7 Princess Story

[Kerby Kolpack]

The Princess And The Pea moral is to not judge a person by their appearance. After being deceived by many fair maidens claiming to be Princesses, the prince and his mother were suspicious when a young, cold and soggy girl turned up at their doorstep seeking some dry clothes and a bed for the night. It transpired that their initial impression of the young girl was wrong and she was in fact a princess. After all, princesses can get soggy in the rain too!

Yet, there is one aspect connected to Black excellence that is worth emphasizing. We call ourselves kings and queens, yet, for most of us, we do not have any clear-cut connection to any royal African roots. In fact, a joke heard time and time again is a Nigerian prince trying to contact someone, his long-lost family member, to share his wealth. But for me, being contacted by a Nigerian royal, an actual family member, is very real and something that has happened to me.

According to the history told by my uncle and his court, the Gbagura people migrated to the present-day area between Ibadan and Abeokuta, both major cities in Yoruba territory. In the early nineteenth century, the Gbagura people became a major force within the area and attempted to form a Egba Federation. They did this in order to obtain independence from the Ilaris, who were emissaries of the Olooyo, another tribal group.

Since Gbagura functions much like other kingdoms, the Oba has the final say on any matter. Despite this, the Oba has a Complaints Committee that can adjudicate disputes that is made up of the Oba and five chiefs he has selected. He also meets monthly with the heads of each township to head the Gbagura Council of Baloguns and Chiefs to discuss matters of state.

Besides many political powers that make him stand out from the other chiefs, the Oba also wears different traditional dress than the other chiefs. An Oba always wears a crown, complete traditional dress, walking stick, horse tail, beads, and special shoes. Additionally, because he is forbidden to touch people outside his family, he holds a greeting stick to greet his subjects and others outside his domain.

Before assuming the throne, the current Oba lived a fairly normal life. He was born in 1960 to Prince Rasaq Olayinka Bakre and Alhaja Latifatu Bakre Adeghite, both from Gbagura. He spent time in Ibadan, Abeokuta, and Isolo for school until 1981, and received a degree in Business Administration in 1986. He worked for the Nigerian Customs Services and became Chief Superintendent of Customs, leading him to work in various parts of Nigeria. Today, besides ruling, he spends time with his wife and family, along with devoutly practicing his Islamic faith.

Despite this rich culture and system of governance, the world today is trending more and more towards democracy, putting less of an emphasis, politically and socially, on kings and queens of yesteryear. A notable example of this is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss calling for the abolition of the British Monarchy when she was younger. Because of this, what does it mean not just to be a king in our modern world, but a Black king?

As it relates to Black History Month, I feel it is important to acknowledge and learn about these ancient, yet living, cultural relics of Black culture. It is important to empower ourselves at home, but also uplift and educate ourselves on members of our diaspora that have major influences in society.

Long, long ago, there lived an old bamboo wood-cutter. He was very poor and sad also, for no child had Heaven sent to cheer his old age, and in his heart there was no hope of rest from work till he died and was laid in the quiet grave. Every morning he went forth into the woods and hills wherever the bamboo reared its lithe green plumes against the sky. When he had made his choice, he would cut down these feathers of the forest, and splitting them lengthwise, or cutting them into joints, would carry the bamboo wood home and make it into various articles for the household, and he and his old wife gained a small livelihood by selling them.

One morning as usual he had gone out to his work, and having found a nice clump of bamboos, had set to work to cut some of them down. Suddenly the green grove of bamboos was flooded with a bright soft light, as if the full moon had risen over the spot. Looking round in astonishment, he saw that the brilliance was streaming from one bamboo. The old man, full of wonder, dropped his ax and went towards the light. On nearer approach he saw that this soft splendor came from a hollow in the green bamboo stem, and still more wonderful to behold, in the midst of the brilliance stood a tiny human being, only three inches in height, and exquisitely beautiful in appearance.

The old couple were now very happy, for it had been a lifelong regret that they had no children of their own, and with joy they now expended all the love of their old age on the little child who had come to them in so marvelous a manner.

