I have nothing but respect, gratitude and high regards for all the teachers that in their own way imparted knowledge in me while I was a student. Particular reference must be made to my secondary and primary school teachers, who defied the odds and with little or no motivation and adequate compensation held nothing back and gave me and my colleagues their all. There were times I asked what really kept them going. I wondered how they went on teaching us for months with a back log of unpaid salaries and hungry families to feed, without a decline in their zeal and commitment to the job. I may have been young then, but I was never naive. I was aware of all they were going through and always prayed for better days for them. Teachers are special,Nigerian teachers are more special and my own teachers, very very special. I guess somewhere special is reserved for every teacher in heaven,particularly mine.
This is not a tribute to my great teachers, a time will come for that. I thought it wise to remind all of the special place they occupy in my heart so I do not get misconstrued along the way. A few days ago I traveled back in time, and found pieces of faded memory of my early junior secondary school days in Delta state in my head.I still recall that quite a number of topics that fascinated me and my friends were taught. I found topics like the characteristics of living things, reproduction and lessons on the physical changes associated with puberty in Biology classes very captivating. Many other topics in Biology and other subjects also took their turns to thrill us, but none astonished me in particular, more than Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. I recall the teacher saying we(the human race), evolved from apes, thousands or perhaps millions of years ago. She called us offspring of lower animals. We all laughed, shrugged our shoulders and pointed fingers at our seatmates and friends. It was humorous and as she explained further, things got clearer and with the prevailing innocence in our hearts and resolute confidence we had in our teacher, you could tell that many of us bought this theory hook,line and sinker. Yes I did, but with a little measure of curious pessimism every cowboy is expected to have. As my colleagues reveled in the fun the class had stirred, I sat in my corner looking out the window that had no louvers. I knew there was more to it, than Darwin said.
That was many years ago;between then and now, boys have turned to men and I have learned so much, but some questions still remain unanswered. As I watch the way we live our lives on a daily basis, sometimes I ask, did man really evolve from animals or did animals instead evolve from man? Is Darwin's theory a mere myth or just another western legend disguised as science to give it credence and acceptability? Most things that hold sway in our society today would not be condoned in the animal kingdom. Chinua Achebe said "until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Is it not high time we heard the animals version of the evolution theory? Is man really a higher animal as Darwin wants me to believe?
We claim we have consciences and love one another, yet statistics shows that no specie living or extinct has destroyed its own kind more than man. History of wars among mankind dates back to time immemorial and is just as old as man himself . He spends so much time and resources in research and development of more sophisticated weapons and means to destroy his own kind, while many around him live in want. Conflicts in the animal kingdom are usually short lived and rarely fatal, but among humans genocides,ethnic cleansing and massacres have been the norm. Animals find contentment and dwell in some measure of harmony in their natural habitats, but man in his lust and greed, wants to have a world big enough to house ten times its current population, to himself alone. With the spate at which man goes to war, it is a miracle the human race is not yet extinct.
Man's very high propensity to consume his kind is not all that raises questions about his true origin. His disregard for the law of nature and destruction of his habitat also cast a shadow of doubt in my mind and gets me thinking. In the animal kingdom,mating is done only by matured adults with the opposite gender of their own kind. The reverse has never been seen or heard amongst them before. The same cannot be said of man, the so called most advanced animal specie. Legalization of abominable deeds is now in vogue all in the name of respect for human rights. If this is their idea of human rights, what we need is "animal rights". The world we live in bears little semblance of the paradise history suggests it once was when the keys were handed to man. His activities have resulted in a great disorder in the ecosystem, such that concerns of the world future generations would inherit has never been deeper. In spite of the looming danger, only lip service is being paid to stop further destruction of the earth. Temperatures are rising, deserts encroaching, rivers drying up and the rain barely falls these days were they once fell endlessly . Every now and then we are greeted with news of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and droughts. They call them natural disasters even though I know there is nothing natural about them. There are mere mother-earth's reactions to our actions. After-all Wendell Berry warned "whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do." It was a perfect world man was given and as such, he must take full responsibility for any disorder in it.
As I searched for answers, I crossed path with clergy men who said man was created many years ago in the image of the Great and Perfect being. I have not come to dispute their claims. Who am I to do so? I only wonder how a blameless creator,an epitome of love, peace and order can be responsible for the existence of these wild,brutal and anarchical creatures. Their lifestyles sharply contrast everything I have heard about him. I know him and I know man as well, I can say they do not have much in common. He lays emphasis on giving sacrificially, man lays emphasis on taking, even forcefully. He loves chastity, man loves profanity. His ways are straightforward,man's are crooked. Surely there is something missing, man does not seem to possess his DNA.
I may need to come up with my own theory of evolution, pending when the animals will nominate their spokesperson and commune in a language I can understand. As I begin to run out of patience with myself,I look keenly at those around me, I feel tempted to walk up to one of them and say "Man who exactly are thou and from whence has thou come"? On a second thought I find reason to exercise restraint as common sense whispers that the question is best directed to me. So, who am I?