School Is Your Father, Future, And Fortune Poem by Tony Cemaluk

1974,
They came to check booty to loot,
Waiting for lands,
Waiting for titles,
Waiting for boxes of money.

Mama opened her mouth,
And brought out a University, a creed, a school of thought:

'My son, school is your father, your future, your fortune.'

Not this one-room provision store,
Not this 1960 house with patched pavement and flickering fate,
School.

She said,
Your father did not leave you gold,
He left you ground to grow gold.
That ground, your goldmine, is your head, your upstairs.

So when others carried inheritance in buckets, in bags,
Carry yours in books, in brain.

She carried cartons on her head to markets here and there,
So I could carry degrees on my head to the world near and far.

'School is your father, future and fortune, '
Meant -

Your father will not return to beat you,
But this school will build you.

He will not return to cane you,
But this school will correct you.

Your father will not return to defend you,
But this school will speak for you.

Your papa will not return to construct with you,
But this school will construct for you.

And I believed her.

From Ojoto to Ibadan,
Till Umudike,
From Umudike to the world -
Roadmaps everywhere, every nook and cranny -

All answering one woman's prophecy:
School indeed became my father, my future, my fortune,
And I constructed. I became -
Cemaluk - Nwa Cecilia Na Malukwuo,
Child of that prophecy fulfilled in full.