LAST year undoubtedly turned out a busy one for Nigeria's storytelling grandma, Mrs. Mobolaji Adenubi. She does not only put her stories in written form, she actually tells them to children, particularly those that are physically challenged in moonlight-style, although at school setting.From her rich and imaginative repertoire, she published three books of such stories to the delight of her readers that cut across different segments of society. For those who follow her writing, Adenubi has I'll Fix Man, From Here There and Other Stories and Sister, If Only You Know (TopCopyNigeria Ltd, Lagos; 2011). These slim volumes provide exciting reading, as the stories range from the ordinary to the mystical, from domestic issues for adults to folk tales that delight children.A typical moonlight folktale narrative, I'll Fix Man is the story of how the animal race came to view man's domination over them and what could be done to over-throw that yoke. In their yearly meeting of the elders of the animal kingdom, little Alangba, Lizard had the fortune to attend after falling on top of Ajapa, Tortoise on a fateful afternoon while Tortoise was having his rest. Lizard had narrowly escaped from being manhandled by a human child, Bobo, and had severed his tail to flee for his life. From then, he expresses his determination to put man in his proper place so he would not torment the animal race again.When all the other elderly animals gather together, and presided over by Ajanaku, Elephant, they begin to analyse man by giving various reports about man's harmful activities to them and their habitat. Indeed, man's existence and his activities variously hurt and cause discomfort to the animal kingdom in whose habitat man constantly make forays in his quest to improve his environment.At the gathering of the elders of the animal clan, four items make the animals apprehensive about man's activities: Man's plan to dam a certain river, man's housing estate and shopping mall to be built on the fringe of the forest, man's observation posts being built on the forest and how to fix man so he would no longer be a menace to the animal race.In this hilarious tale, Adenubi executes a superb narration. Just as man has been studying animals, so too animals have been studying man, as Elephant observes, 'You will remember we felt offended just now when we learnt that humans are gathering information about us. It is because we know that knowledge is power. We too have kept a record on Man for sometime now. The more we know about him the easier it will be for us to find his weakness, trap and destroy him'.Inoki, Gorilla's account of man's origin provides such laugh-aloud counterpoint: 'Have you heard that man claims that he shares a common ancestor with me' Well, he has this misguided belief that he used to look like me. He even shows pictures depicting likeness between his ancestors and mine. Pure fancy!...'In man's inhumanity to his fellow man do the animals find the chink in his armour. The animals seek to incite other men whom man treats unjustly and use them as ally in their plot to defeat man. To fix man, they resolve to use man's 'inhumanity to man that he shows weakness, self-hate even. He developed weapons of mass destruction to deal with weaker ones of his kind' We can get them to blow one another up!'I'll Fix Man is a verdict on man's excesses, both to his fellow man and his environment, as he asserts his dominance over his surrounding. It provides a pleasurable read and will excite children immensely as animals talk and reason with one another.AS mother and grandmother, Adenubi also has eyes for domestic issues too, especially marital ones that dodge the steps of fellow women. Specifically, Sister, If Only You Know is a collection of short stories about how men and women live their lives in marital settings. They thresh the failings from men, their insatiable quest for more feminine flesh, their craving for extra-marital fling and the many excuses they invent just to jump to the next woman.In the lead story, 'Sister, If Only You Know', Falope is mad because rumours has it that her husband is having an affair with her best friend and goes to seek the advice of an elderly aunt, Modupe. She is yet to have children and suspects it is why her husband, Yinka, is unfaithful. Falope is jealous of her elderly aunt's marriage that seems so peaceful and perfect. But little does she know the turmoil that attended the marriage at its early stage, just like hers.But in the most pragmatic of manners, Modupe patiently narrates her own ordeal to Falope, how her inability to have children early enough led her husband to father three children from a woman her husband's mother brought to him while she was away on medical check up abroad. Falope is aghast; she can only manage to say: 'Auntie, this is unbelievable! Even superhuman. I don't know if I can survive all that without crumbling'.The elderly lady cautions her niece against being rash in taking decisions that affect her home. More importantly, she urges that the supposed waywardness of a man is not sufficient reason to quite what is ordinarily a promising marriage. Strong moral: There are no perfect marriages anywhere; those involved just have to work it out between them''No, It Can't Be Ladi' continues on the same strain, of men's unfaithfulness to their marital vows and how easily they stray into other ladies' arms in quest of that extra sensational thing, which usually ends up in illegitimate children the man may not be prepared to own up until after his death. Ladi shares his time shuttling between his two women, but a fall in his new wife's place a damaged spine. He has to rely on his first wife to provide good medical care if he is to survive.'No, Never to Divorce' employs the dramatics of a traditional Yoruba marriage ceremony in binding two young people in love together. It provides interesting reading. But most touching is the last story, 'Whose House is it''FROM Here There and Other Stories deals in the realm of the supernatural and death, and how man dreads dreath. Death is a phenomenon that elicits various emotions from man. Here, Adenubi threshes the familiar and the vague and brings to the fore some of the suspected notions of death: what it feels to be dead. 'From here there' traces the supposed anxiety a mother, for instance, feels for leaving her children behind and not knowing the fate that would befall them.Do the dead go elsewhere to continue living if they died prematurely' Adenubi provides tentative answers in her story 'Akudaaya'. An anxious woman goes in search of her dead husband after inquiring from a medicine man that on account of Abu's premature death, he must be living somewhere close by. A search proves him right, or so it seems until the moment of real encounter when things go awry, as perhaps they should go, and a woman's pining for her late husband go up in smoke.Such is the preoccupation of Adenubi in this collection of six stories dealing with the issue of death and dying and how the mysterious phenomenon plays havoc on the lives of the living as they seek to understand it in their different ways.One special feature of all Adenubi's three collections is the aesthetics covers of her books. Her book covers are elegantly and colourfully designed. They present a visual feast to the eyes, and would appeal specially to children. The same goes for the illustrations inside the books.Adenubi's three slim collections provide sheer entertain and pleasure in their lucid, graphic prose. An award-winning author, Adenubi has a new project that seeks to publish talented child authors across the country. Her foundation, Splendid Literature and Culture Foundation will publish six stories written by children for children audience and reward them handsomely. Having devoted her time to a writing career since the 1990s, when she left paid employment, Adenubi's foundation is creating a platform of continuity in writing amongst children. Her devotion to writing and its promotion have been her lifelong work and reward, and she loves it!
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