Mother’s Day…The African Way

What’s up people?

First and foremost, I want to wish the GREAT Mother’s out there an early Happy Mother’s Day. You are truly APPRECIATED! So English Premiere League (EPL) season comes to an end this week and this is going to be a problem. No “Beautiful Game” for the next four months? NWO! I think am going to take up Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Boxing and get my Dee-Bo on or take some cooking classes to fight off the serious withdrawal I foresee happening. Life without soccer is utterly PAINFUL; it is like sitting in a casino for hours with no money to play with and your only way home is that bus ride that doesn’t leave for another six hours.   

Ok people; let me get focused...

You know what, I thought about writing on at least five different things this week. Then I came to a realization that I do not recall writing about Mother’s Day last year nor its significance in African customs. For starters; growing up in Nigeria there were no such holidays I recall that paid tribute to parents until recently. I believe Nigeria those have its mother’s day celebration now and I presume father’s day as well but only very few even know it exist. I guess that is one of the better things the western world will always do way better than so many other parts of the globe, creating and marketing hallmark holidays whenever possible to generate revenue for their respective enterprises. But if there were one Hallmark holiday definitely worth celebrating it would have to be Mother’s Day without a doubt.   

Now this is not a blog about African mothers versus outside of Africa, but more about shedding light on the struggles and the commonality in GREAT Women who embody the term MOTHER. It is generally understood that a mother serves as the caretaker, nurturer and backbone of a family because of her selflessness. And just like I stated last week that there is an inherent difference between a Dad vs. Father; there is also one when comparing “Baby Mama vs. Mother”.

As noted by scholars on the subject “motherhood in Africa is seen as a God-giving role and for this reason it is sacred”. The big concern going forward is how this notion be it naïve or based on genuineness is losing its place. Take the Yoruba custom in which I come from that has a saying “mother is gold, father is a mirror”. The meaning behind Mother is gold; valuable, true and central to the life of a child. I do not see this necessarily being the case when I look around at some of the women bringing and raising young innocent lives into the world these days. Especially, in the communities of those of color where the “Kids Raising Kids” phenomenon is vastly gaining momentum and does not look like it is going away.

So my wish is for the wonderful mother’s out there to help groom and teach the misguided youth of today the TRUE meaning of motherhood and the responsibilities that go along with it.  

Motherhood is a commitment.