Of Sheep, Dogs and Excreta (1)

By Olayiwola Aanuoluwa.

The conception and evolution of a society is premised on a notion that man is a social and gregarious being that always want to belong to one group or the other. It is this thirst for belongingness that makes man organizes himself into groups ranging from smaller groups such as chums, cliques, caucuses, clubs and gangs to larger groups like communities, tribes and ethnic groups. It is also this sense of belongingness that informs the stratification of society into class. This class includes the lower, middle and upper class as the case may be with each of the class trying to extort and exploit the other - that is not the focus of this article.
It is perhaps the quest to sate the social needs of man that gives birth to social concepts like friendship, comradeship, fellowship, brotherhood, association, neighbourliness, amity, companionship and so on.
Interestingly, the yearnings for social needs is not peculiar to human race even though man is at the centre of it all. Some of the animals are classified as mammals, reptiles, birds and amphibians while each of the class can be further grouped into phylum and family. In another sense, some of the animals exist and live in colony (that is, a group of organisms of one species that live and interact closely with each other). There are ant colony, insect colony, bird colony etc.
Termites, bees and parrots are examples of species that exist in different aforementioned colonies. However, of all the animals, sheep and termites are very common to man as social specie.
It is because man is at the centre of creation that makes him metaphorically use other creatures - animals inclusive - to form and represent his thoughts, ideas, opinions and beliefs. That is why man will deftly use parrots for the talkative, pigs for the filthy folks. Sheep are often identifiable with the meek, peaceful, gentle and gullible folks. Generally, dogs are meant to depict the whoremongers but man still go a step further to attribute wanderlust to male dogs (Ako aja abi irin osi l'ese).
One of the beliefs of man is the scrutiny of a company/association to which an individual belongs or intends to belong. So much is the premium placed on belongingness that makes man coin different maxims, proverbs, sayings, adages, aphorisms and of course myths to regulate the affairs of our society.
That is why it is popular to hear sayings such as: "show me your friend and I will tell you who you are. Evil company corrupts good manners. Attitude is the prime compatibility for friendship."
Furthermore, man in his wisdom examines the lifestyles of two distinct animals - sheep and dogs - and denounce their association in terms of company and culinary delights. That is what informed the coinage of an age long adage: A sheep that grazes with a dog will eat excreta.
It is so sad that, nowadays, the adage is no longer carrying its usual weight and meaning. Anytime this adage is said, some folks are too quippy to say 'to ba fe je e ni' (that is if the sheep wish to eat from the excreta). They have grossly misconstrued the wisdom behind that proverb, that is why they no longer care about the kind of company they keep.
Our folklore has it that in those days it is common to use leaves to wrap faeces in the form of short put. If a sheep flocks in the company of dogs and gets to the spot where the faeces was thrown, the faeces immediately becomes food for dogs and since leaves are also food for sheep, the sheep will graciously accept the offer from its companion and eats the leaf with the remnant of faeces. It may taste differently in the first day. The second and third day into the companionship, the sheep will think differently and say: "...and faeces is not that bad o. Though it tastes differently from my regular cuisine, I can still afford to eat small chunks so as to continue to enjoy the affection of dog." Possibly at some point, the dog can even coerce the sheep to eat from the faeces. "After all, she was the one that enjoyed our company, she must be forced to do our biddings." That is how it goes on and on till the sheep is addicted to eating faeces and later left alone to bear the brunt.
If you fall within the ranks of folks that say, "that is if the sheep wish to eat from the excreta", and that is why you no longer census the kind of video you watch and music you listen to; and that also explains why you now dress crazily all in the name of fashion and civilization - you are doing yourself no good.
Since the advent of social media and other technologies, our society has increasingly evolved from the conventional physical association of people. It is now possible to interact with products of technology. We can now belong to different groups, access different information and engage e-friends, e-books, e-video, e-music and e-whatever on the internet.
As good as social media could be, it is also full of distractions and frivolities. Therefore, we must never lose our consciousness in interacting with it.
Today, social vices pervade every space of our national life and this is because our society is no longer congenial to hard work, patience, discipline, due diligence and professionalism. This explains why yahoo plus, kidnapping, money rituals, cultism, thuggery, hooliganism, gangsterism, fraud, gambling, prostitution, smoking, drug abuse, child abuse, rape, laziness, lateness, lies, indecent dressing, corruption, job racketeering, despotism, nepotism, impunity, cronyism, chauvinism, lack of respect for due process, examination malpractice, robbery, terrorism to mention but few, are fast becoming our societal norms and values.
In all, let us be wary of the company we keep because evil company corrupts good manner.

Thank you for reading.

omercy844@gmail.com
+2347033297403 (WhatsApp)