My Dad and I: The Akidi Song

Growing up, it was normal to go to sleep without electricity. Some nights, when the heat was really bad and there were mosquitoes in the house, my mum would ask the help to bring out some of the small mattresses to yard and spray the entire house with insecticide.

Those nights when we all lay on mattresses in the back yard or veranda were the nights I entered the world of folk tales and history and the fine art of translating Igbo stories to English. My dad (and sometimes my mum) would tell us stories of the tortoise and his many cunning shenanigans. I remember one in which Mr Tortoise liked to eat a particular meal called Akidi but he didn't know the name. One time he wanted his wife to make it for him and she challenged him to learn the name of the meal and she would. So he went casually to the market and saw a shop that sold Akidi. He went there and hit the bowl so it poured to ground and the seller screamed "ewo, tortoise has killed me o, he has poured away my Akidi". Mr Totoise was glad and apologized and paid for what he poured. Then as he went home, he put the name into a song so that he wouldn't forget..."Akidi kilidim kilidim". He went home and told his wife and his wife made him the meal.

The high point of this story and perhaps the reason it is always the first I remember when I think about the stories from my childhood, is the song. When my dad got to the part of the song, he asked my mum to sing it and when she did, he got up and did a funny dance walk to mimick how Mr Tortoise must have walked home from the market singing his song. 

It wasn't the story that etched in my head...it was the story tellers that melted my heart.