We humans are not the world, even if we are the Lord’s in this wonderful Creation. Even our earth is not the world. It is no more than a grain of sand in a vast sphere spread for light years right, left, up and below. But it is, nevertheless, a intangible and useful material soil on which all sorts of beings congregate to work for the purpose of developing and becoming self conscious.
In this vast sphere we human beings co- exist with all sorts of beings, seen and unseen, such as germs, giants, elemental beings, their leaders, nature beings and their leaders and , of course, animals. It may shock us to learn that some animals, such as those the Bible reports are at the foot of God’s throne (the Lion, Eagle, Ram and Bull) are Higher Beings than we humans are, and that we cannot behold them without dissolving or, literally speaking, disappearing!
In the search for natural way and means of achieving “sound mind and body”, the goal of this column, I think alot about Creation which governs my existence, whether I like it or not and to which I should subject my behaviour if I wish to be at peace with it and be happy in it. Early this year, I discovered that some other persons have given more thought to this matter than I have and actually dedicated 22 August 2022 to the honour of THE DOG, that animals which, arguably, is man’s best friend. My August diary was crowded for a column on THE DOG. So,here on 1 September…it comes.
AUGUST 22 was uneventful day for many people. I discovered it early this year to be THE WORLD DOGS DAY! It is a DAY on which dog meat eaters especially are expected to give the dog a standing ovation, treat it with more respect and STOP eating it’s meat!
I am not a dog meat eater and have no problem with the dog. But I cannot vouch for millions of Nigerians in states such as Ondo, Akwa Ibom, cross river, plateau, Gombe and Taraba.
During my first visit in 1977 to Watt market, then the only foodstuff market in Calabar, I was shocked by the large number of dogs I saw. Many of them looked famished, diseased and troubled by flies which feasted on their open skin wounds. Of what security values would these dogs be, I wondered, forgetting that I was not in Lagos where dogs were specially bred for house, office or Patrol services. The dogs I saw in Watt market were brought there to be slaughtered for their meat as a prized delicacy in homes and restaurants. I wasn’t that taken aback about 20 years after, when I visited a friend, Mr Atsu, a retired civil servant, in Obudu and we hung out somewhere for lunch at one of the restaurants opposite the Obudu main market. There were more dogs than humans around. So, I quickly asked my friend to tell the waiter to not serve me dog meat or sauce in which dog meat had been cooked. He gave me the assurance that dog meat was served only on request. Last, month, I remembered these scenarios. A young Akwa Ibom woman I mentored to higher grounds invited me out in gratitude to a Calabar kitchen, and suggested it offered no dog meat.
VICTORY
This was the name of my first dog. I do not remember how old i was when I had it. A colonial policeman, my father must-have picked up the idea of a dog as pet at home from the District officer (D.O) at Abeokuta. He probably named the dog VICTORY after the name fashion of those days. The second world war ended in 1945 with the defeat of Germany,Italy and Japan by the Allied Powers of Britain, France, China, United States and the Soviet Union, behind which queued the rest of the world, including Africa. So, victory songs and signs went up everywhere to remind the conquerors never to go to sleep. My dog VICTORY was one of such reminders. My father taught me to care for a dog. It ate what we ate but in its own special bowl which was well washed and dried after it finished a meal. Its meals were never served on the bare floor. It recognised it’s plates, and went to sit where they were kept whenever it was hungry. On the day it was to served corn pap, it had a share of the family’s peak milk. I guess this, also, was an idea my father picked up from his boss. Victory saw me to the highway on my way to St.Andrew’s Primary school at Ibara, Abeokuta, from the central police station barracks at Ibara. Then, suddenly, we had to part ways. Why we had to, I do not know till this day. Sometimes, I wonder if the authorities in the barracks prohibited dog ownership by officers and the rank and file. All I remember is that my father always worked for three years without a holiday and banked his vacation for three full months at the end of it all. On that fateful vacation, Victory went with us to the village, where the dogs were unkept, were hardly fed and had to fend for themselves. Their staple food was the excreta of children. After a child finished moving his or her bowels, that child or the elders would call out to the dogs…”Gbe, gbe, gbe”. Dogs would rush in from all directions, swallow the excreta in no time and lick the anus of the child to the bargain, perhaps in gratitude for a fulsome meal. Why they had to lick the anuses I did not know. I can only guess it helped the natives save water. There was no municipal piped tap water in those days. The stream was about two kilometers away, water was fetched in earthen wave pots and ferried on the head up a steeply inclined hill back home. How much water would anyone fetch on a single trip? Yet, water was needed