IJEOMA.
During the period of my primary school education into secondary, my dad had this car— a Mercedes 230 (V-boot as it was often called then). The car had a music player, and so my dad would often buy CD plates (albums of popular musicians, various genres).
I remember we had an album by Dolly Parton (coat of many colours was my favourite track), we had another by Bob Marley, Lucky Dube, Kenny Rogers, Shaggy, and Duncan Mighty (I still remember all of them).
When my dad would come to pick my younger sister and I from school, he would often let us choose the album to be played.
I remember, most times, I would choose Duncan Mighty (a Nigerian song artist), and I would place a particular track on repeat, the track was titled Ijeoma.
I was young, didn’t know much about love (actually, I didn’t know anything about love, hehehe). Neither did I know who Ijeoma was and what she meant to him. I simply just loved the cool rhyme at the intro and the fact that the song often made my young mind think and wonder what love would feel like. Other times, right after the rhyme and few lines of the song, I would skip to the next song or insert another album (the intro was always enough for me).
It’s been a decade and four years since then, yes people, I don grow.
Tonight, while I was about to make ready my choir uniform for service tomorrow, I heard a song from the “Ijeoma” album playing from my neighbour’s room and I could feel my heart wrench in nostalgia, if I had as much as blinked, I believe I would have cried. Lol, couldn’t trust my eyes to stay dry, so I forced myself not to blink.
Should I say I felt a bit forlorn? Maybe.
The life I had in primary school, now seems… so far away. I fought the urge to go on YouTube and stream Ijeoma (for certain reasons).
Different phases in my life were shaped by music, my parents loved music (dad loved afrobeats and reggae), my mom loved country music, reggae and she played the acoustic guitar too.
Eventually, it rubbed of on both my sister and I. The love for music came naturally for us. My younger sister was made a member of the senior church choir while still in secondary school. Years later, I learned to play my mom’s acoustic guitar (the guitar eventually spoilt in my hands and now hangs in my room like an artifact).
Though over the years, I have learned that music has a soul; each time I hear Coat of many colours by Dolly Parton, or an old song by Duncan, Marley, Dube or Kenny Rogers, it weaves memories of my mom, my dad, his Mercedes that eventually got sold, my eight year old sister arguing over which album should be played first, and my ten-year old mind gulping every line of Ijeoma and wondering why a man would sing a full song in honour of a woman.
It’s interesting how the brain stores certain memories alongside the music that made those memories. It’s like the song becomes the memory, and likewise the memory, fused into the song. The two eventually become inseparable.
reading this was a joy. ❤️
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you🤎
DeleteI love thisss😍😍
ReplyDeleteSuch a Beautiful vintage piece
ReplyDelete