Character is fate and character is the accumulation of habits formed over time. Nothing, then, is by chance.
Mtshali’s “Boy on a Swing” has resonated with me over the years and perhaps it is a testament to the severity of the effect that good teaching can have on a mind. Mr. Uche taught this poem so well that I saw myself in it. I didn’t have to be South African yet he called out to the South African in me.
Oswald’s line “When will I wear long trousers?” has been the question I ask whenever I go to God in prayer. It is a question that begs for certainty. A type that God never gives. Nevertheless, this line, as seemingly bereft of hope as it may sound, is roped in sheer foolish arrogance. He seems so certain that he would grow old enough to wear long trousers. Hence, only concerned about the “when.”
But then, if you are so sure that you will grow old enough to wear long trousers, why worry about the “when?” It goes to show that growing old enough to wear long trousers doesn’t guarantee that you’d wear one. And if you ever get to wear one, would it be at the point of death? The popular nursery rhyme postulates that “children are the leaders of tomorrow.” The validity of that line, in this day, is interrogated by the contrary reality in which those who were leaders when the nursery rhyme was composed are still leaders. As such, it is safe to say that knowing the “when” reinforces faith in the system.
We find this trend in the Christian text Habakkuk 2:3 where we find the people in need of reassurance of the “when.” It says, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” This text suggests that it is God talking to His chosen ones and “the end” which shall surely come is the “when” which Mtshali seeks; it is all the “tomorrow” which the present-day Nigeria youth begs to know for we all know tomorrow never comes.
In Ezekial 12:28 we see God replying to the when question saying, “Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.” This is the response that Oswald seeks to get. I want to wear long trousers. When? Now? Tomorrow? When is tomorrow? Be specific because there’s a thin line between hope and delusion. We are not deluded. We want to know when our time will come. When our time is.
Nevertheless, I feel like we have crossed the Rubicon. Perchance, this is not the time to ask questions anymore. As Fyodor Dostoevsky said, “Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!” It then suggests that our time is dependent on us. It can be tomorrow if we dared tomorrow. It can also be now if dared now. Hence, it is indeed true that man determines his fate. “A man’s character is his fate” once said the Greek philosopher Heraclitus and this suggests that if we can quit seeking permission to wear long trousers and just dare to wear long trousers, the “powers that be” might just let us be.
After all, Achebe reiterates that “at the most one could say that his chi or … personal god was good. But the Igbo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed.” The Christian text Numbers 14:28 supports the foregoing when it says, “Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you.”
It then behooves us to stand up and pluck what we please from the tree of destiny. We can wear long trousers whenever we are ready to do so. Seeing that tomorrow never comes, let’s be the hangman hanging them, hanging the day. Today is the day that we have. See you after the revolution!