for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, bathing and for laundry! We the OMO IDALE(foreign children) were advised to wear our shoes 24/7 and to not touch dust with our hands because of a widespread wormy infection called JIGAR. It was in this setting that VICTORY was brought in the early 1950s. I thought victory would follow on our return to Abeokuta after my father’s vacation. I was mistaken. When we boarded the truck, victory was not boarded. When the truck sped away, victory gave it a chase but dropped back when its heart and fours could not support it. Where Victory lived thereafter and how it adapted to its changed environment and the lifestyle there I do not know till this day. What I know is that we were bonded in love, and would meet someday! Belief in meeting with a dog I parted ways with about 65 years ago and must have gone its way may appear idiotic. But, then, it is a reality. Animal souls, like human spirits, are on this Earth for self development and maturation of their beings. Man comes from a higher world, the spiritual realms or paradise. Animal are not Spirits like humans but ANIMISTIC. Their souls originate from the ANIMISTIC realms which lie below the spiritual realms. Through their activities and experiences, the human kernel, the spirit seed germ, can and does develop itself or evolve an independent, personal ego which we depict as the “I” in our languages. But the animal soul cannot do this on its own. It needs to be loved by man and to give love in return to be able to do this. Even the human kernel can hardly develop or unfold without LOVE. Its carrries deep within itself a spark from out of the Radiation of the Almight Creator. In this spark lies, among other intrinsic features, an unconscious sensing of the LOVE OF GOD. This is why love slumbers within us. When we love, its bursts aflame, connecting us to forces of Love in the Universe and to the Almighty Father Himself. Love for a spouse or child or nation or profession or neighbour, will ignite and awaken these slumbering attributes and automatically connect with the forces of Love throughout the universe. This connection connects us to Love itself, to God Who is…LIFE. If we do not love, we are empty shells. We are like the refrigerator which is not connected to the live electricity socket. Animal souls cannot connected on their own. They need the love and radiations of man to indirectly connect and form their personalities. That is why man is given DOMINION over them. That is why the cat likes to live with you, sit around you, sharve your bed, if you kindly permit, and why the dog is your friend. By now, mankind should have domesticated the wild animals of the forests for this purpose. Why he failed in this task of uniting other creatures with themselves and with himself is not the subject of this article( next week,I will give an example of how, working with my fourth dog, I tried to do this). When we have helped an animal to form its soul, it becomes our friend throughout its existence in the universe. If it did not form its soul, it cannot be personal. Upon its departure from the earth, its soul would return to the universal soul, its labour at self development lost. It would be like the drop of rain water which ever returns to the stream, river, lagoon, ocean or sea! That undeveloped animals soul, in the manner of rain droplet which rejoins the river and the ocean, will rejoin the group ANISMASTIC SOUL, were its personality is lost and its has no life of its own.
But when the animal souls becomes an independent personality through the love we give it, it goes ahead of us, to its own abode in the universe, from where it may come to welcome us to the so-called GREAT BEYOND when we leave the earth. Oftentimes, many human who have left the flesh do not know what is happening to them at the other end of the DARK TUNNEL where they find themselves, alone.
Often, if it is not the appearance of a loved one who had gone ahead of them which awakens them to their new reality, it is a pet beloved on earth which died long, long ago that is lovely wagging its tail in welcome greetings which enables them to suspect that they are in a new world! We should live in this consciousness before we leave the earth.
SENIOR BINGO
After Victory, a dog named SENIOR Bingo was the Next dog in my life. I met it at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, when i enrolled there for the first form in 1964. My 1964-68 set was told several sets before us met SENIOR BINGO. That was why all students who came to the School after SENIOR BINGO called the dog SENIOR! we had about two or three dining halls and a great kitchen where the cooks ran about two or three shifts. SENIOR Bingo never lacked food. Even the cooks called it SENIOR Bingo and served it own meals. To its benefit, too, was reminant food. How it coped during the holiday i do not know. SENIOR Bingo knew our School uniform, often went out with the day students and knew their homes. No student dare treat SENIOR Bingo like a common animal. We all gave it the respect we accorded humans. Then, one day, i do not remember exactly when, one by one we discovered many of us had suddenly grown sullen. No one dared say it aloud that SENIOR BINGO was dead! The dining halls were almost empty. Everyone was grieving, all because a dog had died. How SENIOR Bingo earthly remains were disposed of, i do not remember.