From this time on, the old man often found gold in the notches of the bamboos when he hewed them down and cut them up; not only gold, but precious stones also, so that by degrees he became rich. He built himself a fine house, and was no longer known as the poor bamboo woodcutter, but as a wealthy man.

Three months passed quickly away, and in that time the bamboo child had, wonderful to say, become a full-grown girl, so her foster-parents did up her hair and dressed her in beautiful kimonos. She was of such wondrous beauty that they placed her behind the screens like a princess, and allowed no one to see her, waiting upon her themselves. It seemed as if she were made of light, for the house was filled with a soft shining, so that even in the dark of night it was like daytime. Her presence seemed to have a benign influence on those there. Whenever the old man felt sad, he had only to look upon his foster-daughter and his sorrow vanished, and he became as happy as when he was a youth.

At last the day came for the naming of their new-found child, so the old couple called in a celebrated name-giver, and he gave her the name of Princess Moonlight, because her body gave forth so much soft bright light that she might have been a daughter of the Moon God.

Suitors from far and near posted themselves outside the house, and made little holes in the fence, in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Princess as she went from one room to the other along the veranda. They stayed there day and night, sacrificing even their sleep for a chance of seeing her, but all in vain. Then they approached the house, and tried to speak to the old man and his wife or some of the servants, but not even this was granted them.

At last, however, most of the men, seeing how hopeless their quest was, lost heart and hope both, and returned to their homes. All except five Knights, whose ardor and determination, instead of waning, seemed to wax greater with obstacles. These five men even went without their meals, and took snatches of whatever they could get brought to them, so that they might always stand outside the dwelling. They stood there in all weathers, in sunshine and in rain.

Sometimes they wrote letters to the Princess, but no answer was vouchsafed to them. Then when letters failed to draw any reply, they wrote poems to her telling her of the hopeless love which kept them from sleep, from food, from rest, and even from their homes. Still Princes Moonlight gave no sign of having received their verses.

In this hopeless state the winter passed. The snow and frost and the cold winds gradually gave place to the gentle warmth of spring. Then the summer came, and the sun burned white and scorching in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, and still these faithful Knights kept watch and waited. At the end of these long months they called out to the old bamboo-cutter and entreated him to have some mercy upon them and to show them the Princess, but he answered only that as he was not her real father he could not insist on her obeying him against her wishes.

The old man lent a willing ear to their tale of love, for in his inmost heart he felt sorry for these faithful suitors and would have liked to see his lovely foster-daughter married to one of them. So he went in to Princess Moonlight and said reverently:

Then Princess Moonlight replied that there was nothing she would not do for him, that she honored and loved him as her own father, and that as for herself she could not remember the time before she came to earth.

Then the Princess answered that she felt sure that she was not as beautiful as perhaps report made her out to be, and that even if she consented to marry any one of them, not really knowing her before, his heart might change afterwards. So as she did not feel sure of them, even though her father told her they were worthy Knights, she did not feel it wise to see them.

Then Princess Moonlight said she must make further trial of their love before she would grant their request to interview her. The five warriors were to prove their love by each bringing her from distant countries something that she desired to possess.

That same evening the suitors arrived and began to play their flutes in turn, and to sing their self-composed songs telling of their great and tireless love. The bamboo-cutter went out to them and offered them his sympathy for all they had endured and all the patience they had shown in their desire to win his foster-daughter. Then he gave them her message, that she would consent to marry whosoever was successful in bringing her what she wanted. This was to test them.

The Second Knight was asked to go to the Mountain of Horai, said to be situated in the Eastern Sea, and to bring her a branch of the wonderful tree that grew on its summit. The roots of this tree were of silver, the trunk of gold, and the branches bore as fruit white jewels.

The old man thought these very hard tasks and hesitated to carry the messages, but the Princess would make no other conditions. So her commands were issued word for word to the five men who, when they heard what was required of them, were all disheartened and disgusted at what seemed to them the impossibility of the tasks given them and returned to their own homes in despair.

c80f0f1006