We have come to the beginning of another year or perhaps more appropriately, we are standing in the gateway of a new beginning but with the freedom to look back on the year that has just expired. In reality, without looking back, we cannot look forward to another year because we are moving forward with all the assets and liabilities of the old year riding on our backs. It is certainly not a coincidence that in the modified Roman calendar we all observe these days, the first month of the year is named after the pagan god Janus who is depicted as a figure stamped on a coin with one face looking steadfastly in opposite directions, one looking back and the other facing the front. It has been pointed out that virtually all the Roman gods which at one time were thought to rule in heaven and on earth had a Greek equivalent. Not in the case of Janus, lord of the gateway who is completely Roman and unknown to the Greeks. It is therefore clear that the Romans created this god, probably in their own image and this being the case may not travel well. On the contrary however, Janus is now venerated all round the world in the same way that the days of the week are sacred to respective gods who held sway with the Scandinavian ancestors of modern day Swedes, Danes and Norwegians until they were converted to Christianity a little over one thousand years ago. But I have the suspicion that should we scratch the surface of their professed Christian beliefs today, you will see their old gods in disguise but still larger than life and hovering over them with considerable intent.
Those of us who live in the tropics, not very far from the equator have become used to having the sun riding across our skies practically every day of the year with the length of days not differing by more than one hour throughout the year. This being so, we cannot spare any thought for the sun as it makes its daily journey across the sky over our heads. It is always there, larger than life and more than faintly reassuring. Can you imagine the alarm that would ensue were we to look up to see that the sun was missing?
In the northern and to some extent, the southern hemisphere, the position of the sun in the sky is of great interest and concern as there are some parts of those areas where the sun is not seen for more than a few fleeting minutes for months at a time. And this is a genuine cause for concern as the sun is the giver of life, warmth and more life. People who live in areas of the world where the free passage of the sun across the sky cannot be taken for granted have great difficulty in dealing with what to us is a quirk of nature and have evolved a series of ways of dealing with what can only be described as a very difficult situation. The areas most affected by the phenomenon of an absent sun are primarily in North America; Canada and the northern states of the USA as well as those parts of Europe within the Arctic circle or close to it. If you have not experienced winter in any of those places, you may find it difficult to appreciate the prevailing conditions that people there have to contend with; the numbing cold, icy, spiteful winds blowing snow into your eyes, not to talk of the complete absence of the natural light provided by the sun. Indeed, some people insist that it is the enveloping darkness of long winter months that does it for the human spirit as it destroys normal flow of what makes life truly worth living. In those places, the significance of the winter solstice is immense and that which is attributed to the summer solstice is not far behind. Winter solstice last year was December 22, that is, the shortest day of the year and officially, the first day of winter. By this time, the sun would have been three months into its annual disappearing act over the polar regions and temperatures would have plummeted well below the freezing point of water. In the days before the availability of any form of artificial lighting beyond a flaming log, the situation would have been truly frightening as people entertained the fear that the sun was not going to come back from his annual walk about to goodness knew where. In Scandinavia, during their pagan days, they resorted to human sacrifice in order to persuade the sun to return to the sky in due course of time. They also spent the time in feasting, drinking and there making merry. After all, was no guarantee of any future, should the sun not return at its appointed time. This feature was so much part of the coping strategy adopted by the people that after their conversion to Christianity, the only aspect of proceedings associated with the coming of winter was the gruesome practice of sacrificing one of their kings. The feasting and merry making were held on so tenaciously that the Church elders had no choice but to adopt what was initially described as idolatry and included it into the Church calendar. I suppose that most human beings have idolatry tendencies in their very core, it just depends on the nature of the idol or idols which are in the ascendancy at any given time. Contemporary situations all around the world point to Mammon as the idol in vogue and is likely to maintain that pre-eminent position for quite a long while. It’s reign will continue as long as human beings retain their determination to rate money above all aspects of human values as has been the case for at least several centuries now. The Scandinavians killed their unfortunate kings who were chosen to carry the burdens of their people away. These days kings harvest the vital organs of their subjects in one way or the other so that the tenure of their injudicious rule can be extended indefinitely. Under prevailing circumstances, can we as the global dominant species claim that mankind has made any progress over the last two thousand years?
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Standing in the gateway of another year, we can create for ourselves the indulgence of looking both ways; into the past, as long as we want and into the distant future. Fifty years ago, Nigeria was on the threshold of what promised to be a beginning of something truly magnificent. In October of that year, Anwar Sadat of Egypt led his tanks across the Sinai desert at the same time as when his fellow Arabs attacked Israel from the East. For once, the Arabs appeared to be holding their own until the Americans made sure that circumstances were changed in favour of Israel through the massive supply of armaments with which they stiffened Israeli resolve. Angered by this, the Arabs turned off their oil wells and suddenly, crude oil became more precious than gold and Nigeria being a non-Arab oil producing country was the sudden beneficiary of this bonanza. We were rich; rich beyond our wildest dreams and we began to worry about how to spend it. The military government of the time, being totally Nigerian in nature decided to bribe Nigerians into giving them carte blanche to continue to rule indefinitely. They stuffed our mouths with gold and through the Udoji award which was backed up several months made us rich beyond our wildest dreams and we have been beating about in an uncharted forest since then. Vicious beasts have since then been harvesting all our resources and carting them away everywhere including septic tanks and artfully constructed latrines. As we stand at that imaginary gateway today, our pockets are empty even though the farm managers are still finding ways and means of squeezing out public funds from the unlikeliest places for benefit of their own private pockets. If Nigeria was a trading enterprise, it would have declared bankruptcy a long while ago sparing us the futile exercise of turning our gaze from the past to the future.
Even though the ancient Romans did not have to contend with the ferocious winters which bedevilled their Northern neighbours, they shared quite enthusiastically in the general merry making that characterised this period. In order to balance their calendar, they created a period of two weeks, of days that had no official recognition. This period they described as Saturnalia in honour of Saturn, another Roman god and filled them with unfettered merry making characterised by utter chaos. Nigerians have had an elongated period of Saturnalia in which everything including frankly criminal activities were not only excused but encouraged. It has to be said bluntly that our Saturnalia is now over but we have become so used to the excesses of this period that we cannot believe that this can be true for us and so, the merriment continues, at least in our so called high places even if the dreaded spectre of hunger is ferociously haunting the rest of the country.