MERCURY
This was the first dog i brought home for my children. Their Children class teacher on Grailland Mrs Sola Sowemimo, had taught them about animals and man. They had learnt about Bhuddah who knew the language of most, if not all, animals and easily conversed with them. Then, one day after sunday worship, we visited Mr M.A Kafaru at home. He was the husband of Mrs Elizabeth Kafaru who, when I was Editor of the Guardian Newspaper (1988-92),i invited to write a column for me on herbal medicine. The children sighted some puppies. Mr Kafaru lovingly gave them one. But we couldnt take it home. Their mother hated dogs. One had bitten her when she was a spinster and she had to take several injections. So, we connived as a group against her. I had to respect their CHILD LIKENESS to play with animals and make her love animals for the aforestated. She taught political Science at Lagos State University (LASU). So, she should not only know about democracy but respect it as well, i told the three boys. They must all agreed that we discussed with her that we were bringing the dog home and she agreed. So, Next sunday, we brought the puppy home. I had never seen her so furious as at the sight of the puppy. One after the other, the boys reminded her that she agreed we brought it home. A very intelligent woman, she searched her brain for any reminder of such a meeting and found none. Then, I learnt my weight behind the boys. We put the questions to vote and won by a 4 to1 landslide. The boys decided we name the puppy MERCURY. They had learned from sunday School that MERCURY was the leader of the elemental beings. The elemental are the unseen yet existent tangible beings behind what we call Nature…the sea, the mountains, the land forms, the suns and the Stars etc. These physical forms are merely the material effects of the activities of elemental beings. To imagine what MERCURY may look like, imagine the being who is said to carry the earth on its shoulder around the sun while spining it on its axis (rotation). A single button on the apparel of this being is said to be bigger than the earth! No wonder the solar systems, galaxies and seven universes do not deviate from their courses unless need be!
Puppy MERCURY grew into a powerful dog. I needed two heavy chains to hold it down in the cage. Its meals were served about two metere from the cage to enable it excercise its limbs. I reared about 12 native hens and two cocks in the backyard at 34 Ajanaku street, Awouse Estate, Opebi, where we lived. They were glutonous. They would gather’ around Mercury’s food while it was in the cage. Suddenly, it would come for them. They would flee to the backyard on top of their cages where it couldn’t reach them. Sometimes, it caught one or two and ate them.
I would bring the carcases to mecury and beat hell out of it to teach it they were meant to be Friends. It was getting Wild for my liking. One day, i pursued it right under one of the cars, and a rusted six inche nail drove itself into my knee. I dared not touch it. I sent one of my children to MR KINGSLEY OSADOLOR, one of my colleages who lived near by, to drive me to the company’s Clinic at palmgrove Estate where the nail was safely removed. Anytime i went near Merc, as the children fondly called it, MERCURY growled as if ready to attack me. So, my wife began to feed it. Meanwhile, she too, had become fond of Merc and they liked each other. We can not forget Merc. The day an air conditioner caught fire in the children’s room, setting it ablaze, the children were evacuated to the road by about 2am while neighbours, awaiting fire fighters, stormed the house to extinguish the fire in their own little ways. Merc stood protectively around them. Moving Merc out of 34 Ajanaku street when we moved to 39 Emina street, off Toyin street, also in Ikeja, was a tug of war. Six hefty men ran cables in and around the cage to lift it into the truck and to unload the cargo at Emina. Merc died soon after. I called Mr Dotun Akintoye my Best man at my wedding in 1983, to support me to give Merc a befitting funeral. We did not throw Merc’s body into a canal or a body bag for dust men to pickup. We dug a grave, gently let it down, offered prayers of thanksgiving for its life and service to my family and shovelled earth into it.
Next week: my fourth dog… this column welcomes interesting experiences of readers with their dogs.