"May we always remember."

- Chimamanda Adichie, Half Of A Yellow Sun.

I’ll always remember the last week of my father’s life, spent in the hands of medical personnel in Ibadan; and the ridicule and the insults that he received even then, even from the medical personnel meant to care for him, despite his age then - and even after his death, the insults with which laughed thugs and touts in Ibadan over his body, at his having "at last" passed on.

I remember the last three days of the life of Witness, my dearly beloved German Shepherd puppy; the injection that the murderous vet gave - that had him go instantly into convulsions - how I then cradled him like a baby as I carried him into my house, and away from that fatal injection; how he then passed away in less than three days.

I remember my dearly beloved cat, Testimony - pictured above - and the cruel, evil manner with which he was locked up in my room and starved to death by my family, while they had me on my own part locked up in a lunatic asylum.

I remember Victory, my mongrel puppy - and the cruel and evil means via which he was murdered in Ibadan. His legs broken, fed food poison, tossed down from the fourth floor where I then lived to the ground floor, anytime I was not in, by the lunatic delinquents that I shared a compound with.

I remember Queen, my beautiful mongrel dog, one of the greatest I have ever known when it comes to mothering. And the cunning that had me give her out to they via which I would she be taken care of when I was about to relocate to Akure, only for me to be told within a week or two that she had gotten missing.

I remember Eddie Adupeyi, the destitute murdered in Ibadan all because I reached a helping hand out to him.

And, most especially, I remember all the innumerable words of poetry and prose with which I sought to remember - and that have been either plundered or crippled or destroyed by the heathen that would not that I and mine remember, that would not that others even know.

I will always remember.

Ikoro Iyineleda
Servant-Leader
The Pride of Machismo Renaissance
6th of February, 2025.