on humming and moving for about a minute and realised the lady who was attending to me was looking at me with the most warming smile I had seen from a total stranger in months.

I got bashful and apologized for my absent-mindedness and she asked me not to. With tears in her eyes, she told me how she had just got a call a few minutes before she called me to her cubicle and that call had broken her heart. She told me how seeing me dance for no reason at all, in those few seconds had made her shed the gloom that had been steadily growing around her in the past few minutes. She said she had never heard the song and she could tell, from the mutterings she picked up from under my breath, that it was a song in Nigerian language and that even though she didn't understand it, she could tell that I was speaking joyful words and it made her feel better.

I just stared at her with a smile on my face. We talked about a few other things and she told me about her church and another Nigerian she met a while back. At the end of the conversation, we shook hands and exchanged names.

As I left the office, I thought about the young man who performed Flo's song at a competition I was previlledged to be a judge at and I said a prayer for him (I don't remember his name) and then I said under my breath, "Kabiesi, Twale".

Enjoy Flo's Twale