I took time to evaluate the turn of things with the club that I joyfully joined, some forty something years ago. To be precise, in 1983, you did not have any choice to always be in school, 24 hours in a circle, Saturday and Sunday inclusive. Why, may you want to wonder? A lot of activities that would always give you that happiness, especially if you are balling with the right guys!
I have often said it, If I was born in the Western world, I probably would have been diagnosed with ADHD (Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder! I was in sports, I played Hockey for LACOSTECH, attended the NIPOGA 86 in Enugu, and the finals in YabaTech.
I was in class, department and school politics and I was an active Kegites Club member! I combined all these in conjunction with the membership of this great club because of the derivable joy!
In any case, I could not have been a member of any other club within the Mushin community. Any group that is colored in any way affiliated with cultism would be a fast one way, no-return death mission for my late dad.
I remember the day that we needed to pick something very important in my house before a quick dash to another olobeyioto trip to God-Knows-where outside Lagos state. I was the Commissioner4Gyration, which essentially meant that I would attend almost all gyrations that Ilya Lacost would have a presence in. My dad was seated outside, on his recliner in front of our house. The ketekete was parked, right in his face and the jigolo-jigolo was earth moving as the bus was as usual giving way to the vibration of kegistic spiritual drumies and songis. I sneaked out at a light speed to my room at the back of the house to get my stuff that detoured us to our street in the first place. I was back in the van when I saw my day walking towards the bus.
“Is Dele a member of this group?” He asked with the most strenuous, uncompromising gesture.
“Yes he is, we are waiting for him, sir” about 3 congo6 responded.
Right there, I knew I had 2 options, show my face to affirm the response of this ‘bad boys’ or allow my dad to find out himself and possibly face the consequence, which may include severe exclusion from our familial union.
“Daddy, here I am” I showed my face in a trembling voice.
“Ask them how we can buy that record – The Palmwine Drinkards club. The one that the next door Kunle plays on Sundays.” He said, with the blandest look I have ever seen him!
I later knew that he was not bothered about the club, more-so if my results kept assuring him. He did not want me to join the student military (cadets) or any other group that is dark-closet in nature.
The Kegites Club of the 80s abhor cultism. It is woven around our lives and songs. As a matter of fact, I personally believe that if you do the other side in secret, along with the kegites, you may not prosper in life. Pick the one you want with pride and do it outside the wall of the supreme club.
Today, you keep wondering how the vices of Ayamalele keep creeping into the club. It accounts for the unsettling peace that permeates the comradium, today, in my opinion.
Remember, in the bible, the women who were harlots, who came to King Solomon, and stood before him; “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”
And Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.”
So they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”
Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”
But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”
So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”
Those who want the club to die are the mothers of the dead son. They are not originally the imbibed culture of the club that brings joy and happiness. They are the ones with their two legs in and out of the circle.
They would rather want the club to die.
A prominent chief, a few weeks ago, asked: “What informed the dekegation of a dead member of the club”?
If you ask me, I have no idea how that became comradic.
For sure, I was very active during and after my student days, and I attended a very few iroko tree climbed member ceremonies. I have a few examples right in my bubbling memory right now. Never was anything like that!
The traditional cult members of the Ogbonis, etc, perform such rituals where they culturally de-member the passed on member, not the kegites.
Let’s even place the act on critical thinking engineering, why dekeg a member, whose ‘sin’ is what, death? You dekeg when there is an offense or a sin against the norms and traditions of the club, right? What would the offense of a member be, after his passage to the world beyond?
I have read a few responses about how our dear club came about it, and none of them could point to how, when and where it all started. Per a methuselah chief, Dr (Chief) Aborisade, (Egungun de Masquerade watah, Methuselah Odua) “I heard that it was started at one time after an incident in which a comradic entity was believed to be making appearances to some fellowsis”.
He continued, “The dekegation, I was told, is not the dekegation of the departed soul but that of the untimely death in the family of the deseased and comradium in general”.
On a lighter mode, who among the mortal, let alone chief(s) of a social club has the power to banish (dekeg) untimely death? If that is even given, should the dead be the entity to be dekegged or the untimely death? Given the choice, the departed soul would have wanted untimely death dekegged and not him/her.
The clip of the recently deceased member was not only unbefitting but also disrespectful! Right in the full glare of her loved ones, comrads, and family members, why? Someone who they believe dedicatedly served the comradium, and then dekegation was his reward? And they gleefully shared the ‘biscuit’ with her name on it!!! Like another methuselah chief summed it; “it smacks of morbid disregard for the bereaved families, and most possibly the deceased, to have a punitive measure being taken against the dead ”. In my opinion, nothing more to add.
The easy rationale for this practice in the comradium could only be the crept-on vices of the dark world groups!
Image Credit: Patron Femi Fadah
May you walk and neva to stumble Fada, even if you are to, may you stumble of orishirishi olamita6 and live long like that of Methuselah 🌴🌴🌴🌴
I remaineth my humble self, XY Feda of Ilya du Arewa…..
This culture have encroached into the yearly constitution of the SKCI without a positive or widely reasons of adoption. And, inarguably, this called for interventions and positive mutations of the chiefesis on how to solve and provide possible solution. It’s becoming a custom to dekeg a comrade that dedicate his/her whole life to the betterment of the supreme comradium after they have climbed the highest iroko tree.
“But why do we need to dekeg someone after their passing without affiliation of Ayanma?” The benefits of the SKCI should be burned by generation to generation because we are one big family with the same African roots. Why are we now renouncing people that used their entire life to work for the growth of the club after their passing as. I.e before many of us are born talk more of joining the club?
This situation call for critical thinking….
Culturally I remaineth
XY Feda of Ilya du Arewa
Musa Shafiu