The melody is not only fascinating, the performance connects straight to the heart. The voices are not only sonorous, the undulating tune is magnetic. This is not just a music, the composition speaks to some of the mysteries of life. Music credit to BBCFour.
As I savour the rhymes from the chorus, Peter, Paul and Mary sent me to a solo world of sobriety. As I tried to put a meaning to the lyrics, it occurred to me that many questions that life poses either don’t have answers or are not meant to be answered.
How else do you tell a man that he has nothing to prove beyond the fact that he was created a man before he knows that he is truly a man without any feeling of inadequacy?
How do you tell him not to break his back to prove a point that has been made from creation without bruising his ego?
In what language will you tell a woman that the fight for gender equality does not change the order from heaven? What do you need the answer for if not just to stir the hornets’ net?
How polite can you be to tell a man or woman that all of us cannot be rich or famous and not draw their rage as if this is not the reality of life?
How do you pass the message that some are still meant to serve the others to fulfill their own prophetic destinies and not sound like a doomsayer?
How do you convince a supporter of a Nigerian politician that the ones he destroys his relationships to defend are members of the same club?
How many deaths will just be enough for us to admit that life is cheaper in Nigeria than the price of the dollar that is used to buy the future of the children of those cut in their prime?
How does one explain to his children that those accused of stealing from the cookie jars are still the same faces that adorn the political space like heroes and heroines?
What language will be best to describe to a stranger how a medical doctor as labour minister slugs it out with ASUU while our trained medical doctors emigrate and professors anchor election matters to keep the political offices busy?
As I ruminate over these rhetorical questions and many more deeply seated within, Peter, Paul and Mary came to my rescue with their powerful rendition.
The answers to these questions must be blowing in the wind. That sounds more to me like an invisible state.
©️Akin Oluwadare Jnr
22 August 2022
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